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A Weekly Forum for Professionals in Job Transition

Serving Professionals throughout New England

WIND FAQ's and WIND Mailing List FAQ's

 

What makes WIND unique among networking groups?

The quality of both its resources and its members have earned WIND its reputation as the premier networking group of its kind in New England. WIND is widely respected by corporations, recruiters, employment agencies and outplacement firms alike, who frequently volunteer their time to speak at WIND meetings about the job search, and who regularly refer their clients to WIND.

How is WIND structured?

Since its inception in 1990, WIND has served more than 10,000 professionals in the New England area. WIND currently runs five meetings:

  • WIND/North, which meets Wednesday mornings in Wilmington, MA
  • WIND/South, which meets Thursday mornings in Foxboro, MA
  • WIND/East, which meets Tuesday mornings in Cambridge, MA
  • WIND/West, which meets Tuesday nights in Westboro, MA
  • WIND/Seacoast, which meets Monday mornings in Portsmouth, NH

What takes place at WIND meetings?

  • Small Group Networking
  • Search Resources
  • Employment Listings
  • Announcements & Upcoming Events
  • Good News -- Members Employed!
  • New Member Introductions
  • Guest Speaker Presentations and Mini-Workshops
  • Job Search Needs and Leads Exchange

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How do I join and what do I bring to the first meeting?

You can join by just attending one of the WIND meetings mentioned earlier. For new members registration is $15.00 and $10.00 for each week after. Whether you attend WIND/North, South, East, West, or WIND/Seacoast, newcomers should arrive a little earlier, about 15 minutes, prior to the scheduled meeting time for their first meeting. This provides time to sign in and be greeted by veteran members. Business attire is recommended; bring several copies of your resume and and business cards if possible, although neither are required. No advance notice of attendance is necessary, but inquiry calls are welcome.

How can WIND benefit employers and recruiters?

By faxing, mailing or e-mailing job postings to WIND, hiring or recruiting organizations gain instant access to a large, highly qualified pool of professional candidates--at no charge to either the employer/recruiter or the candidate.

In addition, employers can refer appropriate employees to WIND, thereby offering them a powerful supplement to other job search assistance that may already be in place.

Should professionals receiving outplacement and other job search assistance attend WIND meetings?

YES, WIND acts as a complement to any job search training you may have already received, by providing a weekly forum in which to network and to hone your job search skills.

WIND meetings provide a positive, productive environment in which to keep up your momentum -- a critical component of a successful job transition.

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Who facilitates WIND meetings?

Fred Nothnagel, a Senior Career Consultant with R.L. Stevens & Associates, is the Director of the WIND Organization. Fred leads WIND/North and also maintains an independent career coaching practice. He has an extensive background in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Information Systems.

WIND/South meetings are led by Larry Elle, principal of Success Associates. Larry's career includes 15 years experience in clinical and career counseling.

WIND/West meetings are alternated by both Fred and Larry,
each facilitating the meeting every other week.

WIND/East meetings are led by Martin Pierce, principal of Work/Life Coaching. Martin's background spans 30 years guiding and advising people in the fields of counseling, teaching, sales, financial services and career management.

WIND/Seacoast meetings are led by Neil Wilson, in private practice as
Neil Wilson Career Counseling and Coaching Services and with over 15 years of career counseling experience in higher education, teaching and career management/outplacement.

Fred, Larry, Martin and Neil have conducted numerous presentations at outplacement and career assistance facilities on behalf of professionals in job transition throughout the New England area.

What other services does WIND offer that will give me the ability to expose my career skills and network with others.

WIND has several services that can help. Our databases, List server and Guerilla/Buddy Groups. Peoples concept of a database vary's from person to person. There are 3 sources of "database" information at WIND.

Our databases

  • WINDNetworking.com on-line database
  • Sales and Marketing group database
  • WIND Contact List(s)

The WINDNetworking.com on-line database is a way in which WIND members can network with other WIND members by posting basic profile information along with their resume. It gives new and current members the ability to ADD, DELETE, and UPDATE their profile and resume information. Besides being able to view other WIND members resumes, the new version allows you to search for previous employers of current WIND members. This may come in handy if you need a contact at a company. Due to privacy issues and at the wish of WIND members, this area is password protected. Mike Humphrey who administers this database can give you the required username and password. The only requirement is that you are a WIND member. Recruiters or WIND Alumni who are currently recruiters or who work for recruiters are barred access. Why? A recruiter is not a hiring manager. A recruiter is someone who will take a piece of your salary. A piece YOU DESERVE. You can contact Mike for the username and passwords then sign-in!

