Setting a new agenda for women's networks.

FRUSTRATED BY THE REALIZAtion that she had reached her professional peak as a senior vice president at a major public relations firm, Donna Brooks Lucas sought counsel from women in her network. She had worked for Burson-Marsteller for 13 years, gaining invaluable experience, and was now ready to branch out on her own.

But what she got from her sister networkers was also priceless. Not only did they encourage her to take the entrepreneurial plunge, they extended a firm commitment of contractual support should she do so.

And it didn't stop there. Brooks Lucas was also given the name of Kathryn Leary, a black woman who had had a similar experience--she had left a major advertising agency to start her own business. Based on the referral of networker Elynor Williams, a vice president of the Sara Lee Corp., Leary responded immediately to Brooks Lucas' query.

"Although I hadn't met Kathryn before placing the call, she was extremely candid and helpful," says the energetic entrepreneur. "She sat down with me for about four hours, sharing the intricate details of how she had launched her business--her mistakes, as well as her successes. What she gave me was invaluable. Vicariously, I learned some important lessons about entrepreneurship."

That was over four years ago. Armed with the insights she'd gained from Leary and a six-figure contract from the Sara Lee Corp., secured through the efforts of Williams, Brooks Lucas successfully launched BR&R Communications Inc., a Chicago-based marketing and visual communications firm. Today, she and her partner Paula Robinson (the "R" in Brooks, Robinson & the Rest) grow their business by continuing to tap into the informal, national network of well-placed black women. The confident chief executive plugs into her network for insight, information and strategic referrals.

With blue-chip clients such as Sara Lee, Kraft General Foods, S.C. Johnson Wax and Baxter Healthcare, the strategy Brooks Lucas describes as "relationship marketing" makes a lot of sense.

Although client and personal referrals have helped snare business, Brooks Lucas believes in "broadcast" power as well. "I like talking about my great staff and what we do. I'm proud of our work and so I'm always pitching the company at parties and functions," she explains.

Although observers might argue that the BR&R experience is an isolated case, evidence indicates that such examples of bottom line networking among both formal and informal groups of African-American women are quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception.

While specific success rates may vary across networks, one thing is clear: Black women, having finally begun to move into positions of power and influence in both the public and private sectors, are uniting to open up opportunities for other black women.

A motivating factor to keep the lines of communication open for staunch networkers like Brenda Schofield, is a deep concern for the intergenerational progression of black women in corporations. "Ensuring this progression," says Schofield, the corporate manager for affirmative action at Kraft General Foods Corp., "requires that women support each other's efforts, share their resources, and lend advice and counsel."

No longer reluctant to leverage our clout or tap into high-powered contacts, these loosely defined, essentially structureless networks are effectively influencing the positions of African-American women across the nation. The evidence is clear and the influence is growing. Just look at some new power brokers in politics, corporate America and business and finance. Even if we're not always at the helm, there's no doubt that more and more black women are becoming major players behind the scenes.

But the undisputed value of African-American women's networks is the support they provide. Sara Lee's Williams explains: "Black women's networks help to keep you on course and focused. Our networks provide a sounding board of peers with whom you can bounce off ideas and get advice. These networks also serve as a reality check to let you know that you are not alone; that there are other folk out there that look like you who may be undergoing the same experiences."

Although black women's networks differ greatly from "good old boy" networks in both approach and principal function, most black professionals agree that black women's networks, both on the local and national level, are clearly becoming a significant force to be reckoned with.

THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK WOMEN'S NETWORKS

Traditionally, black women affiliated themselves with volunteer service organizations, groups that functioned primarily to provide assistance to others. From helping church leaders by selling chicken dinners to orchestrating sophisticated fundraising drives for male political candidates, black women could be found "networking" in support of various causes for the good of the larger community.

Today, however, there has been a major shift. And although black women continue to function as the community's primary nurturers, prevailing attitudes among African-American women are more targeted toward issues of self-actualization. Professional and business development, career advancement and work/family concerns have become important agenda items for most black women's groups.

This change, however, did not occur overnight. By the mid-seventies, with increased representation of African-American women in corporations, black female professionals started seeking out other black women in similar situations with whom they could share experiences and build support mechanisms.

