By Erin Wooddell

It’s your first networking event with CWLI, and you’re a little nervous. Not only is it nerve-wracking meeting new people, but the room ahead is full of women leaders. Walking down the hall toward the event, you see a CWLI table set up to greet you. A woman stands behind the table, offers you a welcoming smile, bids you hello, and hands you a name tag. After a few pleasantries, she invites you to head on in and join the fun.

You just met Marlena Palmer, coordinator for CWLI, and the wearer of many hats. She’s the first point of contact upon joining the organization. After her welcome email, she’s also the first friendly face to greet you at a CWLI event.

If you’re nervous attending events where you meet new people, imagine how it feels to be the greeter and coordinator for an organization of professional women. If she’s nervous, you’d never know. She’s able to identify almost all of the 500 members, building rapport with them along the way. Once you get to know her personally, you realize this all makes sense. She is drive by acts of hospitality and forming human connection.

A Look Back

When Marlena first moved to Chattanooga, she wasn’t involved in the CWLI scene. After the suggestion of her then-manager, she attended an event and joined the organization, but didn’t get involved right away.

“There always seemed to be something more pressing,” she laughs, admitting that’s the excuse uninvolved members like to give. These days, she knows that’s not true.

After six months of membership, CWLI’s new director, Mical Traynor, sent out an email announcing an opening for a coordinator position. Marlena was looking for a new role. Though she had other leads, when the CWLI job was offered to her, she knew she had to accept.

“CWLI gave me the potential to learn from so many women. I’d been looking for something new, and I felt it was a sign,” she says.

Neither Mical nor Marlena knew what they were walking into. As brand-new employees with brand-new roles, they spent time trying to figure out what their responsibilities were, what they needed to tackle, and what they needed to maintain. As it turns out, there was a lot.

“Memberships, spreadsheets, events to plan, email communications. We had to figure out the new dynamic and what was expected — as coworkers, and as guardians of membership,” she says.

As a newly established team, they took a large portion of the tasks on their docket and ran with them, making them their own. Marlena began sending personal emails to new members so they had a contact right away and stayed proactive with committees to ensure they remained ahead of tasks for events.

“We began attending each committee meeting, whether networking, membership, or for the board, to ensure one of us was always present and aware of what was going on,” Marlena explains. “We still do that to this day.”

The first luncheon event Marlena handled involved manning the registration table. Never having done something like that before, she felt overwhelmed, with people asking questions she didn’t yet have the answers for. Now, she’s seen as an expert within her role. If a member has questions, she finds the answers.

The permanent name tags are also a Marlena contribution. With a background in hospitality, she knew they needed to do something more permanent to make members feel known and welcome.

“[The name tags] make all the difference when members check in to an event. They have someone greet them by their first name. I want them to feel comfortable reaching out and participating. It gives a homey feel to what we’re doing. Women, in general, are designed to be nurturing. I want to create an environment where members look forward to what we do and are engaged,” Marlena explains.

CWLI Life

CWLI members and leaders often say that by getting involved in the organization, you’re investing in yourself. Marlena echoes that sentiment, adding that if members aren’t connected, they’re not gaining the full benefit of CWLI.

With a background and degree in psychology, Marlena describes her core goal as one of helping people do and be their best. She says helping women along their journey as they figure themselves out to reach their goals is truly rewarding.

“I get to be a part of that. And it’s pretty amazing. It’s not even the women aspect. I don’t see gender. There’s something within a person to make them a good leader or not. We all work together for that success.”

Looking Ahead

This year, Marlena and Mical are working to be more proactive with committees, ensuring things are scheduled and added to the calendar to create a streamlined and cohesive focus. She sees this focus as a building block behind the organization’s movement to grow the membership.

“We’re always trying to figure out how to keep the [members] we have and keep our programming relevant.”

Now that she and Mical have a year of working together — and two IMPACT events  — under their belts, Marlena said they are able to be more strategic in their planning. They are asking how CWLI can be more intentional with programming to see if they should offer more, refresh existing programs, and how they can implement big ideas. Marlena says she enjoys seeing everyone come together to make events successful and support CWLI’s mission.

“It’s really rewarding,” she says. “I love being a part of this group. Working around such strong women made me realize I needed to step up and shift my mentality. It’s up to me to be taken seriously. If I’d stayed quiet, I wouldn’t be where I am with CWLI. I always felt like a natural leader, and working with CWLI just seemed like such a great fit. And it is!”

This year, CWLI celebrates 20 years, and as part of that celebration, another committee has formed. One suggestion, raised by Julie Davis, was to assign committee members to be greeters of new members at events. This would give new members someone to speak to and pal around with, so they don’t enter events without knowing anyone. Recognizing new members would support membership and the founding belief that CWLI is to inspire, teach, and educate other women.

If you’re interested in becoming a new member greeter, please contact Marlena at coordinator@cwli.org.

Check out Marlena’s Member Spotlight Q&A.