Breakouts – Presidents – A, B, C
Discussion
(Most attendees in this session are at Summit for the third year.)
Suggestions for what to talk about.
3 HOT TOPICS
Member retention
Board motivation
Value-added things for members – making membership more attractive
Delegations – on the board and in committees
How to formalize operating processes and leave a legacy – so future boards don’t have to reinvent the wheel
Sponsorship ideas (more in-kind with the bad economy)
Accountability
Board structure – how do other chapters do it?
What chapters are having success w award programs
How to take local awards and go regional and national so higher value for the awards
Meeting structure – shortcuts on how to run a meeting, maximize efficiency
Strategies for minimizing or eliminating solos
Ideas for getting additional revenue – revenue streams beyond meetings
Mid-year retreats (within the local chapter)
Onboarding
By-laws and governance
Are chapters partnering with other organizations – like AdFed or PRSA
Do chapters have young professional off-shoots.
More volunteers
Top 3’s
Generating revenue
Value-adds for membership
Sponsorship
Board motivation
Partnering with other organizations
BOARD MOTIVATION
Will focus on making the meetings more rewarding – non-stereotypical meetings. Board member of the month usually a good idea. Recog. Board member at each meeting. Unconventional approach – get restaurant sponsorships for the meetings. Want to build team aspect and make these a little more fun.
Cincy has happy hours a couple times year for board and past presidents. As SIGS have grown, have extended invitation to some of them.
One president gave kudos to each board member every month. Very personal. They all remember that president because of that personal touch. (Find out why people want to be on your board. What’s their objective? And touch base thru the year.)
Toronto- Kori Kobzina –some board members did an exit interview to find out why they left. Got them in good position to make replacements. Dawn in TampaBay does the same. Find out what issues there are that don’t surface under ordinary circumstances. They have VP HR – started that not long ago. He also does job descriptions. He comes to every board meeting – partly because meetings are often heated – between Membership and Programming. He’s an HR consultant. New one coming in is a SHRM member.
Alaska – long-standing board members – had to retire one person last year because she didn’t attend a single board meeting and also missed most luncheons. She was Membership Chair. (Chapter by-laws in many chapters say can’t miss more than one.) Other board members are no-shows in Alaska chapter as well.
Toronto makes “busy” board members directors at large. Pittsburgh makes some of them mentors.
Alaska getting in fresh talent.
Treat it like a business. You wouldn’t keep on an employee who didn’t show up
HR coach can be a good idea.
Demoralizing to other board members.
Jaime Lind SE New England – in third year of a rebuild – sought in-kind sponsorships – guy doing their websites is on their board – very important – but he won’t come to board meetings.
Ask him why he wants to be on the board when he obviously doesn’t have the time.
Charleston had same problem. They switched that person to in-kind sponsor from board member.
Toronto-Sponsor got membership – didn’t go. His then-employee – Kori – did and eventually got very involved with the chapter.
This has been going on for SE New England – rec. is to deal with it now – offer him in-kind sponsorship. Get him off the board.
Iowa Chapter, Georgeann Smith, says they invite sponsors to board meeting 1-2x year. Makes them feel an integral part of the organization. Ask him how to restructure this to make it work for him. (She has.)
Cory let 2 people go on the board. Guy overloaded with new job. Nice guy. A couple of people talked to him confidentially to find out what was going on – people he knew and trusted the most on the board. He resigned.
The other person was scheduling events that hurt the chapter – cost money – but in her interests. Group informally got together and ‘voted her off.’ President talked to her, and she quit.
Shane, Triangle, had to get rid of two. Board simply voted them off. It was clear to everyone.
Melissa – DFW - Have board commitment form – makes them sign it before they come to Summit.
Pittsburgh has an ethics form board must sign. DFW has conflict of interest form.
Pittsburgh – secretary gets the forms to the board members, collects, tallies, keeps the file.
Marion Ellis, KC chapter – conflict of interest form – woman with large corporation couldn’t sign it. Some chapters have attorneys who could potentially revise the agreement to fit special situations like this.
