if you’re interested in serving the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community (and looking for a job), mark your calendars. They’ll be looking to hire women to serve as firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and 911 operators. Benefits include flexible working hours, a 401K with employer match, paid training, and a choice of health insurance plans.

The recruitment fair is February 2, from 10 am – 2 pm at the Police & Fire Training Academy (1770 Shopton Road). For details, call 704.943.6265 or click here.

Birth: it’s a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies.

The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.

Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?

Find out at the Charlotte screening of The Business of Being Born, February 3 at Ballantyne Village Theatre, 4 pm. For tickets, ($10) click here, or visit www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com  for more details. Funds raised will be donated to doula/midwife associations in North Carolina.

Registration for Charlotte’s spring women's singles and women's doubles tennis season will open Feb 4th and close Feb 29th. Play starts in March and includes tennis events over the Mecklenburg county area this spring/summer/fall.

For details, contact MatchMaker Tennis: 704.875.9906 or www.matchmakertennis.com.

Don’t miss the one-night-only performance of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, produced by UNC-Charlotte’s women studies department as part of the 2008 V-Day Campaign, which will benefit the United Family Services Shelter for Battered Women. The V-Day Campaign, a global movement to end violence against women and girls, has raised over $50 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women over the past 10 years. Visit VDay.org for more information.

McKnight Hall at UNC-Charlotte • Cost: $5 student/faculty, $10 general admission • Stacey Rose, 704.777.9264 or rosie1992@aol.com

Join the Human Rights Campaign for a gala dinner on February 16 at the Charlotte Convention Center, and help raise funds to support HRC’s mission of building an American where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community.

For tickets ($190 if purchased by January 31, $225 after February 1), which include a one-year membership in HRC, visit hrccarolinas.org.

Join several local bands for a “KimNiption Fit,” to raise funds for a local musician’s breast cancer treatment. February 17 at Amos’ Southend. $10 donation at the door.