The Sales and Marketing group has a collection of MS Word and Excel
documents that assist Sales and Marketing Job seekers in networking better. You can contact Mike for the username and passwords and sign-in!

Side note: Any Guerilla Group can have a page on the site. These pages can be found on the Guerilla/Buddy Groups page.

The WIND Contact List(s) are on not on the web site but can be reviewed at WIND meetings. It contains the name and address' of WIND members.
Jim Morrocco maintains this list.

The WIND List server

The WIND List server, which is moderated by Matt Galster, provides a means through which WIND members can:

  • ask questions to other WIND members on how to handle certain job seeking situations.
  • ask for contacts for target companies you are seeking employment in.
  • post new job openings/leads for WIND members to search through.

Those who sign up below have an option to daily receive:

1). a set of anywhere from 7 to 45 WIND e-mails separately or
2.) receive one e-mail in digest mode
[ In digest mode you will receive one e-mail with the various postings enclosed as attachments ].

Make sure you read Dave Kramer's popular FAQ's for answers to your questions about the WIND List Server.

Guerilla/Buddy Groups

A Guerilla Group is group of unemployed professionals in the same employment field who meet to network and share employment information in their field at the various WIND locations.

A Buddy Group is group of unemployed professionals who are not necessarily in the same professional field but who meet in more of a personal environment to provide support for each other in both "job search"-related and personal issues.

Check out our Guerilla/Buddy Groups page for more.

 

Finally..Where does the acronym "WIND" come from?

"Wednesday Is Networking Day."

WIND's original weekly meeting was held north of Boston on Wednesday mornings, known as WIND/North.

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WIND Mailing List FAQ's version 1.4

This is the monthly email of the WIND list FAQ. The maintainer of this FAQ is David Kramer. Please address any questions and requests for additions to him at david@thekramers.net.

Q: What is a FAQ?
A: FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions". The purpose of a FAQ is to minimize the need for the same questions to be asked over and over again, to give helpful tips to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the list, and to make sure everyone knows the rules. It will be sent out monthly automatically. As with all other services I offer WIND, should I get a job, I will keep this FAQ maintained and post it.

Q: What is the wind@blu.org list for?
A: This list is for active and past members of the WIND networking groups to help each other out with getting back to the work, and surviving the downtime.

Q: Who maintains the mailing list?
A: Matt Galster <mattg@theworld.com>

Q: Who maintains the mailing list server?
A: The mailing list is hosted on the server of the Boston Linux and UNIX
Group (http://www.blu.org), which is maintained by David Kramer (david@thekramers.net). In general, Matt should handle normal list maintenance other than that which can be handled by the web interface (see the next Q), and David can help out with complex technical issues, like delivery problems.

Q: How can I subscribe to the list?
A: You must attend at least one WIND meeting, where your information will be gathered and you will be added.

Q: How can I change my subscription, get daily digests instead of
individual emails, or unsubscribe?
A: Go to http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/wind. Enter your email address in the text field near the bottom of the page. You will be taken to a page where you can do all of these things, and more!

Q: What if I forget my password?
A: Go through the same process mentioned above. You will see an option to have your password emailed to you.

Q: What emails are considered on-topic?
Short A: Any that Matt Galster says is on-topic.
Long A: Questions, answers, tips, and pointers to articles on:

  • Job leads
  • Resumes
  • Cover letters
  • Negotiation
  • Interviewing
  • Information sources
  • Recruiters
  • Companies
  • Industries
  • Training
  • The economy and the job market, within reason
  • Job/economy-related humor, within reason

Q: What emails are considered off-topic?
Short A: Any that Matt Galster says is off-topic.
Long A: post on:

  • Political topics not directly related to the job market
  • Unfounded accusations on any company, nation, or people
  • Advertising services not related to the job search or the jobless
  • Off-color humor
  • Your grandmother's meatloaf recipe
  • Long threads on politics, the economy, or the government

Q: But...but...but... I *want* to talk about those things
A: There are many other places to talk about them. You *will* be flamed
if you fill up the WIND list with it

You can post business, economy, politics, the job market, and companies on
the BizTalk mailing list. See
http://www.bostongeeks.com/mailman/listinfo/biztalk for more info. This list
is not associated with WIND (I run it), and anyone can join it.

