Wendy Adams works out of her Wheatfield home office as a sales manager for Long Island-based J. Carter Marketing.

Her bosses may live out of town, but she has plenty of business support in her home county—and much of it comes from women.

For the last decade, Adams has been a member of the American Business Women’s Association Niagara Falls Charter Chapter.

“This group is about taking the initiative to meet other women in our area,” she said. “I think that, particularly for women, it is very important to network and to build relationships, and that’s why our group is so successful.”

The ABWA was founded in 1949 in Kansas City, Mo., by businessman Hilary A. Bufton, who recognized the tremendous positive impact women had on the economy following World War II.

He and three Kansas City businesswomen incorporated the club later that year, and the group now counts more than a half-million members in chapters throughout the U. S.

The group’s mission is to provide business training and networking opportunities to women from diverse occupations and backgrounds.

The Niagara Falls chapter was founded in 1952 and attracts women from throughout Niagara and Erie counties, counting about 55 active members, said Adams, who has served as its president the past two years.

“We have in our membership many women who own businesses, and we also have teachers, a legal secretary, a hairdresser, a mall manager, government staff, women in health care and hospitality, a doctor, women in nonprofit organizations and marketing,” she said, and others in home-based businesses.

There is quite a range in age and experience.

Kari Walck, the local chapter’s secretary, is an account clerk for the Niagara Falls City Courts and joined the local chapter five years ago.

“I am the youngest member, and I’m 25,” Walck said. “We just honored a woman who has been a member for 45 years.”

Walck explained how she first learned of the group.

“I was setting up a marketing table for an expo with my previous job, and a woman there said she was a member and I should join, that I would enjoy it,” she recalled. “I have really enjoyed the women and have made some great friends.”

Another important facet of her group, Adams said, is the opportunity for women to hone their skills through the ABWA’s association with Niagara University’s Continuing Education Program. The university provides speakers that allow the participants to earn continuing education or professional development units.

“Twice a year we survey our membership and ask them what their needs are for personal or professional development and submit our proposals to Niagara, which looks for speakers who are experts in those fields,” Adams explained, adding that NU has always found the requested speakers.

“Employers these days are looking for people with so many skills sets. Instead of just two, now they might want someone with five or six, and that’s where we come in with these courses,” Adams said. “An employer may be looking for someone with five different skill sets, and you might say, ‘Well, I know I can do these two things,’ and by taking our courses through NU, maybe you pick up the credits and can say, ‘I don’t have a lot of experience in that area, but I did take performance management or accounting principles, for example, through these courses and earned units for them.’ That’s how you sell yourself.”

The local chapter of the AB-WA meets the third Wednesday of each month, except July, in the Crowne Plaza Niagara Falls, 300 Third St., with networking from 5:30 to 6:30 p. m., followed by dinner, then a speaker at 7.

The cost is $25 per member and $45 per nonmember guest, but Adams said that if a guest attends a couple of meetings and then decides to join, a discount would be arranged in paying the national annual dues of $90 (and $20 local chapter dues).

This Wednesday, the ABWA will try something a little different, with a “speed-networking” session from 5:30 to 6:30 p. m. in the Crowne Plaza, allowing participants to swap business cards and ideas with as many other participants in one hour as they can, followed by dinner at 6:30.

Francis Law, chief financial officer of Noobis Inc., is the featured speaker at 7 p. m., addressing “Financial, Accounting and Economic Terms for Managers.”

The local chapter also has frequently partnered with Niagara Rises — a grass-roots organization created to improve the quality of life in the Falls—and will collaborate with it once again for the Niagara Homecoming event in late June. The ABWA will sponsor three speakers for the event’s Career Fair and Resource Expo on June 24 in the Niagara Falls Convention Center. For more information, contact Andrea Todaro at

andrea@niagararises.com

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