Although black employee groups provided outlets for discussions of race-based employment issues in companies like Xerox Corp. and AT&T, and sororities filled an important gap in terms of gender-related concerns, many African-American women at the top of their professions felt isolated. As they began to search out individuals with whom they could relate the total range of their experiences, they bonded together into women's networks--both formal and informal. In fact, in a January 1981 BLACK ENTERPRISE story on black women bosses, Rene Du Jean, then director of the National Urban League's Black Executive Exchange Program, summed it up best: "The sisterhood can be your mentor."

As early as 1972, black women in New York began forming alliances based on their shared professional experiences. What started as the brainchild of its first chair, Jewell Jackson McCabe, and a group of about two dozen women quickly burgeoned into a national organization--The National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

Determined to advance "the empowerment of black women," the coalition put "leadership development and enhancement of career opportunities [for women] through networking and programming" high on their agenda. Today the coalition has 62 chapters and a national membership topping 7,000. At the helm is McCabe, who owns a New York public relations firm, and Barbara W. DeBaptiste, national president until their Oct. 15 elections.

In 1975, a more loosely structured organization of black women came together to form the Corporate Women's Network. Spearheaded by corporate insider Brenda Schofield, these women focused on developing specific "survival" tactics and sharing resources for the growing numbers of black women managers and executives in the private sector. At the heart of the network is its highly sought-after membership roster, which boasts 2,500 names of well-placed black women professionals.

"Networks like ours are invaluable. They have helped me survive because they provide a sense of perspective on corporate America," says Schofield.

Since the 1980's, similar groups as well as affiliate chapters of these organizations, have mushroomed around the country, expanding significantly the number of networks available to balck women. Associations of black women have also developed along more goal-specific lines, such as the National Black Women's Political Leadership Caucus, whose goal is to effect the election and representation of black women in public office.

Other groups were formed along specific professional disciplines, such as the Association of African-American-Women Business Owners based in Silver Spring, Md., Black Women in Publishing in New York and the National Association of Black Women Attorneys in Washington.

It was from these more formal organizations that smaller groups of influential black women began to broaden their networking horizons. These networks function nationally--and oftentimes internationally--with no set member-ships, across professional disciplines and age barriers. Their sole though usually unarticulated purpose is to advance more black women into positions of leadership and power, and to develop contacts for lucrative deals and jobs.

Good jobs and great deals aside, black women must continue to leverage their newfound power and influence for the good of the black community. Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College, says "There is a saying attributed to both Native American and Chinese lore, that 'women hold up half the sky.' I believe that is true. But we womenfolk must constantly keep our signals straight and engage in networking in order to make sure nothing fails as part of this task. And, we still have a lot of work to do in the academy [academia] and the society-atlarge to arrive at the point where some folk--the menfolk--are not 'bogarding' this task."

DEFINING BLACK NETWORKS

When retail management executive Gail Moody relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, she looked for key career referrals from women she knew through the Corporate Women's Network and Spelman College's Corporate Women's Roundtable. Thanks to these groups, in addition to the African American Student Union at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration, Moody received important referrals to several retail executives at companies such as Levi Straus & Co.

"Because of these groups, members of various other California networks opened up to me, providing me with leads, as well as actual interviews," says Moody. "They've made all the difference in the type of reception I've received since moving out here."

Even more important, these referrals led to her current job as a senior financial analyst in the merchandise planning group of Mervyn's, a division of the Dayton Hudson Corp.

MAKING NETWORKS WORK

In New York City, one of the most effective informal black women's networks evolved from the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women. Betty Adams, president and CEO of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and a past president of the coalition, attributes the success of this group to the personal commitment and dedication of its individual members.

Through a series of Leadership Breakfasts hosted by this smaller group from within the coalition, members share business opportunities, postings for bids and job openings along with hot political and business news. Oftentimes, members are made privy to early information on leads that can turn to contracts. One such breakfast featured the then Democratic National Convention Chair Alexis Herman, now the Director of the Office of Public Liason in the Clinton administration.

Her comments and insight led several members to secure business related to the Democratic National Convention held in New York in 1992.

And now as a matter of course, state and local female politicians, such as Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and District Leader Peggy Shepherd, regularly look to this group to provide critical fund-raising and volunteer support for their candidacies.

Says Adams: "This represents effective networking at its best. Our breakfasts bring together broad cross sections of women who are in executive or leadership positions where black women have not been previously, and who have control over some resources."

