By Paul Bennett, NCOPE – NRWA Director of Member Support, New Business Owners (West)
Heads up from your keyboards, everyone!
No matter where we fall on the introversion-extroversion scale, once in a while, we’ve all got to extricate ourselves from intense brainwork, come up for some air, and enjoy a bit of good old-fashioned socializing. Our happiness and mental health depend on it! And now that coronavirus has crashed the humanity party (in case you haven’t noticed), it’s more important than ever that we all simulate real-life gatherings until we can meet again in person.
One of the many benefits of NRWA membership is that it plugs you into a vast network of potential friends and colleagues, and it’s easy to network through our private Facebook and LinkedIn groups. The problem is, our social media conversations tend toward more “serious” and business-related, and they don’t happen in real-time.
So, how can we all have a little more fun? In an NRWA Member Mixer, of course! With a deliberately non-serious agenda, an NRWA Member Mixer is a great way to round off your afternoon. I’ve attended (some might say crashed) a few of our mixers over the past year or so, and I’ve always found them worthwhile.
Here’s how the mixers play out: We all gather in a Zoom room for about five minutes of casual, popcorn-style conversation. Then our meeting organizer (Sara Timm, our incoming President, has filled this role well) comes up with an icebreaker topic and divides us into breakout rooms (each having between two and four people) for about five minutes of conversation. After our breakout sessions, we all return to the main room, chat a little more, and then rinse/repeat the cycle a few more times until an hour has passed.
Icebreaker topics can be work-related, such as “What would you most like to get out of your NRWA membership?” or “What’s your biggest professional challenge?” In situations like this, the breakout discussions can yield plenty of ideas, solutions, and even mentoring (it’s wonderful how professional synergies can emerge from just a few minutes of focused conversation).
Or perhaps the icebreaker will be more casual and fun, such as “What memories does Thanksgiving hold for you?” In this particular case, I described the time when a raccoon spilled a huge pot of homemade turkey soup all over my sundeck (it was a total loss), and I learned how my new NRWA friend salvaged their turkey dinner after an eighteen-hour, county-wide power failure that same morning (if you’re careful, you actually can cook a turkey over an open-pit fire).
Most of the mixers are limited to NRWA members only, but sometimes—for example, for our next event—we’ll open them up to nonmember guests. And we’ve enjoyed spontaneous, surprise appearances by adorable pets (I’ve happily hoisted my little dog Bingo in front of the webcam) and talented children (Rosalinde Rosado’s son tickled the ivories for us recently)!
The only hard-and-fast conversation rule is to be polite and respectful (and it’s probably a good idea to keep “politics and religion” to yourself), but aside from that, sticking to the icebreaker topics is optional!
So, if you’ve long regretted never getting to star on Hollywood Squares or The Brady Bunch, now’s your chance to experience first-hand the fun of being boxed in on Zoom. Click here to sign up for our next Member Mixer and bring a friend (this mixer is open to everyone) on December 15 at 5:00 p.m., ET. See you there!
(And watch this link for updates on new dates in 2022!)
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Paul Bennett has volunteered for the NRWA since 2018 and currently serves as a Director of Member Support for New Business Owners. When not helping job seekers excel in their career marketing activities, Paul enjoys creative writing, cycling, hiking, camping, anything outdoorsy, and chilling with Bingo (his Bichon Frise X miniature poodle). He’s Principal of NOVA Career Strategies in Vancouver, BC. Find him online at LinkedIn.com/in/paulraworthbennett.
