Editor’s note: Three weeks ago, The Spotlight published a story about a long-forgotten monument that was discovered at the North Colonie District office bearing the name Laura Burt, after she was recognized by the Latham Business and Professional Women’s Club. This club is no longer in existence, but readers were asked to share any information they might have about the club, and this story is the result of that feedback.
Networking has long been used as a way to get ahead in business, and special groups exist to coach and push women and men who might need help in that area.
One of the earlier local groups to tackle that role was the Latham Business and Professional Women’s Club, an organization formed in the 1970s that has since merged into Greater Capital District Professional Women.
Business and Professional Women is a national organization dedicated to promoting equity for women in the workplace, according to its Web site. At one point in time, the organization was broken down into subdivisions to serve the needs of individual communities that face different hardships and challenges than others.
Former Colonie Supervisor Mary Brizzell was a member of the Latham Business and Professional Women’s Club before it merged with the Greater Capital District club. She remembers the unique connections and experiences she had with the group.
It was a group of women that were in business and were professionals, she said. `It was more or less a support group for mentoring.`
Brizzell joined the group after it was founded in the early 1970s when a friend from the Southgate School, who Brizzell met during her involvement with the North Colonie Central School District, introduced her to the club.
At the time, Brizzell and her husband were owners of Brizells Flowers.
`So, that’s how I joined,` she said.
Brizzell said the group met monthly, mostly at the Century House in Latham, for dinners. Many of the other members of the group were retired or near retirement and had at one point belonged to the Troy affiliation and either lived in Troy or Watervliet.
The group had a different speaker each month, Brizzell said, who spoke on different topics that the women would find interesting and useful.
Lisa Proskin was also a member of the group, having once given a presentation to the club herself.
`I went and I gave a presentation on some legal issues,` she said. `Probably something [business related].`
She also remembers hearing other presentations about health and wellness, fashion, finances and useful tips she could use in her home.
`It was a really nice organization,` she said.
Proskin enjoyed going to the club’s meetings because of what she learned from them while networking.
`It was basically an educational program,` she said.
`I really liked the women there, and what we did there was a lot of networking and basically referrals. You would refer clients to people you knew through the group, so it was a very good source for that, and it was fun.`
As its membership declined, Brizzell said, it became hard for the group to stay unified.
`Over the years, the older [members] started to die off, and we struggled at that time,` she said, explaining that while many banks and businesses had previously paid the dues for women to be in the club, those contributions began to fade. `So the membership started to dwindle and we tried hanging on.`
The club would hold fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for its own activities, as well as scholarships for students looking to enter a particular profession.
But as membership slowly went from more than 30 to five or six, Brizzell said, surrounding clubs experiencing the same decline thought it was time to merge into one organization.
The former members were unsure of when exactly the Latham club folded into the Capital District club, which also faded away over time. “