Who doesn’t like February in Tucson? Last week, while areas to the north of us were facing winter, our high temperatures were  80 degrees. Even the cloudy skies only serve to change the pace a little. 

People are in town for the annual gem and mineral shows, though it appears maybe they’ve come in fewer numbers than in the past. Sales may be sluggish, but as one dealer said on Fox 11 News Feb. 3, he’d rather be here than someplace else because here, at least, he stands a chance of selling something. 

Women of Influence deadline

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This is our final week to take nominations for Inside Tucson Business’ 2009 recognition of Women of Influence. Each of the past five years this publication has honored 10 women, selected from your nominations, who are doing some incredible things.

With the economy being what it is, it’s getting tougher to get the support to carry on these kinds of recognitions. This year, we almost ran the risk of having to cancel our recognition event for Women of Influence. We were still going to publish our special Women of Influence section in the March 16 issue of Inside Tucson Business, but now I’m also happy to report we will once again be honor our recipients at a special breakfast in April, thanks to help in part from the good people at Carondelet Health Network and some others we hope to get on board soon. 

I urge you to nominate that exemplary woman leader. You can do it online at www.AzBiz.com, click on the WOI icon. The deadline is Thursday (Feb. 12).

Get ready, get SASIE

On Feb. 17, the Arizona Small Business Association will hold its annual SASIE – Southern Arizona Smart Inspiring Enterprise – awards shining the spotlight on five businesses exemplifying the best in company culture, creativity or innovation, commerce, customer service, and community.

The evening event, done up awards-show style, is going to be at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Go online at www.sasieawards.com to purchase tickets, which are $60 each.

Thinking of the future

The folks at Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO), Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Greater Tucson Leadership have called off – for now – their planned April leadership exchange trip to Albuquerque.

I get it that these difficult times call for refocusing attention to the crisis at hand, but it’s also important for us as a community not to lose sight of what it is we need to learn and do to move forward once things start to improve. Then again, maybe Albuquerque doesn’t have as much to show our leaders right now. At least, let’s hope not.

It took experts until December to finally declare this nation was in a recession and had been for a year. Who’s to say that a year from now, those same experts won’t be looking back and telling us we were at the bottom of the cycle in February 2009 and have been going upward since then.

If that’s the case, we’re really going to like next February.

 E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.