To talk about issues related to consulting, I recommend the bostoncontractors yahoo group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bostoncontractors/

If you have a technical topic to discuss not directly related to WIND, you
can most likely find a user group near by specializing in many different
areas at http://www.bostonusergroups.com.

Q: What formats can I send to the list?
A: Text. That's it. Any and all attachments, including HTML, will be automatically stripped from all posts. If you want to post text from something you saw on the web, you can copy/paste the text. Keep in mind, though, that most of what you will find online is copyrighted, so you are almost always better off posting the URL, and maybe a sentence or two of context, which is considered fair use.

Q: What about forwarding emails?
A: It is a privacy violation to forward emails to the list that were not
meant to go to the list, even if the discussion started on the list. Ask
before doing so. Likewise, it is a privacy violation, to forward WIND posts
to non-WIND members, except when the only content is a job posting. Ask
permission from the author before doing any of these things

Q: How can I make sure that my post is read and replied to?
A: The subject line is very important!! The best way to identify what you
want is to put one of the standardized prefixes in the beginning of the
subject line, that identifies nature of your post. The standard subject
prefixes are:

[ContReq] Requesting a contact at a specific company or companies
Make sure you mention the company name in the subject line, and in the
body of the email, mention what kind of job you are looking for, what
kind of contact you are looking for, and a little about yourself (your
elevator speech).
[Event] Upcoming job fairs, seminars or non-WIND networking events
Don't forget the date, place, time, and where to find out more.
[Ins] COBRA, health, life, dental or disability insurance
[Intro] Announcing yourself to members
This is a good time to give us your elevator speech.
[Landing] Letting people know that or how you got your new job
We all love to see these, so be as detailed as you like. Congrats!
[Lead] Describing a job that an employer or recruiter looking to fill
Try to mention the company, the type of job, and the geographical
area in the subject line. Please do not post jobs from job boards, as
we can all find those easily.
[Learn] Career training, schooling, or certification
Try to mention the subject matter in the subject line.
[Org] Announcements: WIND meetings/speakers/events/guerrilla/buddy groups
Try to mention the geographical location in the subject line.
[Resume] Resume writing, cover letters or business cards
Requests for, offers to, or leads on, help in these areas
[Unemp] Unemployment benefits, claims or extensions
Try to include a link to more information in the body of the email.

Thanks to Mark Long for coordinating the group that formed this list.

If your email does not fit any of these categories, then just don't include
a prefix.

Some example subject lines are:

[ContReq] WidgetSoft in Quincy
[Lead] Project manager position at WidgetSoft
[Event] 12/14/03 Job fair in Boston.
[Learn] Free java class offered at Sun Burlington
[Landing] I was just elected Governor of California!!
[Org] WIND/North Software Guerilla group 12/17: Getting past gatekeepers
[Resume] Is VistaPrint a scam or for real?

There are ways to tell most email programs to filter emails by the subject
line so that you can view different subjects with different priorities.

Some other posting tips:

  • If you are asking for a contact, specify what kind of person you want to talk to, what kind of position you are applying for, and your elevator pitch. Remember that you may be asking them to represent you and put their reputation on the line.
  • If you are posting about an event, specify as much information as you can, especially the date and place.
  • Please do not use an excessively long signature (footer) at the end.
  • Spend a minute looking over your post for errors before sending.

Q: How do I reply to posts on the list?
A: Please note that, depending on how your mail client is configured, replies to posts to the list will go to the sender, not the list. I feel this is wrong, as the list is primarily a discussion list, but the topic has been beaten to death, and the decision made. So if you want to send a reply to the list, make sure you change the To: field.

On the other hand, do not "Reply to All". If you reply to both the poster and the list, the poster will get two copies, which is rather annoying. If you are using Linux or UNIX, I can help you fix this problem with procmail.

Q: Oh no! I accidentally deleted a post I wanted. What can I do?
A: Archives of the list can be found at http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/wind Note that you must log in to the website; the archives are not publicly available.

Q: What other resources are available to help me in my job search?
A: I created a website to function as a repository for all job hunting information I can find, as well as articles I (and others) write. You can get links to many other resources from there. See http://www.bostongeeks.com/jobsearch There are links there for many other sources of information.

To talk about topics that are generally off-topic to this list, but still
job search/business/economy/government related, you can join my BizTalk
mailing list at http://www.bostongeeks.com/mailman/listinfo/biztalk

Q: Hey! You forgot to mention something in this FAQ!
A: Send it to David Kramer <david@thekramers.net>


Q: Is this FAQ really needed? Every month?
A: Yes. It is. Trust me.

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