Volume VVI

Winter 2007

In this Newsletter:

WIT.Connect Rewind

“Women’s Groups Need to Join Forces” States EEOC’s Carolyn Wheeler
September

Managing Information, Mitigating Risk
October

Articles

Members on the Move

Patricia Crew's WDC Mentoring Seminar Draws on Executive Expertise

WIT.Celebrations!

WIT Woman in the Spotlight: Rose Wang

September WIT.Connect Rewind:

“Women’s Groups Need to Join Forces” States EEOC’s Carolyn Wheeler

September’s WIT.Connect speaker, Assistant General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC) Carolyn Wheeler, stated that her call to action for WIT would be for us to “join forces with other women’s groups” to create a stronger voice to help eliminate sex discrimination. Her comments came at the end of a keynote address that highlighted her own background in teaching women’s studies, the history of the Civil Rights Act and Title VII legislation in 1964, as well as the recent landmark sex discrimination cases in which the EEOC has been involved.

Unfortunately, sex discrimination and harassment, hostile work environments, unequal pay, and retaliation continue to be issues for many working women across all industries and at all levels. This past fall in Chicago, 30 former saleswomen brought a class-action lawsuit against EMC for these same charges. Wheeler shared that in 2006, more than 200,000 sexual discrimination inquiries were brought to the EEOC, 75,000 of which became formal charges. Many cases are not reported.

Wheeler highlighted the “heroines” who have courageously brought their sexual discrimination and harassment cases forward to fight for equal treatment, for not only themselves but for all women. These women included Lilly Ledbetter and her unequal pay case against Goodyear Tire; Ann Hopkins, who was discriminated against and passed over as a Partner at Pricewaterhouse; and Beth Ann Faragher, a lifeguard who brought her sexual harassment case against the City of Boca Raton, and later won on appeal at the Supreme Court.

Wheeler also discussed how stereotyping plays a part in much of discrimination. The fewer women in an environment, the more men and women rely on stereotyping. The characteristics that we associate with men and women influence our expectations of how people will act and work. However, many people continue to apply old stereotyping in conducting annual reviews, deciding on promotions, and doling out raises. She suggested taking a look at the Harvard Implicit Bias Test at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.
To learn more about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, visit its site (www.eeoc.gov).

After the event, many program attendees stated they were mad that sexual discrimination and harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation still pervade our work environments. As Wheeler suggests, for WIT to have an impact in this area, we need to join forces with other women’s groups and let our voices be heard. Please share your thoughts with the Advocacy Committee (staff@womenintechnology.org).

October WIT.Connect Rewind:

Managing Information, Mitigating Risk
by Joanne Lozar Glenn

Avoiding costly e-discovery problems (the discovery of electronic information to be used in court) by appropriately capturing and retaining electronic information was the topic of October’s WIT.Connect on Thursday, October 18, 2007. Billed as a holistic, integrated, and strategic approach to managing electronic information, the presentation covered issues driving this new form of legal literacy and procedures for ensuring a correctly integrated records management program.

Background
Two court cases—and lawyers’ lack of understanding of technology—pushed e-discovery to the forefront of preparedness issues in information management, explained speaker Courtney Ingraffia Barton, Esq., Vice-President of Industry Relations for LexisNexis® Discovery Services.

Numerous issues add to the complexity, among them sheer volume of information (97 billion email messages are sent every day, she said); ethical issues (for example, can a document with tracked changes be included as evidence in court?); preservation of information through backup procedures; authenticity of information; and data security.

“Judges are going straight to e-discovery technologists and bypassing lawyers to get the information they need,” Barton added.

Integrated, Not Centralized, Management
Understanding where information is being harnessed and received is one key to managing electronic information appropriately. But it’s not as simple as centralizing information management, as is done for documents.

“Whole business processes show up on employees’ laptops, and 90 percent of what exists never lands on paper,” said Donna Vitalie, corporate records manager for AOL LLC. “The question becomes what record do you preserve?”

