Yesterday the Committee of Women of Influence met for the Annual General meeting (AGM) to confirm our roles, welcome new members, to close off the financials for last year and plan the year ahead.

We started the meeting with a little soul searching, to stop and ask ourselves WHY we give up our time to be on a committee when sometimes it can be challenging amongst our busy lives.

Whether you are thinking about volunteering your time or just considering why you show up to work each day it is a great exercise to start with “why”, “what” and “Who”.

• Why are you here?
• What are you getting out of this and what are you giving back?
• Who is important and who are you doing this for?

Let me share with you why we started Women of Influence and why we are still loving every event, even though the planning and delivery can sometimes test our resolve.

We have a great community of business women (and a few men) who are loyal guests, fiends and colleagues.  We love that we are able to offer them a quality event, always sharing knowledge from our guest speakers, panels or debates – plus wonderful prizes from our sponsors and always delicious food from our venue RACV.  For the fact that we do deliver on our promise of excellent events; for the fact that our guests can come back and see familiar faces and feel welcome; and for the fact that we are all helping to give back by raising money for our charity – that is why we are here.

One of our new Committee Members, Mandy Wilkinson (Smarter Bookkeeping), said yesterday of the first event she attended, “I have never been to an event where I didn’t want to leave afterwards, it was such a great atmosphere. Very warm, cozy and just felt good with such a wonderful sense of community.”

For me, Women of Influence is an opportunity to see my great friends on the Committee then to be part of the buzz of each event with our guest and friends.  I love seeing how we can improve each time, learn from each other and from our guests.  I love working with each of our speakers, who are all amazing in their own right and I love that we are leaving a legacy with an organisation that has been running successfully for over 10 years and provides funds and awareness for our main charity RADFLY.

So whether it is about being a committee member, a Mum, an employee, a business owner, a wife, a friend or just as an individual we should always start with “Why” and as a good friend of mine always says “Act with Honour”.