To everyone who missed last night’s meeting, it was well worth attending. We had ten members: 9 females and Cary….but he handled being in the minority with his usual grace and  savoir faire.

We had one new member (well new to our in-person meetings) but those of us on the list know her as mediamavis. Mavis is an editor at Architectural Products, does some freelance writing and just started a blog called thekitchenbitch. Welcome aboard, Mavis! To know us is to love us (well, usually).

Our topic was SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-framed. We each shared a goal (or two) that we plan on reaching, stated target completion dates and will periodically check in at meetings to see how we’re doing. To avoid the wrath of the group, we’re all pretty focused on reaching these goals (or having to answer to Lauren…who btw, did an awesome job of leading us).

Next month’s meeting in on May 18th. Try and attend. The space is wonderful….cozy, comfy, spacious…and the wifi works! Thanks, Lauren, for moving there and opening it up to our group!

Our July meeting focused on web sites we love: sites that help us meet the right people, sites that help us communicate our messages, sites that help us build a client base…we talked about so much! Here’s a recap of the sites mentioned and some general notes. If I missed something, please add it in the comments below.

Facebook: Some members use this for both personal and professional networking.

LinkedIn: One of our member favorites, a great tool for professional networking.

MySpace: A few of us are still using it, mostly because we have a history with it or readers or followers who still use it.

Twitter: Some of us are devotees, others are poo-poo-ing the tool. But it’s fun and useful for keeping track of friends or promoting yourself.

Plaxo: A few of us have been invited, but most have turned it down. General feeling: another social networking site? How many must we keep track of?

Naymz: See Plaxo. This site looks like it’s trying to be more like LinkedIn than Facebook.

Biznik: We do love its slogan, Business Networking that Doesn’t Suck, but wonder how it fits in the bigger picture. Some are using it to promote ebooks and webinats, and membership is free.

Meetup: A cool way to gather groups of people and organize events. Many of our members belong to at least one Meetup group.

Ning: A tool to create your own little social network, with forums and chat rooms and photo sharing, oh my! And it’s free. A couple members are exploring it.

Fast Company: Terrific business resources, and you can become a member and join groups, blog, etc. It integrates the old Company of Friends that some members were active in.

Agency Pimp: Advertised as “The List of Chicago Creative Agencies: 340 and Counting,” this could be a great tool to market your services to agencies.

Create Magazine: Which seems to have morphed into something a little different, but still has a forum for creatives. (Folks who suggested this…care to comment on the redirect?)

Colour Lovers: Follow color trends and use them in your work - and for your clients.

Freelance Switch: Designed for those in transition, but full of useful info for all of us independents.

MediaBistro: Join its AvantGuild and get the inside scoop on job opportunities, use the forum, read up on the latest media trends and news, attend an event or seminar, or check out their member health insurance benefits (!!!). Some members feel its news is more current than Bulldog Reporter, below…

Bulldog Reporter: “Media news and intelligence for PR pros” and extremely useful for many of us.

Freelancers Union: Insurance (!!!), advocacy, events, discussions, news…what’s not to love?

EzineArticles: Post some original articles in your area of experience and folks with web sites and enewsletters can use your content - giving you full credit, of course. A great way to increase your exposure.

Writers Weekly: The scoop on the publishing biz for freelance writers - and book authors.

OK, so obviously this is not a complete list of the sites we use as resources. But these are some of the most popular - or they’re on our minds right now. Please comment below to add any additional sites; each comment will only accept one URL, so you may need to add a few comments if you have a list. (Or email it to me and I’ll add them.)