Several of the goals revolve around membership growth. Expansion director, Louise Anderson, will focus on this area and work closely with all Chapters to help us grow in our existing locations. Louise and her committee will oversee the membership campaign in conjunction with the Membership Committee and will also be developing a plan to target recruitment of 25-40 year olds. As we learned from Joe Marlotti during the plenary session at LCAM, the Gen Xers and Millennials have a lot of new ideas and enthusiasm to share with us and will help ensure that we continue to be a viable organization for years to come.
Louise will also work closely with Marketing/Public Relations Director, Diana Larsen, on developing a marketing plan and increasing our brand awareness. We are going to partner with a marketing firm to help us refresh our look and launch a strong brand awareness campaign. We heard through the strategic planning surveys that the majority of the membership wants to keep our name and mission statement so we are not changing them. However, we do want to create messaging that is easier to remember and to share with prospective members. We want our members to be able to share EWI with others in their own words by keeping it simple – EWI is about Connections, Careers and Communities.
Diana will also work with Executive Director Suzette Smith on developing programs to increase opportunities for member firms to promote themselves on a corporate-wide basis through sponsorships and partnerships.
Membership Director Carolyn Summerlin, with the able assistance of a great team of Membership Advisors, will focus her efforts on keeping our existing members. They will develop a retention plan, which will include creating a more structured orientation program developed from among the best practices of our Chapters.
Another area of importance identified through the strategic planning surveys is professional development. We have some really great programs in place with our Academy of Leadership and Academy Online programs, which we will continue to update with current content. On September 27, 2007, we held four Academy of Leadership sessions with over 300 attendees. More than 100 of those attended the new module we offered on Servant Leadership and we now have 267 Alumni. We also plan to continue offering professional development teleseminars and making resources available through the PULSE newsletters and our website under the Leadership Link. Education/ Professional Development Director Audrey Puko and her committees will ensure that these programs continue to offer value to our members and will oversee our corporate EWISP, ASIST and Fellows Programs.
Corporate Secretary/Treasurer, Darlene Banogon, will be the steward of our corporate records. She will communicate regularly with the membership about the activities of the board through our corporate minutes and keep you all informed about the financial health of the organization.
Peggy Quinn, your Vice President/ President Elect will work closely with me this year as she prepares for her leadership role next year. She will also work on special projects including planning the 2008 Presidents Caucus program and the initial planning for the 2009 Leaders Summit. I have the utmost respect for Peggy and am delighted to be able to work with her again. I have no concerns about our future next year with her at the helm.
As John Gordon, author of the Energy Bus, says “in order to be successful, you have to have a chief energy officer and the right people on the bus.” Every member of your corporate board comes this year with previous corporate board experience and all are energized and ready to move on down the road. As your chief energy officer, I invite all of you to get on board, hang on and enjoy the ride!
 |
