Hi, I'm Mary Jones from Davenport, Iowa. Currently I am the Marketing/Communications Chair for the Iowa SHRM Council. In addition, I am the Chapter Management Professional for our local SHRM Chapter, Great River HRA in Davenport. GRHRA has over 200 members and we are continuing to grow! We offer excellent meeting topics that all HR professionals and others will find to be very valuable.

In addition to my work with GRHRA, my full-time job is a Career Counseling Specialist with Management Resource Group. We work with companies to transition individuals who are leaving the organization due to downsizing or other reasons. We support individuals in in their self-directed career transition by offering counseling and guidance on how to write a resume and cover letters, how to interview, how to market oneself in a competitive job market, etc. The most important skills a transitioning individual can bring with him or her is a good "attitude". It's a vital characteristic to successfuly land in a new position.

On top of all that, I also own my own resume writing business, CareerMarkers Professional Resume Services. To say I'm busy is a bit of an understatement. But I love my work and I sincerely enjoy meeting different people and assisting them in creating great resumes to aid their job search efforts.

As the Marketing/Communications Chair for Iowa SHRM, my goal is to get more information out to all chapter members. Thanks to our Technology Chair, Larry Herzog, and all the Iowa SHRM Chapters, we now have a database of all members' e-mails. You should be getting regular e-mails from IowaSHRMNews especially regarding the upcoming Iowa SHRM Conference September 26-28 in Des Moines.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on how the Iowa SHRM Council can communicate more effectively to keep members aware of the events occuring in our State. Also, if you are not a member yet of the Iowa SHRM ListServe, sign up today. It is a totally free resource and you will have access to all kinds of information!! See the IA SHRM website at: http://www.iashrm.org and click on the ListServe link.

Keep in touch! .... Mary Jones, PHR