Our first visit with multiple guests this week. Join us as we have a great conversation with Beth Miller-Guthier and Marj Adams from the Women's Employment Resource Center (WERC) of Albany. When you think about mission driven organizations, and people who eat, drink, and breath their mission, Beth and Marj are the poster-children. We'll give a small nod to the NY Football Giants, but spend most of our time talking about the efforts WERC puts into the community to help women return to the workforce. How they got through the pandemic, and the inspiring stories they share about the many women who've graduated from their program.

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Miller Guthier, PHR, SHRM-CP, is the Executive Director of the Capital District Women’s Employment & Resource Center (WERC), one of 12 centers throughout New York State that help Displaced Homemakers find employment. Her passion for the Center started 26 years ago when she was hired as the Training Coordinator, developing the employment network still used today.  In her current position, she is responsible for all of WERC’s operations and ensuring the overall success of the agency. In addition to her accomplishments with WERC, Beth has more than 35 years of experience as an active community member and volunteer. She is also honored to have been recognized multiple times for her generosity, spirit and leadership for making a difference in the lives of women in our community. 

Local cause - Twin Rivers Council (Scouts – welcoming boys and girls) https://trcscouting.org

Elizabeth Miller Guthier, PHR, SHRM-CP
Executive Director
Capital District Women’s Employment & Resource Center (WERC)
(518) 225-3131
www.cdwerc.org 

About Marjorie

Marjorie Adams, PHR, SHRM-CP is the Employment & Training Coordinator at the Capital District Women’s Employment and Resource Center (WERC) in Albany, NY. Marj has over 20 years of experience in training and development and facilitates career readiness and computer training workshops to assist women who are seeking employment. She is an active member of the Capital Region Human Resource Association and the Workforce Readiness Committee. She partners with an extensive network of employers to help women succeed in their careers. Marj has a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources and is a certified Professional in Human Resources. 

Local cause – CRHRA (www.crhra.org) 

Marjorie A. Adams, PHR, SHRM-CP  
Employment & Training Coordinator  
Capital District Women's Employment & Resource Center (WERC)  
(518) 242-8250
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.cdwerc.org

Voiceover: Welcome to HR in the Car, with Miriam Dushane and Tom Schin of Alaant Workforce Solutions. Where exciting HR professionals and business leaders share laughter, insider stories, and maybe even a few tears about HR in today's world. Buckle up for the best half hour of your week.

Tom Schin: Longevity is so undervalued these days, and when you think about the conversations we're about to have with these two fantastic, community involved people. 26 and 21 years with the same organization.

Miriam Dushane: It's pretty fantastic. And like you said, it is definitely overlooked a lot of times, or the people don't think it's that valuable. And I totally disagree, because the impact that these women have had on the lives of thousands of other women over that timeframe is impressive.

Tom Schin: Right. And the fact that they still sing the song, they still follow that cause, that mission. And you can see it in their eyes when you're having conversation with them. It's inspiring.

Miriam Dushane: They are fantastic. Take a listen.

Tom Schin: Welcome everyone to another episode of HR in the Car. We're here today with Elizabeth Miller Guthier and Marj Adams from the Women's Employment Resource Center, here in Albany. And so we're real thrilled to talk to them about their stories and share a few of their anecdotes in our industry. So welcome Beth and Marj.

Marj Adams: Thank you.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Thank you.

Tom Schin: We always like to start off with more of a how do you introduce yourself? Not from a work standpoint. Ha, ha, work. Get it? W- E- R- C. But more from a-

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: That's why it's our name.

Tom Schin: Right. When you go to a friends gathering or a barbecue, how do you tell people what you do? And Beth, we'll let you go first

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Well, unfortunately it's a blended career with work and family. So when I go to a barbecue, I introduce myself as the executive director of the Women's Employment and Resource Center, also known as WERC. And I share with them that we help women that are in transition, return to the workplace. I always find it doesn't matter where I am, that somebody knows of someone that could use our services, an employer that could hire one of our graduates, or somebody who's really excited about volunteering and giving back to the community.

Tom Schin: That's beautiful. Does yours sound pretty similar, Marj?

Marj Adams: Yes. I'm the employment and training coordinator and certainly when I introduce myself, it's really just to let people know how much we help women in the community. That's always my focus.

Miriam Dushane: Yeah. And then her second focus would be a New York Giants football fan. That would be-

Marj Adams: Absolutely.

