Since its conception in 2007, the Dynamic Professional Women's Network, Inc. (DPWN) has positioned itself to be a very functional platform for women to develop the valuable connections necessary to grow in their professional as well as personal lives.  Inspired by the need to connect and partner with other professional women, but unable to commit to other early morning groups, DPWN was created to better meet the needs of working women and offer meeting times that also fit into a working mothers schedule. The objectives of DPWN are simple, yet powerful. We focus on building great relationships, learning new business practices, sharing other networking opportunities, exchanging marketing ideas, and of course generating business for each other through referrals.

            President and Founder
            Dynamic Professional Women's Network

"Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others." -  Harriet Goldhor Lerner

It is this 'connectedness to others' that inspired Christie Ruffino to establish her very first networking chapter in 2004 with top notch women she had crossed paths with in her professional career.  As a managing leader in the employment industry, Ms. Ruffino became skilled at creating professional partnerships between employers and employees that resulted in long-term and successful careers. In May of 2007, she made a decision to implement that same ideology to develop multiple chapters of the Dynamic Professional Women's Network that would focus on creating partnerships that would generate ideas, alliances and revenues. Three years and multiple chapters later, DPWN is recognized as a driving force behind the success and profitability of many of its members' businesses. 

Drawing from her expert ability to link people to the right resources, she encourages the 'veteran' business owners to connect with the members who are newer to their businesses. Each member is completely unique to the rest of the group, just as their businesses are completely unique from each other. Christie states she is continuously impressed by the high caliber of women in each group. "I encourage each chapter to be autonomous and self-directing, because they all have such innovative and professional members as the foundation of the group." The group provides a structured networking forum that allows up to 30 members to meet on a bi-weekly basis over lunch at a local restaurant. At the start of each meeting, all members have 30 seconds to introduce their company to the entire group. Each meeting focuses on one or two particular members who are able to discuss their business for up to 10 minutes. During this time, the speakers are able to answer questions, talk about specials or discounts and introduce new products or services. Before and after each meeting, general networking is encouraged where plenty of business cards are exchanged. The meetings are kept to 90 minutes in length, but week after week, Christie sees the members staying after to continue building business relationships. 

Each chapter is presided over by the organization's Advisory Board. They meet regularly to discuss future growth and opportunities that bring more benefits to the members, such as large-scale networking functions and after-hour business events. This allows members from all the chapters to meet with each other. Here are a few thoughts shared by current members:

• "Christie is a blessing to many business women. It is evident that she is committed to helping women achieve their business goals. She has truly inspired me to progress my business to a whole new level. I am thankful for her leadership and commitment to others." - Michele Henry, Mortgage Loan Professional and Credit Specialist, ABI Mortgage.
  
  
• "Christie has taken her vision of creating an environment and a vehicle where women can network, support and encourage one another and made it a reality. DPWN is a thriving organization due to Christie knowing how to surround herself with other like-minded excellent women and a lot of determination. She is diligent, hard working, a visionary, determined and excellent at motivating others. Certainly a great asset to any team!" - Sabrina Erskine, Client Care & Development Manager, Continental Acura of Naperville.
  
  
• "Christie is a professional business woman with a passion to help others succeed. Her drive and enthusiasm is what is contagious within our group. She is a true asset to all that know and work with her. I'm thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful group." - Stephanie McCue, Marketing Brand Consultant, On Q Promotions, Inc.
  
  
• "Christie is an extremely organized individual BUT what I admire most about Christie is her great enthusiasm she brings to DPWN!!!    I joined DPWN not knowing exactly what I was getting involved in and I truly believe Christie did not know she was going to make so many women across Chicagoland connect, help each other and become successful. She is truly an inspiration to me and this WOMAN works non-stop........" - Gina Masciola, Mortgage Consultant, Charter Mortgage Services, Inc.

Christie will be facing many challenges in the upcoming months, and they are ones that she never would have predicted when founding DPWN. Because their initial attention for building chapters was focused locally, their systems were not designed to ensure national consistency and success for their members. However, popularity of this networking concept is rapidly crossing borders into neighboring counties and even sates with new chapters currently forming in Wisconsin. "We welcome this challenge', says Ms. Ruffino. "We recognize that we need to keep our internal growth one step ahead of our external growth. We need to improve our viral networking potential and continue to offer more benefits than any other professional women's networks out there. We will not be successful unless we do everything we can to ensure the success of our members businesses."

