Well, yesterday came and went!  Sunday’s are sometimes like that, with church via the internet (thank God for the marvel of virtual opportunities) and many of the things I don’t get done during the week – the time slips away. 

I don’t want to take days to cover the AWP story, but I do want to be clear, concise and in-depth about the who; what; where; and why we’ve reached this point in life.

As I’ve noted before, our vision and mission is to be a source of enrichment, encouragement and empowerment  for  women in the 2nd half of the life journey.  Our commitment is to do so by informing, educating and networking with those who join us in the AWP community.

I’ve used the word “platform” as a describer and that is really a very accurate image for us.  We’ve built a platform (or foundation) upon which to lay the pieces of the vision and mission.  With our BETA LAUNCH on July 1 of this year, we put the partially-loaded AWP platform up for women to see, visit and join!

First, AWP was created as an online community for ALL women age 45 plus.  We chose a VIRTUAL platform because the internet IS the wave of the future!  In fact, it is the wave of NOW!

In a previous post, I mentioned two articles from Networking Times (May/June 2006) that solidified the AWP vision and confirmed that the vision of a vast online community of women connecting, communicating, informing, educating and networking is the way to go! 

The two articles are Scott Allen’s “The Virtual Handshake” and an interview with Tom Power, co-founder of Ecademy who states that the internet is “female” (I’ll say more about that later as well). 

Both gentlemen make a strong case for the ease, efficiency and effectiveness of meeting others online to affect the personal goals we each have; our need to be connected with other like-minded folks and the desire to network for business and professional growth and do so in a SEA of folks, rather than just in the local or area ‘pond’.

Here’s just a piece of what Tom Power had to say in the 2006 interview, “The Internet is Female!”:  

“We’ve been through version one of the Internet,    the dot-com boom and bust, and it didn’t quite work.  Now, second time around, they’re calling it “web.2.0” or “bubble 2.0” (which is  classic California entertainment, at least for Europeans)!

What’s the difference?  This time round, it’s about real conversations with real people. (italics mine)

It’s not about links and eyeballs and nodes and portals and aggregations.  It’s not about buzzwords-it’s about you and me having a real conversation on a Wednesday night on the  phone over a chardonnay. Real people, real time, real business.” (bold is mine).

That was what I needed for confirmation and what those who joined me on the AWP Leadership Team needed to hear.

So now, hopefully this is helpful for those of you who’ve already captured the vision and joined the AWP community and those who land here, visit for a while – leave – and then return, again and again.

The why is so simple.  It’s because we can!  We can connect – we can effectively communicate – we can inform and educate – we can network to meet each woman’s needs.

Later today, I’ll talk a little about networking and community and what AWP members can expect from us who brought the vision to the web - as well as what each of us can expect from YOU who have joined us in the ad-venture!

  Linda