Miriam Dushane: If you see Marj on a video screen, her entire office behind her is, "I wonder if Marj is a Giants fan?" And you just see this stuff everywhere and you're like, "Yeah, Marj is definitely a Giants fan." So Marj, talk to us a little bit about the trends in the industry right now. Obviously everybody's talking about there's not enough people or people don't want to work anymore. And so talk to us what you are seeing in terms of employers that you're working with, the graduates that you're helping, etc.

Marj Adams: Sure. I think a lot of the trends have changed the last couple of years because of COVID-19. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, there were about three million women that had to step out of the job market. That certainly has had a huge effect on just being able to go to work, being able to know that the school is going to stay open. The school is open, the school is not open. You have to homeschool. No, you don't have to homeschool. I think we're at a point now, that the schools seem like they're going to stay open. I think that-

Miriam Dushane: Knock on wood. If I was allowed to knock on wood right now, I would.

Marj Adams: Exactly and that's great. But I think still there is a lot of concern out there with some of our students, and women in general that let's make sure they're going to stay open. Because childcare is an issue. And it became a bigger issue during COVID-19 as well. One of the things that we do best at WERC is we really help people individually. So we'll figure out what works best for them, literally. However, as I said with COVID- 19, it has definitely made a difference with employers being able to get people as ready to go to work, and we're here to certainly help with that. I don't think it's because people don't want to work. I think it's because people have just been- It's been a whirlwind the last two years.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely. Absolutely. And a side note on that, what I usually tell people is it's not that they don't want to work, they just might not want to work for your company. And usually that has to do with flexibility or rigid scheduling or specific demands and those types of things. And you're right, we've seen a huge impact on women in the workforce since COVID, and I just think it's going to continue. So can you guys talk a little bit about the programming that you put students through or the different trainings that you might be able to provide that employers would be interested to know about, to say, " Hey, wait a minute, I would hire a student with that type of background or that type of training or retraining"?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Well, I'll start just a little further explanation about the women that we serve. They're displaced homemakers, so they've been out of the workforce for a period of time, and through separation, divorce, widowed, maybe their husband's not working, they're single mothers. We're also working with women who leave the workforce to take care of an elderly parent and they need to return to the workplace. The average age is between 35 and 55. So they're a mature individual. They really have an understanding of what they're capable of doing as well as a wonderful work ethic. And they really want to be successful. They want the company that employs them to be successful. So they will do whatever it takes. And part of that is when they come through our program, they're not paid to come through our program, they're doing it on their own. And it's a career readiness training, computer literacy training. And then we also have an employer network where we're trying to help them to find employees and our women to find jobs. And Marj, I'll pass it to you to talk a little further about the training.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely. She's the training expert.

Marj Adams: Certainly helping with the resumes is always number one. A lot of students still need cover letters. So they're always looking for training in that and to kind of update their writing skills in general. Because frankly, if they've been out of the job market for 5 to 10 years, they're not used to using the computer as much. They're not used to having to write maybe those business letters as much. So we're able to provide that training to get them back in the mode. And I think the other big thing is just getting them back on a schedule. I've had so many students over the years say that that was one of the biggest helpful things for them is they get used to coming to the classes, getting dressed up again, arriving on time, being with another network of women that are interested in restarting their careers. And it just gives them really the momentum and the confidence to continue on beyond the training.

Miriam Dushane: And that's what- I'm so sorry, Tom. I'm like totally taking over the conversation. You go right-

Tom Schin: You're so fine.

Miriam Dushane: Nope, you go right ahead.

Tom Schin: So you're so fine. That phrase about confidence is really what jumps out because, and we see this with a lot of job seekers that we speak to and our recruiters speak to, is that folks underestimate what they're capable of. More so, and this is a gender thing, largely that we know there stats around men will apply for anything under the sun. While women-

Miriam Dushane: I can do that.

Tom Schin: Right. I can do it. I can do it.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Exactly.

Miriam Dushane: Why couldn't I do that?

Tom Schin: Whereas women have to have this really high or almost perfect match to what they're applying for. And the confidence applies in very similar fashion. And I know I've done some, I've come down to help with some classes. This was eons ago, so I need to come back to it. Reminder, knock on wood. Yes, I've just volunteered for something.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: You're always welcome back. Absolutely.

