Why you should join WiRE by Burton WiRE

Posted: 10^th August 2016

By: WiRE Team

When Alison, Lorraine and I (Elaine) took over running the WiRE Burton-on-Trent network we decided not to enforce WiRE’s national policy that women can only visit a network twice before deciding whether to join or not. We have always believed there are HUGE benefits to joining WiRE and we are delighted that so many women have joined WiRE this year – some after one Burton meeting and others after more.  Because of the growing importance of the £50 membership fee to WiRE nationally (see point 7. below), women who have visited twice or more (which WiRE knows from the meeting sign-in sheets) will soon be getting an email from the national team saying that their guest pass has finished and they need to join WiRE to keep networking. If you receive one of these emails and have any concerns, do speak to one of us to discuss. Meanwhile here are what we think are the top 10 benefits of joining WiRE:

1. When you join WiRE you become a NATIONAL member – not just a member of our Burton network. It’s quick and easy to join online at wireuk.org/join-wire and the cost is just £50 a year. This money funds the existence of WiRE. Without it the national not-for-profit organisation would not exist. For this £50 a year investment you are able to go to ANY WiRE meeting across the UK as often as you want and pay a discounted price each time. There are EIGHT WiRE networks in Staffordshire alone, and the full list of all UK networks is here – wireuk.org/networks.
2. It currently costs £5 to attend Burton meetings as a member – a saving of £2.50 on the visitor price. From November we’ll be putting up the visitor price to £8, making it a saving of £30 a year if you attend all 10 of our regular meetings.
3. Our August and December socials are offered to members at a discounted fee. For our sold-out summer social this month members paid £5 (a £10 saving on the price for non-members). We expect our Christmas meal to be a similar price. That’s a saving of another £20 this year.
4. As a member of WiRE you have your own business profile page on the national WiRE website – which performs really well on Google. You can also submit your own news and articles to the website as often as you like and reach thousands of women across the country. News from members also goes into the national WiRE newsletters and the website has a knowledge base written by, and for, women in business.
5. At Burton we invite a WiRE member to give a 10 minute presentation at each of our 10 regular networking meetings each year. Visitors do not get this opportunity.
6. The opportunity to submit news and events and images for this Burton newsletter (which goes to more than 230 local women) is only going to be open to members of WiRE after this month rather than visitors as well.
7. WiRE is a not-for-profit organisation and the £50 annual membership fee is the ONLY income that WiRE now gets. It has, in the past, been able to access European grants and funding – but following the decision to leave the EU it looks as if this will never happen again. Therefore, by joining WiRE you are helping to secure the future of this organisation and its ability to support women in business.
8. WiRE can also offer members-only mentoring and training. It also stages a national conference each year with high-profile and high-quality speakers and workshops.
9. Because of the profile that WiRE has nationally it regularly gets requests from journalists looking for women working in specific sectors, so from time to time this provides more promotional opportunities for members.
10. WiRE listens to what its members want and new features are added to the website regularly to provide added value. Fiona Davies, who some of you met when she visited our special lunch earlier this year, and Polly Gibb work incredibly hard and diligently for WiRE members and show a real passion and dedication to help women in business succeed.

We love WiRE – and we know you do too – so if you are not yet a member please consider joining so that it can continue to champion women in business.