"Christie has been an inspiration and motivation to many people.  Her selfless and caring attitude to reach out and help others in evident in the charities that she's supported.", states Renate Knippen from Knippen Enterprises about the donations that are collected at DPWN network events and given to local charities such as Embrace a Family, Women 2 Women, Wings, Kids Against Hunger, Community Career Center, DuPage County Animal Shelter, Expect a Miracle Foundation, Thanks For Giving Foundation, Aspire of Illinois, Pediatric Oncology Foundation, Make a Wish Foundation of Illinois, Glen Oaks Hospital Foundation, totaling thousands.  Her commitment to give back has been further escalated by the implementation of her dream of founding a non-profit entity of her organization, the DPWN Angel Foundation. "Even though it is still in its infancy stage, it is exciting to be in a position to utilize the power of this network to help so many women" says Ms. Ruffino.

Their goal is to leverage the Dynamic Professional Women's Network's power of connections and/or to provide a monetary gift for an identified, immediate need to these recipients in various areas of need including but not limited to education, self-improvement, training, and networking. Their Ultimate Vision is to serve the needs of women with a "hand up", not a hand out and hopes to ensure that no woman ever has to feel alone or at a loss for how to address her needs.

In addition to working diligently to ensure the success of the Dynamic Professional Women's Network and the DPWN Angel Foundation, Ms. Ruffino is currently serving as a Council Member of the Executives Breakfast Club, she served two terms as a Board Director of the Carol Stream Chamber of Commerce, in 2008 she was honored to receive a Special Judge's Recognition for the Citizen of the year award in Carol Stream, in 2009 was awarded a Distinguished Woman of Business Award from American Family Insurance this year with great pleasure and most recently received her highest honor by being recognized as an Influential Women in Business in 2009 by the Business Ledger and the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

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Our Trusted Advisors consist of a select team of business professionals who are dedicated to the success of the Dynamic Professional Women's Network.
Their role is to define the goals of our organization and adopt the proper strategies to achieve them.
 

Our Chapter Directors are a Dynamic group of women who are dedicated to encouraging and leading the women of their chapter to success.

4 Years or more as a Chapter Director

3 Years or more as a Chapter Director
       

2 Years or more as a Chapter Director

1 Year or more as a Chapter Director
        

Suggested Action Plan

• Clearly define the current needs of your individual chapter.
• Customize the suggested roles to include your chapter needs.
• Analyze the strengths of your members and individually invite them to participate based on what role they would excel at.
• Schedule your first success team meeting to discuss the chapter objectives, create the goals and plan their execution using the Success Team Action Plan.
• Have monthly or quarterly planning meetings to redefine the objectives, goals and execution.

All Success Team members are encouraged to attend our monthly leadership meetings to help the Chapter Director communicate to chapter all DPWN news from these meetings. In addition, all Success Team members are encouraged to complete a Greeter training to ensure they are aware of the best way to interact with guests who attend your meetings.

Membership Director
(Two Membership Directors are recommended for chapters with 15 or more members)

• Run the meeting in the event of the director's absence.
• Encourage members to bring guests and develop different ways to increase membership.
• Keep an up-to-date list of categories needed in our group. E-mail that list out regularly.
• Greet guests before each meeting. Present an application to every guest and coach her to complete and return to you at the end of the meeting.
• Follow-up with guest after the meeting and encourage all qualified guests to join and review the potential benefits to them.

Secretary

• Take meeting notes and send a follow-up recap e-mail.

One-on-One Coordinator

• Manage the One-on-one Connection Session schedule.

Education
(This position can be rotated and performed by a different member each meeting if desired.)

• Cover various networking topics and review DPWN policies.

Special Events

• Schedule monthly after-hour and other additional chapter events.
• Work with other chapters to schedule and promote joint events as determined.

Calendar of Networking Events

• Compile a list of non-DPWN events to share at the chapter meetings.

Greeting Card Coordinator

• Send out Birthday, Anniversary or Sympathy cards as needed to the members of the chapter.

Philanthropy Chair

• Works with the chapter to select and support a non-for profit organization on a quarterly or yearly basis.

Treasurer

• Collect lunch money and pay the restaurant prior to the finish of the meeting.
• Help ensure that the meals are delivered on time.
• Manage money for additional chapter events.

Mission Statement/Inspirational Quote
(This position can be rotated and performed by a different member each meeting if desired.)

• Reading of the mission statement at the opening of the meeting and reading of an inspirational quote at the close of the meeting.

Marketing

• Create chapter marketing items for the members to utilize.

Social Networking

• Manage Facebook Fan page and post chapter events.
• Actively post chapter meetings on our existing DPWN Meet-up group. DPWN will need to grant administrator access for this person.

Guest Hospitality

• Welcome and follow-up with guests with a friendly note or call.

New Member Hospitality

• Welcome new members with a friendly all member note.

Mentor

• Each chapter member should take on a mentorship role once they have been a member for 6 months or longer to help new members get better connected.