Alaska – we add individual goals – what I want to get out of my year, and what I’m going to contribute. E.g., 2 guests to luncheons, recruit 2 members for the year.
Have to be consistent. Have to stick with it.
Tampa Bay – how do you make it fun? Team building? W emails going around, people were getting snippy. How do you create a better atmosphere.
Houston - With 45 members on the board, meetings have to be efficient.
BC- if I’m going to be in a board meeting after a long day at work, I want a glass of wine.
Triangle – 20-member board – best thing is to respect their time and run the meetings efficiently. Strict on the agenda so get done in hour – but many stay for another hour. (People get along well.)
Why such big boards? (question from Pittsburgh)
Houston – SIG chairs have P/L responsibility so they’re invited to the meeting. In an hour, everyone reports based on what they were supposed to accomplish for the year. (Board members often say they wish they had more networking time.)
Separate dinners with just the officers once a quarter.
Cincy – 550 members, SIGS is where growth is. 8 SIGS now. In past year and a half, have thought about how to incorp. SIG leadership in board. SIG facilitators now report to professional development VP. They have 14 on the board. Board works together well because not huge city and board members get involved with the fabric of the entire chapter – e.g., round table before luncheon – with the speaker – board members have an automatic invitation. Helps them see ‘it’s not all about me.’
Org chart. How many chapters post theirs. TampaBay wants to see what others do.
Jennifer, Lincoln. 22 board members, 125 members. Very volunteer-happy community. They become so much more engaged when you put them on the board.
Also – thank board members. Put them in ppt loop at luncheons. Put board member profiles on your sites. At annual membership meeting, present financials and acknowledge out-going board and introduce the new board.
Toronto – signature event breakfast roundtable. Board members get to be moderator. They have 10 a year – and board members love the exposure. Attracts good caliber of people to board and keeps them engaged. Brings good dynamic to the events as well.
Mid-year retreats. Energy and commitment flag. Pittsburgh can’t get people to half-day Saturday – couldn’t get people to come. {One chapter} has evening and next day retreat. Others have a retreat-evening. Nashville has a weekday afternoon mid-year retreat.
What’s the structure/content of the mid-year retreat. Breakouts? Bring in speaker so professional devel for board members. Madison bringing in organizational facilitator to help board members merge their strategies.
Toronto has full-day session facilitated by past board member, profess. Facilitator. Invited some volunteers. It’s 2013. What’s it like to be a member of the AMA. Created video based on the session and posted on YouTube. Afterward, had cocktail party. Board likes each other. Summer – big dinner. Potlucks. Invite committee heads. Go to dinner informally with other board members.
Madison has no volunteers.
Boston had Saturday board meetups. Worked on next program. Invited anyone interested in volunteering to come to those coffees. 3 years later, 24 board members. Board members have been all about doing, rather than planning. So she’s all about board restructuring. More pyramid. Focus is also to build the base – more volunteers. Had a volunteer fair. VP of Vols organized. Invited members to come, ea. Board member had to get up and talk about their needs, what time commitment would be. Then ea. Went into rooms where vol prospects could come in and learn more in one-on-one conversations with the board members.
Iowa recruited, successfully, for committee members to back up chairs. Also has VP-Volunteers.
Pittsburgh hosts new member breakfasts. 8-9. Continental breakfast. Table for membership, programming, etc. Speed dating. After meeting president personally calls everyone who signed up. Just asking makes a big diff. People say, I wanted to get involved, but didn’t know how.
Volunteer corps started a year or so ago. The chair of that makes sure the committee chairs follow up with the volunteer.
KC – volunteer chair handed off a potential volunteer – and then the committee chair dropped the ball.
Lincoln – vol chair stays in close touch with the volunteers – part of succession planning. Also follows up and works things through with the indiv committees.
SPONSORSHIP, REVENUE
Iowa. Got more sponsorships. They get a sponsor – a hotel – for their meetings. They can’t select their menu, but it has worked very well. Food expense had been an issue and not making much money on the lunches. Problem has arisen with walk-ins.