Tom Schin: But having those conversations to get them confident in themselves and knowing, yeah, you can. You have this capability and it's got to be super fulfilling to see that come to light with each of the classes that come through for you.

Marj Adams: Absolutely. And again, knowing that they're confident and really learning the job market is a lot of what we do as well. I mean, if you think about it, if you haven't been working for a while and someone came and said, "Tell me 20 companies in the capital region." You might not know 20 companies in the capital region you could go to work for because it's not really on your radar. It's not like they're following the labor market, like we're following the labor market. So even just having that time to really research and think about what company they want to work for and really what type of job they want, and we help them with that as well.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Yeah, the transferring of the skills, something that they've done maybe as a volunteer or as a mom, they could have been running the PTA or director of a church choir. They don't realize that those are tangible skills and very marketable. And so we share that with them and then we make sure that we put those skills on the resume so the employers see that as well.

Miriam Dushane: And I do know that you have situations in which somebody did have work experience before for whatever reason, they left the real work environment. And so pulling on that past experience as well. So we're not talking about individuals who have no skills, we're just talking about basically making sure they understand how they're translatable and transferable. Correct?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Yeah. And how they can market themselves.

Miriam Dushane: Yeah, that's a big thing.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: I tell them we have the easiest job. We can market them to the employers because we know what they have. We see that in the classroom. And so for the employers, we can also be a reference. We're very honest and we have a great reputation, and many of our women are hired by the direct connection with the employers. However, we're going to tell it like it is, and we're going to say maybe she needs help with punctuality, or maybe she needs a job that's a little bit more flexible. So we want the employers to be successful, but we really want our women to be as well, so we're not going to set them up to fail.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Tom Schin: It's a great cause. It strikes me that for as long as I've known both of you, you've been with WERC.

Miriam Dushane: I know. I was thinking-

Tom Schin: I don't know you as any other identity.

Miriam Dushane: -as any other identity. Nope, that's true.

Tom Schin: How did you get started? How'd you both get started there? Obviously it's a passion, it's a cause, it's mission based. But how'd you get started?

Marj Adams: I actually saw an ad in the newspaper. I was working in banking for 12 years.

Miriam Dushane: No way. I never knew that.

Marj Adams: Absolutely.

Miriam Dushane: Oh my gosh.

Marj Adams: I worked for HSBC Bank and I-

Miriam Dushane: Marine Midland.

Marj Adams: You got it. And I enjoyed the job. I actually had worked on a lot of conversion trainings with them when we were buying out other banks. And unfortunately because of that, they had some restructuring in HR and training. And that's how I ended up looking for something else. I read the ad in the paper about WERC and thought, this is different, but kind of looks like something I'd be interested in. I went in and actually I met with Beth as well as the other staff at the center. And we clicked. And the rest is history-

Miriam Dushane: Is history.

Marj Adams: I've been there for 21 years.

Miriam Dushane: I was just about to ask how long. And Beth, how long have you been there?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: I've been there 26 years.

Miriam Dushane: Wow. How did you get involved with them?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: So I love sharing my story because I also share it with the women that I was a displaced homemaker in 1995. I was a district trainer and I was the manager of a linen company and they had closed and they offered me to relocate back out to Boston. And I said, "No, I'm going to stay here." And so one of the things that I was missing was the computer literacy. And it was just starting. So now think 27 years ago-

Tom Schin: I remember that one now.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: So it was Word Perfect at the time.

Miriam Dushane: Yeah. That's what I learned in high school. That was my first original program. Sure.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: So I started taking the classes and I actually had put my son in daycare. Single mom, so I did qualify. He was 3 years old at the time. He is now going to be 30, which is amazing.

Miriam Dushane: Oh, wow.

Tom Schin: We were talking about him the other day too.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: And so I went through the program and then I started at a staffing service.

Miriam Dushane: Look for staffing services. I'm just saying.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: I know. It was great because I wanted to see what were the employers hiring. And I had been at my career for 12 years. I didn't know what was out there. This was a new area for me to look for work. And so it was great. But what I did is I would interview the graduates of the Albany Displaced Homemaker Program. And so 6 months later when there was an opening, Pat McClain called me and said, "I want you to come work for me." And it has just been fabulous ever since. So we're a nonprofit and we're able to modify our trainings really based on what the women need. So we saw during COVID that we really needed to take our training virtual. So we reached out to one of our huge supporters, Kathleen Pinkowski, with MicroKnowledge. And they have a knowledge wave subscription that allows our women- There's more than 2,000 different webinars and classes that they can take. Little tidbits, they can find out tips and tricks on the different software. And so we have the subscription and we are able to put our women through that virtual training. We're not going to stop. It has been such a blessing for us and we're really able to expand our services to more women and women that can't reach our center. So that's exciting. So we're able to help more women in need and also reach a greater area.

