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lauramarks·Oct 25, 2019

Hi Chicago Elphas! Thanks so much to those who came out to Monk's last night! It was a blast getting to meet some of you in person and learn your stories. Some were from the area, others were new, but I'm pretty sure we all appreciated the opportunity to get to know some other bada$$ ladies of Chicagoland! (There was also lots of talk of pastries -- which I'm totally for.) As I mentioned at last night's meetup, I am actually a snowbird! I negotiated remote for the winter so will be heading down to Latin America next week to soak up the sun. I would LOVE for anyone interested to pick up the helm and join me as an admin for this group! (I'll be back in April -- so I'll probably still stalk all the activity lol.) Any takers? Just comment here or shoot me a note and I'll figure out how to make you an admin too! We were thinking that monthly or bi-monthly meetups could be pretty neat and a great way to bring Elpha to the streets! So the question remains: who will take the torch?! Also: I tried to upload our group photo to google photos, but not sure how successful it was (link above). Thanks again Chicago fam! Looking forward to keeping the IRL Chicago Elpha Lyfe Alive!

kuan·Oct 25, 2019

Love this! How did you structure the meet-up? Would love to hear what made it successful so we can replicate it across all local meetups!

lauramarks·Oct 28, 2019

Absolutely! It was pretty informal. There were about 8 of us, so we started by going around, introducing ourselves (where we're from, what we do, how we found Elpha, our favorite color, etc.) and then there were usually follow up questions for each person to dig deeper into things that we found interesting. After we all went around, we sort of split off into informal get to know you conversations. It was great as a first meetup, but I also think roundtable style could be cool for a future meetup (people come with topics they'd like to discuss and then self-select into those topic areas). Just a thought. Either way - it was super fun!

kuan·Oct 28, 2019

For sure! Thank you for sharing - we can compile ideas and send out a doc for future meetup organizers, too. Thanks so much for organizing!

JoyceL·Oct 29, 2019

Sorry to miss out on the fun! Glad it was a blast!

mercedesimarquez·Oct 25, 2019

The event was awesome! So great to meet inspiring and interesting women. I'd be happy to help set up the next meeting!

kuan·Oct 25, 2019

Yay! Sounds awesome!

mariw·Feb 26, 2020

Sad I missed this - are we due for another meetup?