February 25, 1996
CAREERS / By SABRA CHARTRAND
(Inter)Networking for New-Media Women
recent hit on the Broadway stage was a play based on the premise that only six people separate you from everyone else in society. Those people could be the key to your career, too. But what if you can't pinpoint even one, not to mention six? Well, if you're a woman and interested in new media, check out Webgrrls. They may be there.
At least that was the hope of a continuous stream of women who recently crowded into a Soho loft, adding a new twist to the term networking. Webgrrls, a support group for women whose work involves the Internet, has chapters in several cities and can be reached on-line from anywhere.
The group was founded less than a year ago, shortly after Aliza Sherman launched an on-line marketing business from her apartment. Sherman, who is 32, immediately realized she didn't know anyone who was trying to do the same kind of work, had no one to bounce ideas off or turn to for advice. Slowly, though, she made e-mail contact with a handful of other women venturing into similar fields. One day, they agreed to meet over coffee at New York's @cafe.
"There were about six of us," Sherman, a slight, dark-haired young woman in a tailored gray suit told about 100 women gathered in the loft. After the coffee-klatch, Ms. Sherman realized that women like herself, tackling Internet businesses, needed their own group. So she organized Webgrrls and created its Web site.
Her purpose, headlined in a yellow flyer handed out at the meeting, is simple: "To create networking opportunities, give job and business leads, help form alliances, establish mentorships and internships, provide affordable classes for women to acquire new skills, and encourage noncompetitive exchanges of information and experience."
"Six women has turned into 500 women on our e-mail list in New York," Sherman said. She gets hundreds of e-mail messages each day. Groups have formed in Boston, Oklahoma City, Seattle and San Francisco. "And I'm starting to get e-mail from women all over the world wanting to start chapters."
At the first Webgrrls meetings last spring the group was informal. Everyone took a turn, talking at length about her experience, her goals and her job needs. Now there are too many people for that at the twice-monthly New York meetings. The women pack the narrow loft, some leaning against soaring brick walls painted white to match the plumbing pipes that crisscross a tin-paneled ceiling, others framed by vast windows overlooking Soho.
Sherman charges $5 for one-time visits and $55 for membership in Webgrrls. As women lined up at folding tables to pay, assistants debated whether to drag an old couch and some office chairs from around the loft to supplement the rows of plastic chairs that had quickly filled.
"I get e-mail all the time from women who just joined or attended one meeting and found the job they needed," Sherman told the group. "Or I get companies coming to us looking for a certain person. That's a very powerful thing."
In fact, the speakers in Soho that night were evenly divided between women looking for job leads and representatives of companies searching for employees.
"I've just finished my first Web site design with a partner," announced Betty Rothstein, who stood and described herself as an art director with 25 years experience in graphic arts and the fashion industry. Now Ms. Rothstein, who admitted to not yet having an e-mail address, is trying to break into new media. "I'm interested in information about how to pick up new business doing Web sites," she said.
Next, Nan Siegmund rose and explained her part-time job as a CD-ROM producer. She was looking for more work, too. "I'm equipped and experienced surfing the Web and finding sites for review or putting in charts," Siegmund said. "I can do research."
In return, she said that a company she had worked for was looking for "a very experienced director" to produce children's Web sites.
"I've been coming to these meetings for a few months, and they're very helpful in meeting people," Siegmund added as she sat down. "Making announcements really does help."
Randi Kopp, a marketing director, wanted to meet other women "trying to market financial and training material by Web site or other electronic means."
"We're doing it all in the dark, and it's a lot of fun, but I want to get a lot more traffic off the Web than we're getting now," she told the group. "I can offer advertising space on sites that are training- or financial-related."
Karen Miller, a freelance journalist looking for story ideas, was impressed with Webgrrl's scope.
"This is just like an A.A. meeting," she blurted out. The women laughed and she said: "Uh, not that I'm in A.A." More laughter and she added: "Though, uh, if I were, that would be OK, too."
Wendy West, an illustrator and author of 20 children's books, apologized for not having "a lot to offer technology-wise. I'm looking for someone to do a children's project with and a Web site."
Sarah Feldman, a concept developer at a local television station, stood up and said she was "a confessed former Luddite who was a long time coming onto the telecommunications bandwagon."
"Now I'm enthusiastic," Feldman said. "I'm looking for another work environment more appropriate to my goals, one not so reined in." In return, she said that her station was seeking "a systems operator with Unix experience."
Many women offered job openings. Amy Mullins, a senior designer with The Walt Disney Company, said her office was looking for part-time graphic artists and copy editors for a children's magazine. Another woman even offered her own job.
"I'm the assistant to the publisher," she said, naming a major publishing house in New York. "I'm leaving soon, so if you're interested in a job with long hours, working for a man who chain-smokes, see me."
As soon as the presentations ended, the women broke up into groups. The producers of children's CD-ROMs sat down with the children's book illustrator. A magazine editor walked up to a freelance writer. The saleswoman interested in Web markets talked to the financial services specialist curious about on-line buying trends. Business cards flew back and forth, resumes slid in and out of briefcases.
Sherman's company, Cybergrrl Internet Media, is negotiating to create a Webgrrl forum for America Online that would allow women to exchange information like this from their personal computers. She's also putting together something she calls Team Webgrrls, which will pair women working in new media with elementary and junior high school girls in need of mentors and training. And she supports a Web page called Cybersisters, which offers space for women artists and writers to exhibit their work. In addition, Cybergrrl offers courses in introduction to the World Wide Web, marketing on the Web and basic HTML.
Other organizations exist that are devoted to bringing new media workers together -- like the New York New Media Association, an artists consortium, which hosts Cybersuds, a monthly get-together of mostly-singles at bars and restaurants. The International Interactive Communications Society holds meetings and seminars for networking and training.
Even at Webgrrls, there is no standard background. Graphic artists, writers and public relations specialists mingled with software programmers, engineers and corporate executives.
"The only requirement here," Sherman said, "is that you be a woman."
Information about New York City meetings is available from the Webgrrl hotline at 212-642-8012. Queries about Cybergrrl Internet Media can be sent to [email protected]. Personal e-mail to Aliza Sherman and inquiries about Webgrrl can be sent to [email protected].
CAREERS is published weekly, on Sundays. Click here for links to other columns in this series.
Related Sites
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Cybergrrls -- This site includes Cybersisters, a forum for women artists, and Courses with Cybergrrl, a list of classes available around New York, and provides links to on-line resources for women and girls. (Source of CG cartoon characte above, c. 1995 Aliza Sherman.) Webgrrls -- Information about Webgrrls meetings, howto form chapters in the United States and other countries, a Joborama employment listing, and classes in basic HTML and Web browsing. (Source of WG cartoon character above, c. 1995 Aliza Sherman.) New York New Media Association -- This group sponsors Cybersuds, a monthly party for people interested in information technology businesses, usually held in a Manhattan bar or restaurant. International Interactive Communications Society -- This group holds monthly chapter meetings and offers seminars on subjects like interactive television and financial transactions on the Web. It arranges tours of the New York metropolitan area new media organizations.
Sabra Chartrand at [email protected] welcomes your comments and suggestions.
Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company