Tom Schin: That's fantastic. So one of the things we like to get into, we bring our questions of the week that we ask our general audiences on all our channels. One of the recent questions that we had was, how are you using training and development as a recruiting and retention tool? Some do, some don't. Some are sort of eh. But from your realm being on that training side, how are you seeing that impact? How are you seeing employers react to leveraging that? Or what's your take on that type of question? Because the answers were pretty well split. Some said that the way that they've always done it, that was about 20% of the answers. Some were using it a little bit more, that was 40%. And the other piece was not at all, which was to me shocking. I mean, we have a great-

Miriam Dushane: Yeah, I was surprised in that too.

Tom Schin: - Arsenal of things to advertise. How can you not talk about these things?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: One of the things that we're most proud of is that we hire our graduates. And so the training and development piece that we are teaching our women, we incorporate in our own organization. It's very important. We talk about goals, we set goals for the organization as well as goals for the employees. It has to be professional goals, but then also personal goals. What is it that they want to achieve on a personal level that work can help them do that? It's a career of passion. We love what we do. We love helping women. And so it's really important that we empower our staff and our women and the community, our volunteers as well.

Marj Adams: For me, I think, again, going back to COVID- 19, that was very difficult for a lot of employers to continue with a lot of training. I mean, let's be real. Most of us were just trying to survive the week when we had to all-

Miriam Dushane: Yeah, the day.

Marj Adams: Yeah, the day. So I think giving a little slack to the companies that did step away from training. I see it coming back now. We are doing classes in person. We have been for a while, as Beth mentioned. We're still doing a blend that way we can reach everyone. But I think a lot of companies are recognizing, okay, we've got to get back to some of those grassroots of training and development. And now that companies are bringing staff back into the offices more, online training is great, but in the end, I really think for new employees, and I know I hear that from our own students as well, when they're starting a job, that onboarding process, the initial training is a lot easier on them when they can be in person.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Marj Adams: It can be overwhelming to be onboarded and also do all the training from-

Miriam Dushane: Online. Yeah.

Marj Adams: A remote status.

Tom Schin: Feel like you're on an island. Like there's nobody here to talk to. I'm alone. I have a question. I don't want to bother anybody. Nobody's watching. I can't imagine how much solitude that feels like.

Marj Adams: So I-

Tom Schin: Especially for extroverts.

Marj Adams: Exactly. So again, I think the hybrid that a lot of companies are doing now will allow for more of that in person training, which I think will help others.

Miriam Dushane: That's awesome. So I'm going to go off script and I just got that look like, "What do you mean you're going off script?" But I'm curious if it comes to mind quickly for you, is there a story of a woman that you've worked with, and without giving a lot of really specific this person's name and address and telephone number, but is there any specific student or a story about a woman that you always remember that just gives you that satisfaction or that pride of we're doing really good work for people and this is one of the examples of it?

Marj Adams: There're so many.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: There're thousands.

Miriam Dushane: I know. I know. I know.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Since we opened our center in 1988, we have served more than 10,000 women-

Miriam Dushane: Oh my God. What?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: And I think about my time there. It's like-

Miriam Dushane: Wow.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: 6, 7,000 women. And I always say, "I may not remember their name, but I never forget a face." It's wonderful to just meet them in the grocery stores and out for walks. And my husband will say, "Everywhere we go, you know somebody." It doesn't matter. But yeah, we've got some amazing stories.

Marj Adams: And I think it speaks to, we just recently moved our Albany Center and we moved with the Department of Labor and there's some other businesses in there as well. And what's kind of nice and is literally within walking distance of my new office on the same floor, we have 2 work students in that building now.

Miriam Dushane: Oh wow.

Tom Schin: That's great.