Consequently, companies need to take an integrated rather than a centralized records management approach, Vitalie explained. Some of it will be people-driven, some policy-driven, but all will require technology enablers to comply with the policy.
“You can’t buy a total solution in a box,” Vitalie said, and noted that a legally defensible records management program includes the following elements:

• A policy you can stand behind
• Clearly defined responsibilities
• Communication of those policies and responsibilities to the employees who will be creating records
• Documenting the whys and hows of capture and retention—i.e., the process for determining what to keep, and for how long
• Clearly defined retention schedules that are routinely followed and documented to prove you’ve followed the policy

Recommendations
The panel, which included moderator Christina Ayiotis, Esq., corporate records manager for Booz Allen Hamilton, recommended that large organizations employ a certified records manager (CRM) who has earned at least a four-year degree and who has had exposure to a number of disciplines over several years. Panelists also encouraged business owners not to leave the setting of guidelines strictly to the technologists.

Instead, panelists suggested instituting proper governance of a cross-functional team to monitor and ensure that policies are being implemented and that all business functional areas are cooperating.

Citing system servers that may include both international and domestic mailboxes, Ayiotis added that businesses attend to initial system architectures to ensure the appropriate protection of information, as well as to avoid having to retrofit systems.

Joanne Lozar Glenn (703.721.2088; joannelozarglenn@verizon.net) is an independent writer and educator and Vice-Chair, MarComm, of the WIT Communications Committee.

WIT thanks its newest sponsor — SAP.
As a result of its generous support, WIT will be able to continue to expand its visibility in to the DC Metro area.

Patricia Crew's WDC Mentoring Seminar Draws on Executive Expertise
by Betsy Kolmus

Last April, WIT's Workforce Development Committee (WDC) sponsored “Creating Relationships to Empower Your Success: Building Your Own Personal Board of Directors,” a seminar aimed at teaching women how to develop mentoring relationships.  Designed and delivered by Patricia A. Crew, MA, LCPC, Master Career Counselor, the program was further enhanced by the participation of several WIT executives — Toni Townes-Whitley, Managing Partner, Unisys; Marie Russell, Founder and President, Rising Multimedia Inc.; and Eva Neumann, President of ENC. 

The first session opened with a presentation by Ms. Crew on the traditional and contemporary types of mentoring; peer, education, and developmental mentors; and the Trusted Other.  Beginning from the saying, "Mentoring is... not about who you know; it's about who knows what you need to know," the subsequent group discussion drew conclusions about the importance of gender in mentoring, and examined the past and present mentoring relationships of the attendees.  Key to the seminar’s purpose was a lively discussion on how to find appropriate mentors.

“In supporting WDC’s mission of providing programs and resources to help WIT members advance in the workplace, this insightful seminar helps empower them to think about their future,” said Kathy Furlong, Director of Business Development Operations, Nortel Government Solutions and Vice Chair of the Workforce Development Committee.  “The participants came away with ideas on determining what they want to achieve, strategizing about how to do it and how and when to utilize a mentoring relationship.” 

In the second session, the three panel members shared powerful insights into what works best in finding and leveraging a mentor and offered examples of the rich dividends that a well-made mentoring relationship can pay.  They asserted that good mentors have a great deal of integrity, in addition to knowing people from a wide array of companies, in many areas of expertise. It is imperative that the protégé feels that she likes and trusts her mentor.  Other topics included chemistry between mentor and protégé, emotional intelligence of the mentor, the obligations of the protégé, and the importance of including mentors from outside the workplace in one's Personal Board of Directors.  They encouraged women to seek transparency in the relationships with their mentors, so that the interactions can afford them honest and clear, frank feedback in discussing their careers.

WIT offers women prime opportunities for mentoring.  The Mentor/Protégé program, which meets on a monthly basis over the course of six months, is one of WIT's signature series.  Mentors and Protégés are professionally matched, and past participants in either role have consistently given very positive feedback about the quality of the program. 

Keep an eye on the Event Calendar for Patricia Crew’s Spring workshop on mentoring and other first-class WDC professional and personal development seminars!

WIT.Celebrations is a new, special section of the WIT website designed to highlight the personal side of WIT.  This site is the culmination of months of work by WIT’s immediate past president, Marguerete Luter, and the Web Presence Committee led by Dagny Evans, chair.

It’s a site where WIT members can capture our history and the accomplishments of the organization.  It’s also a place where members can share their successes and stories about how WIT has helped them realize their goals.  And it’s another avenue for our members to connect with WIT leadership.  WIT members can use the “Ask Leadership” button when they have a question but aren’t sure which leader should answer.

