The Annual Meeting this fall will mark our third Women in Leasing (WIL) roundtable. We will join together from 12noon to 1:30 p.m. on October 17, 2024. The roundtable is a lively event with a lot of energy particularly after having met virtually for an entire year prior.

This year the group decided that we should branch out a bit, and I am proud to report that we are hosting a Poolside Social at 3:00 p.m. at the hotel on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 just prior to the commencement of the Annual Meeting. This will be a great opportunity to greet old friends and colleagues along with new members prior to the Welcome Reception. At the social, WIL will be sponsoring a fundraiser for a charity located near the hotel that supports a homeless shelter for women and children in need.

As part of our kick-off events for this next year of WIL, we will be sponsoring a one-hour virtual workshop on October 29, 2024. The workshop will be open to the NVLA WIL community—which means all women that are employed by NVLA members. The program is entitled “Communicating with Accountability: Navigating and Repairing Microaggressions in the Workplace” and will be presented by Katie O’Malley. Ms. O’Malley is a Career Coach and Workplace Consultant with over 15 years of experience. Her content is geared toward women who work in automotive, aviation and tech. In May 2024, she hosted a workshop and presented as the keynote speaker at the Automotive News Leasing Women Conference.

As in the past, we will continue our bi-monthly virtual meeting on the third Wednesday of every other month at 11:00 am CT. This year we will focus on conversations around the five dimensions of workplace wellness (career, financial, physical, emotional and community) and the perennial challenges women face in these areas.

Looks like we are off to an amazing start of our third year of WIL. I hope you will join us!

Sloan Schickler is a partner in the commercial finance law firm, Schickler & Schickler PLLC. Schickler, a veteran vehicle leasing, finance and bank attorney and the attorneys in her firm have decades of experience representing and protecting lessors, banks, captive and independent finance companies in all facets of the vehicle leasing and financing business. She has served as the NVLA Legal and Legislative counsel since 2017, is currently the only woman on the NVLA board of directors and is a supporter of Leasing News and sits on its Advisory Board.

Sloan can be reached at: sloan.schickler@schicklerlaw.com or 212-262-5297.