Women’s conferense set for Friday in Butte

Sen. Conrad Burns will host his 19th women’s conference, “ Montana Women 2002,” on Friday in Butte, featuring keynote luncheon speaker
Catherine Bertini.
Bertini is prominent in charity work and is the first American woman to head a United Nations organization.

By the Standard Staff

Bertini has just finished her second fiveyear term as the executive director of the World Food Programme of the United Nations, the world’s largest
global food agency. Under her direction, the WFP helped a record 89 million people in 2000. She has also worked for the Department of
Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services and founded the Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium in 1992.

The conference will kick off with an opening address by Gov. Judy Martz and end with a closing session by Sen. Burns, R-Mont., and his wife,
Phyllis. The day will feature a luncheon and three sessions of workshops discussing women’s issues.

The workshops will be led by business women and motivational speakers from across the state and country, including Laurie Richards, founder of
Laurie Richards & Associates Inc. in Hackettstown, N.J., Kathie Olsen, chief scientist at NASA in Washington, D.C., and Ladonna Lee, president of a
Washington, D.C., communications consulting firm.

Virginia Dunstone, who has been speaking at Sen. Burns’ conferences for 10 years, will return with three workshops focused on improving stress and
self-esteem. In a work shop titled “ Eliminate the Internal Effects of Stress” Dunstone will teach a technique that will help women overcome the “
fight or flight” mentality that occurs in stressful situ ations. Dunstone is a public speaker and author of the book “ Why I Do What I Do?”

Diana Papili, a motivational speaker from Bozeman, will also lead three work shops. “ When Planets Collide: The Problem Between Mars and
Venus Solved!” is a humor ous comparison of dancing and relationships between the sexes. Papili will also give a lighthearted workshop divulging
her 13 truths to life and a more serious discussion on over coming tragedy based on her own recovery from the 1984 murder of her brother.

Papili said she attended the conference for the first time last year in Helena and was so excited by the event that she contacted Sen. Burns’ office
to see if she could be involved as a speaker.

“ It was an awesome experience,” she said.
The conference will also include approxi mately 32 resource tables from businessrelated vendors. Representatives from the Small Business
Administration and the Internal Revenue Service will attend, as well as businesses such as Mary Kay and Pampered Chef. Tables related to health
care and post secondary education also are planned.

Cindy Perdue-Dolan of Sen. Burns’ Butte office said they have been flooded with calls. They hope to have 300 to 350 in attendance and expect
many return participants.

“ We’ve had an amazing response,” she said.
The cost to attend the conference is $20, which includes all events, lunch, continental breakfast and conference materials.
Perdue-Dolan said the price has not changed since the first conference and the conference is sponsored by several corpora tions in order to keep
attendance costs low. Any excess revenue generated by the confer ence will be donated to a local charity, chosen by members of Sen. Burns’
Washington, D.C., office and the local conference steering com mittee.

Committee members are Cindy PerdueDolan, Lisa Wheeler, Helen Kellicut, Nancy Norbeck, Bessie Rule, Mary Carol Orizotti and Renate
Leipheimer.

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