Marj Adams: So as Beth said, we could talk about an individual story, but at the same token, there's just so many different stories through the years. A lot of the women that we work with will stay in a job for a very long time. Not uncommon 10 years later, we're connecting with them and they're still at the same company. They've advanced. Or if they do move to another company, it usually is for another opportunity or advancement. But they're very loyal. They appreciate the fact that the employer has given them that opportunity. So they're not exactly likely to leave on a whim. So that's great too.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Yeah. And when we have our events, we have a First Impressions, Second Chances event. Which thank you, Miriam for sponsoring.

Miriam Dushane: My pleasure. My pleasure. I love you guys.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: We'll have 15 to 20 of our graduates there sharing their stories. They love to share their story because they know that they're going to be helping another woman in need.

Miriam Dushane: It's interesting you said that, because it's very scary to get up in front of a room of strangers and we're not talking a room of 50 people, we're talking a room of several hundred. I mean, I've seen it as much as 500 plus in this ballroom that you bring in. And to have someone come up and tell their story, it's always so amazing. And I've always been so impressed with women that get up and tell their story. Not just that they're telling their story, but the poise and the professionalism and just the confidence that they're showing. And oftentimes they say it's because they wouldn't be where they were without going through the work program and having you wonderful ladies to help them out.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: We support them in whatever they're looking for. We open our doors to anyone in need that has lost their source of support. And we really take a look at their goals and their background, their education, and we try to help them to find what's going to be a good fit. But we're there to support them all through the whole journey and afterwards as well, even after they find employment. We're very excited that we're starting a mentorship program.

Miriam Dushane: Oh, great.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: And that's for-

Tom Schin: That's a fantastic idea.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: That's for our alumni. The ones that have graduated and are looking at moving up the ladder or just to continue to build their network. And Hope DeRocha is the chair of our program development committee, another wonderful volunteer. And Marie Schnitzer, and she's co-chairing that. And we're very excited to launch some panel discussions. What is mentoring and what's it like to be a mentee, and then how can I then move into a mentor's position? And so it's very exciting. We now have 16 women that are interested in participating.

Miriam Dushane: That's amazing. So if I were an employer and I wanted to get involved and learn more about the program, learn more about the students that you're working with, how would an employer get involved? How can they get involved? Or just how can they learn more about your students at a minimum?

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Well, usually I would hand them Marj's business cards. So I'll just give her the mic.

Marj Adams: Number one, we have a lot of employers in the area that share their job descriptions with us. We have a job board in our training center, and I know the students always flock to that every time they come in, they like to see the different employers information. Actually, there was a mini job fair at our location with Department of Labor earlier this week. So after I talk to those employers, I'm going to hang those flyers, hang those job leads, and we're going to share that information with our students. So certainly sending it via email, connecting with me at job fairs. As you guys both know, I'm at most of the job fairs.

Miriam Dushane: You're everywhere.

Tom Schin: Absolutely.

Marj Adams: And certainly they can call us or email information to us. But I think just again, you have women that if they haven't worked for even a year, sometimes they just don't know what's out there or where to go and where to look. So just having the different company's names, the different job descriptions, really gives them a good opportunity to see what can I do? What do I want to do?

Tom Schin: That's one of the things that people talk about, is the accessibility. I know you guys have always been super accessible, responsive to things out there in front of people. I think that's one of the things job seekers in general, in addition to your students feel like, I can't believe these folks are so nice and they want to help me. They're just so used to hitting roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. So if you're not familiar, definitely we're going to have your website link in our show notes so folks who are listening can see that right there. But by all means, reach out by phone, by email, by LinkedIn. You're going to get a response.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely. You will definitely get a response.

Marj Adams: Thank you.

Miriam Dushane: So in closing, we usually like to wrap it up with something a little bit lighter. And sometimes we talk about volunteer work and we can certainly talk about that with volunteer work outside of work. But I want to keep the spotlight on work. So I'm more curious outside of work, do you like to read? Do you stay on top of any great HR articles or books or business books? Or maybe it's not that at all, maybe it's the best fiction book you read more recently, something like that.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Well, I am a Cub Scout leader and I-

Miriam Dushane: Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Beth, I didn't know that.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: I've been a Cub Scout leader for 21 years. My son is an Eagle Scout. Our cub pack is in Albany. We have families coming as far- We have a family that's coming from Cobleskill that comes to our pack.

Miriam Dushane: Wow.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: So it's a family pack, so we have girls and boys. And I run it with my brother. And it's amazing to just see the character building and just to enlighten the children as to how they can help others and how they can be community minded. And then we also have fun. We camp and we hike and we do winter fests. And so it's a lot of fun.