Alaska says walkins are a big problem with them too. Casual, lack-of-planning seems to be part of the culture.
Pittsburgh has had to cut off
Tampa – Cutting off at 300 when have capacity for 400 – offering extra seats to members only.
Madison – Paypal. People weren’t paying their invoices. Have experimented with pay in advance – at SIG. Didn’t have any drop-off and got all the money.
Madison has proprietary solution – board member, their own stuff. Have to get away from that.
Pittsburgh uses Cvent. Boston uses Eventbrite.
Madison - $20 for members, $40 for nonmembers.
Cancellation policy? New Mexico – if they cancel early, they send a coupon for a future event. Several chapters don’t refund no matter when you cancel. New Mexico uses Cvent and loves it.
Alaska has had to educate the meeting attendees – don’t just show up. RSVP.
New Mexico send 3 Cvent announcements for every event, starting 14 days before. Madison has also found this works – don’t start announcing it too early.
Alaska does raffles – had to get this cleared thru the state – need licensing. Has helped with attendance and sponsorship.
Richmond says their money comes from sponsorships, not luncheons. Lots of nods.)
Lincoln – look at ad agency clients – bring in someone from their big national clients as a speaker – ad agency typically steps up to sponsor the event.
Iowa – luncheon loyalty card
Madison heard about participation points program (whose?)
Calli – Greater Omaha starting program: Points for volunteering, coming to events, becoming a board member. Working with vendor to set it up and run it – chapter will make a little money on the program.
Kori, Toronto – had had lots of in-kind but no cash. PE segmented all events. 2of 3 SIGS are sponsored. Globe and Mail big in-kind sponsor. Leveraging that relationship, got to Environics. $10,000 from them. They segment so they can offer sponsor a targeted opportunity.
Iowa. Wants to do golf tournament. May benefit their scholarship fund. At our awards program, they do a silent auction. BC has done auctions at their awards program. At one event, made $60,000.
KC- Has big seminar annually. Disney speaker coming in. Venue is donated. Makes half their revenue for the year.
BC golf tournament. Was a lot of fun, but was a money-loser. Gave portion to charity. Open to AMA members. Open to others. Sponsors were acknowledged.
Toronto has whole system of sponsorships. Segmented sponsorship levels. And event sponsors are big for them.
Several want to see the sponsorship packages. Triangle will share. They have four levels. Bronze up to Platinum. Gold and Platinum have to be cash. Triangle generates lots from luncheons – because of good deal with country club centrally located.
Richmond – at each luncheon Volunteer of the Month, sponsored by _____.
Houston rec. SIG chairs get sponsors not for ea. event but for the whole year.
Richmond -Sponsorship chairs would roll off and sponsors wouldn’t hear from anyone for awhile. Now have an ongoing position with sponsorships.
Toronto had conflicts with sponsors and topics.
Iowa – partnering with other organizations. When a speaker cancelled, they called PRSA and offered to co-sponsor one of their events. When Facebook speaker couldn’t make it in due to weather, (?)
Lincoln – shares two lunches a year with AdFed. Ea. group handles its own registration. So attendees may pay different prices. AdFed gets the Jan revenue, AMA gets the revenue from the September lunch.
Lincoln – awards events – spreading the word that they can take their adfed entry and with minor changes, can submit to AMA. They’re having an educational session to help people understand how they need to tweak exhibits to get more mileage.
Kim, New Mexico – our Award Program is at a disadvantage because our awards can’t rise to a national competition. She wants IH to create the regional/national levels. If not, getting entries will always be a struggle.
Houston – They have talked to IH. Biggest obstacle is the culminating event. Chapters would have to standardize in order to do that. (That idea is well received.)
Most chapters who have Awards programs recognize results. AdFed honors creative.
Toronto question – do you have a charity of choice as a partner.
New Mexico works with org. that helps mentally and physically handicapped. They do mailings for the chapter.
Pittsburgh supports collegiate chapter.