Members of Adams' network include former Avon manager Donna Blackwell, who has a public relations business in New Jersey, Phyliss Ramsey, director of the New York State Office of minority and Women's Business Enterprise Development, Robin Bell-Stevens, political strategist, concert producer and special events consultant, and Hazel Dukes, the head of the New York State chapter of the NAACP and former head of Off Track Betting.

"By sharing information, we examine what modicum of power and authority black women have in the public and private sectors, and we try to better understand how we can multiply that power by working together," adds Adams. "In a real sense, we are gaining insight about exercising and amassing power--with a small 'p' if you will."

LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE

Increasingly, African-American women are also broadening their ties to a variety of other types of business networks, those that include black men or white men and women.

"The bottom line is to get the job done. And if that means coalescing with other groups to get the necessary results, then so be it," says Denise Lamaute of the Lamaute Financial Group in Los Angeles. The well-connected attorney, who was recently reappointed to the Los Angeles Pension Board, credits her success to the support she received from various members of the Los Angeles Women's Investment Association, the Association of Black Women Attorneys and the Los Angeles African-American Women's Political Action Committee.

Nevertheless, Lamaute also believes that black women have the capacity to accomplish a lot more than what they're doing now. She feels that we may be letting ourselves off the hook too easily.

"As Black women we need to become more strategic in our thinking and in our actions. Our networks must begin to focus more attention on financial and entrepreneurial issues as part of our strategic agendas. In this way, as we move into positions of power in more representative numbers, these concerns will already have been positioned as priority items on our agenda."

Some women's networks are already doing just that. Several black women's groups are seeking to positively impact our finances. Though many have approached this goal via the employment or entrepreneurial route, a few innovative groups are tackling the investment arena to effect these goals. At the forefront of this movement is the Washington Women's Investment Club.

Launched in 1987, the 21-member WWIC grew out of a small circle of professional associates and social friends. "Our common interests in real estate, coupled with our understanding of the value of pooling our monies for investing is what first brought us together," says founding member Denise Gibson Bailey, a district sales manager for AT&T. Gibson Bailey founded the organization with computer consultant Irene Duke Finch.

"Our goal is to work together to bring capital back into our communities...to invest in our children," says Gibson Bailey. With an average age of between 35 and 40, WWIC members are aggressive about taking risks. Club members pool professional skills as well as monies in making investment decisions. Today, WWIC boasts a diversified $200,000+ portfolio that is earning money for its members. However, WWIC members have never taken a disbursement because, says Gibson Bailey, "We're all in this for the long term."

But it is their shared interests, as well as a genuine trust in and respect for each other that Gibson Bailey believes are the reasons for their success. Over the last several years, WWIC has become a resource for other women's networks looking to develop similar investment strategies. In fact, interest has been so great that WWIC has become an entrepreneurial force--publishing its own guide on how to develop a successful investment club.

ARE NETWORKS EFFECTIVE?

Like many of the women I interviewed for this article, I've learned that women's networks can be productive or not, depending upon a woman's need for, understanding of and skill at accessing the network to her advantage.

As a long-time participant in a number of black women's networks, my role had always been that of an information or people resource. However, when I relocated to the metropolitan Atlanta area last year, I was the one with the questions.

Johnnetta Cole, one of the undisputed powerful forces within black women's networks and women's networks in general, initiated introductory calls on my behalf. Other influential women made similar entrees for me.

As a result, my transition in Atlanta has been quite successful. I have continued gaining access and support for my consulting services from within the local business community. What made the difference? The quality of the referrals. It is now up to me to make things happen.

NEW AGENDA ITEMS FOR BLACK WOMEN'S NETWORKS

What are some of the key goals to be placed on future agendas of black women's networks? Most of the women networkers included in this article point to the following priorities:

* To increase numbers of black women managers and executives in corporations by a minimum of 5% over the next several years.

* To ensure a continued pool of black women in the managerial pipelines.

* To enhance the leadership skills of black women, thus enabling them to move into leadership positions across business sectors.

* To increase the net worth of black women, thereby effecting their overall wealth position.

* To increase the number and size of businesses owned by black women.

* To develop black women-owned financial institutions and investment banks.

* To enhance the quality of life for black women, thereby effecting their overall health, wellness and life spans.