Miriam Dushane: That's wonderful.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Thank you.

Miriam Dushane: And I do think it's a great foundation for young men and women to be able to see like the- You're setting them on the right path by example. So I think that's wonderful. How about you Marj?

Marj Adams: Well, a lot of my volunteer time, as you both know, because I think that's how I met both of you originally is with the Capital Region Human Resource Association. And when you talk about articles and keeping up with the labor market and what's going on in HR. I read everything they put out I think-

Miriam Dushane: Me too.

Marj Adams: -You can never go wrong with that information. And we really need that information when we're working in HR or in training. And I love volunteering with CRHRA. I've been helping out at the job fairs and helping out with their workforce readiness committee probably for well over 10 years now, longer than that.

Tom Schin: Sounds like a chair in the making. Wink. Wink. Nod. Nod.

Marj Adams: Yeah, I actually served on the board with Miriam of CRHRA. So I just think that it's a great organization and frankly I can truly say as I sit here that I have made so many friends through CRHRA, long term friends. So I think it's a great network and a great way to connect.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: And I want to add to that too, also volunteering with work. We've seen through the years, Kathleen has brought her children. My son has been involved, my husband's always involved. But Denise Horan, her daughter, Kate volunteered with us for years and Willie and Miranda. And it's really, it's a great opportunity to show our kids how to provide a service for others and how to help other people. And then through our network of volunteers too, they themselves, they network for employment and many of them have switched jobs and they've gone to a company because the committee member sitting next to them has an opening and they-

Miriam Dushane: Exactly.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: - Start talking and boom, there we go. So-

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: -It's really exciting. We have more than 50 volunteers that help.-

Miriam Dushane: That's amazing.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: -Help us to achieve our mission.

Miriam Dushane: That's amazing.

Tom Schin: That's fantastic. And I'm sure you could use more.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: We can always use more. Yes. We can always more.

Miriam Dushane: Yes. So if you want to volunteer, they will definitely find a spot for you in some way, shape or form. And the more knowledge and the more expertise, the better. So that they can provide even more services and guidance to their students. So Beth, Marj, I just want to personally thank you for joining us today. I love you guys. Obviously you know how much I love you guys. I'm looking forward to the next event. Please, please, please keep up the great work. You are a gem in our community and there's a lot of women out there that I know are grateful for all the work that you've done. And I know personally, I'm grateful for everything that you've done in this community, so thank you.

Elizabeth Miller Gauthier: Oh, thank you. We don't do it alone. It does take a village and it's a community organization and it just chokes me up to just think that of all the help that we get between sponsorship and just getting our name out there. So many people say, " I didn't know anything about you." Or, my mother could have used your program." And so all of these different platforms really help us to get the word out there. And we know that somebody's going to be listening and say, " I know someone that could use your program." So make sure they contact us.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Marj Adams: And I'll just chime in the same. Thank you for your support. Thank you for Alaant's support. We've appreciated it all through the years. And also just you're always at our events. You always go over and introduce yourself to our students and speak with them, and that's great and they appreciate it. And you've always been there to help with mock interviews or if we want to send somebody to your agency just to get some practice and that means a lot. So thank you.

Miriam Dushane: Well, we're here for you and we'll keep doing it because we love you guys. Thank you.

Tom Schin: I love it when you get to listen to folks who are reinforcing the same things that we think and when they're mentioning other even guests of ours like Marj and Beth both referencing Denise Horan who was here and-

Miriam Dushane: And Kathleen Pinkowski from MicroKnowledge and setting up that virtual training for the women. Absolutely. Again, it talks about how this community as a whole comes together, supports one another, and we do really great work. And they are fantastic community advocates. And I wanted them to tell a story, like a great story about one of the women, but they couldn't pick one of their favorites. They have no favorites because they love that they are able to bring so much and provide so much to both employers in the region, but also these great women that they're helping out.

Tom Schin: Right. For those of you, just for reinforcement, it was 10,000 women.

Miriam Dushane: 10,000.

Tom Schin: Fantastic.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Tom Schin: And I loved hearing how Beth talked about, she's been with scouting for a couple of decades and it's amazing how you find little connection threads. So it's just, it's such a small world.

Miriam Dushane: Absolutely.

Tom Schin: So thanks for listening to another great episode of HR in the Car. We look forward to chatting with you next time.