WIT members are encouraged to provide comments and submissions for content at celebrations@womenintechnology.org.   The active involvement of WIT membership is essential so that we can build this site into a valuable tool and source of inspiration for all women and girls aspiring to pursue their interests in the technology industry.

We hope you enjoy WIT.Celebrations!

WIT Woman in the Spotlight: Rose Wang
By Dana Dolan

Rose Wang is a woman in charge of her own destiny. But hers isn’t a story about ambition; it’s about following your passion, and helping others follow theirs. Her story started early. In 3rd grade, Rose dreamed of being a mathematician. In 4th, she wanted to be an astronomer. She started programming at 13. She earned money in high school doing data entry for a friend of her parents, a professor in information technology who also taught her to program in dBase III.

At 21, she left her native China for the United States and pursued a post-graduate degree in computer science from the University of Houston. All this before her first professional job, with WilTel Advance Technology Group in 1984. Flashing forward, what led Wang to launch her own business? “It was out of frustration,” she said. She had been part of a Silicon Valley startup that was very successful. When Lighthouse Design was sold to Sun Microsystems, Wang realized she didn’t want to be lost in a big company. “Within my first 30 days at Sun, that was clear. I was young, ignorant, and had nothing to lose,” she explained. “I took a big risk, but I didn’t think twice about it. I convinced my husband [Ed Robinson, co-founder of Binary] that I could do it, and the deal was, he could give up his very good job at IBM Research to stay home and finish his PhD. It was a deal he couldn’t refuse.” With help from her best friend, a lawyer in New York, she set up the business in order to pursue a three-month contract with MCI. Between that legal help and a book called Inc. Yourself, Rose learned enough to navigate the big questions, the big risks, and jumped into the deep end, head first. She moved across the country based solely on this short-term contract with MCI. The economy was picking up. In Congress, the 1996 Telecommunications Act deregulating the industry was about to become law. Timing was everything. “I was lucky,” Wang claims, as she did many times during our interview. But it wasn’t luck alone that helped Binary survive the critical first few years, when most new businesses fail. Rather than focusing on building the business, Wang worked hard to keep her customers happy. She learned the basic mechanics of running a business the first few years, performing most of the work herself. Then her husband added his efforts, as did a few others here and there. Eventually, as Wang puts it, “I got really bored constantly selling myself.” During this time she launched two other start-ups that didn’t just fail, she says, “they failed spectacularly” — and she learned a lot. “I understood something about myself… I yearn to make a difference; it’s in my blood and it’s in my bones,” she said. “And I learned that I really like to build teams — without that critical mass, it’s difficult to make an impact." In her own words… Career highlights: Every one of my career turns has been really meaningful to me, even the failures. One highlight was in 2004, when we changed Binary’s strategic direction from being an integrator to focusing exclusively on helping the military structure big IT contracts. Most important thing you've learned in your career: Stay true to your passion. Your next career goal: I want to be a business woman in my own right. What I mean by that is, I’ve had a lot of luck getting to where I am today, and I’d like to become a successful business woman in any field. How you got connected to WIT, and why you belong:  I was part of WITI in California and carried that over to here [in D.C.], where I learned that WIT was a great organization. I subscribe wholeheartedly to the concept of women supporting each other. Do you have role models?: Two women in history have inspired me over and over again. One is Madam Curie and the other one is Queen Elizabeth I. Both are trailblazers in their own right and they were certainly leaders in their own respective domain. Most important thing you've learned about leadership: Consistency is one of the key things — in asserting your leadership, staying true to your values, and inspiring other people. Say what you mean, do what you say, and the rest will follow. In your free time, you: Read, drink wine, and sometimes shop when I can, which isn’t very often. This winter you’re looking forward to: Going on a trade mission to China in December. I was invited by the founder of WITI to be part of this mission, representing the intersection of business, technology, and women. Kudos: We were just notified recently that Binary is being honored by both Washington Business Journal's 2007 Fastest Growing Companies and Washington Technology's Fast50 awards. Email: rwang@binarygroup.com Dana Dolan is President of Maximum Spring, LLC and Vice-Chair of the WIT Advocacy Committee.

Contact

Editor: Le-Marie Vanessa Joan Thompson

lemarie.thompson@gmail.com

Contributors:

Dana Dolan
Betsy Kolmus
Joanne Lozar Glenn
Le-Marie Thompson

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