I want to take a minute to wish Megan all the luck in the world with her new baby and her new endeavours. Megan and Sidney will always be the heart and soul of SoCal Lady Bloggers to me and I will miss Megan’s involvement just as I miss Sidney’s.

Our little group has grown and I hope we’ve all grown with it. I don’t know of any other group that I personally belong to that has doled out as much support and encouragement as this one does. Many of you have become such dear friends to me over the past year and I will always be grateful for that. To those of you I haven’t met yet, I hope that will change this year and I’ll be able to add more real-life friends to my circle.

That said, I have this little SCLB site sitting in my lap and I’m thinking it’s time we ALL take another step up the ladder. Many of you know that I’ve had lots of ideas for the group for a while now. I’m thinking now is the time to stop making lists and start making plans. I have a few things I’ll be working on in the next few weeks/months.

The website. Megan did an amazing job of designing our website, but I think it’s time we streamlined it and made it a little more user-friendly. Since I’m just starting with the design process, I’d love to hear your feedback on what you think works/doesn’t work and what you’d like to see that maybe isn’t there already.

The FB group. The reason for starting the private FB group was to have a safe place for us to share ideas, opportunities, ask questions, get support and yes, even vent a little. This is the heart of our group… this is where our relationships are born. I treasure this little part of the web and I don’t want to change a thing. Regardless of what other opportunities occur, the FB group will always remain that cozy corner that is just for US.

Opportunities. Not all of us started blogging to make money, and not all of us want to go in that direction. That’s okay. But… for those of us who want to explore those avenues, I’d like to be able to bring more blogging opps to you. Some may be paid, some may be reviews, but only you can decide what is right for you and your blog. The plan is to have a separate sign-up for those of you who are interested. If not, that’s okay… the FB group still needs you.

Education. This is something that I am really passionate about. I think we can admit that NONE of us knows it all. There is always something more we can learn about design, SEO, media kits, content, writing, pitching, etc. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but I do want to focus on getting us all the help we need to move forward. I believe that we can learn best from each other and we have so many incredibly knowledgeable women in this group. Tapping into that and setting up some educational seminars is something I will be focusing on. If you have a specific skill you’d like to share, please let me know so we can start setting up some events.

Meet-Ups. We’ve had several successful meet-ups but we need to do more and in a wider variety of locations. SoCal isn’t just the LA area. We have a lot of members in Orange County so I’m hoping we can do some meet-ups there. If you have any ideas of locations… throw ‘em at me.

A few more things… we have grown to almost 300 members. I am so grateful to all of you who have stuck with us. I know we have some of my personal “top” bloggers among us (and yes, I pinch myself every now and then) but wouldn’t it be amazing if each one of us could get just one more blogging friend in SoCal to join us? We would double instantly. How cool would that be? Beginners, seasoned vets, we are open to any woman who writes a blog and lives in Southern California.

And if you’ve been lurking, too afraid to talk… come on out of the shadows. We don’t bite. And we’re pretty nice once you get to know us.

Please, please, please let me know your thoughts and ideas. Really… I want to hear them. I can’t do this alone. Feel free to email me anytime at socalladybloggers@gmail.com.

Carolyn