Highlander Chapter of The

Highlander Chapter of the

American Marketing Association

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SectionPage

A: Summary………………………………………………...……………………………………3

B: Professional Development……………………………….…………………………………5

C: Community Service………………………………………………………………………….6

D: Fundraising……...……………………………………………………………………………7

E: Membership………………………………………………………………………………...... 8

F: Internal/ External Communication……...…………………………………………………10

G: Chapter Operations……………………………………………………………………...... 11

Section A

Summary

The 2007-08 academic year has been one of continual growth process for the Radford University (RU) chapter of the American Marketing Association. A very slow unsure beginning quickly changed into a well oiled machine of everyone knowing what to do and when it needed to be done by. The main thing we saw coming into this year was lack of member involvement which we have continually worked at to change. We have worked hard to make A.M.A. more than just another club for students to join so they have something on their resumes.

As stated in our chapter plan there were things that we wanted to strive to do better and things we wanted to keep doing well. A main challenge for the A.M.A. RU chapter is having a ninety percent change in new executive board members every year. This has continued to be a problem for us especially since most of our members don’t get involved until their junior or senior year. We continually strive to come up with new ways of attracting under classmen. The plan to alter this is being implemented this semester by electing new officers with half of the semester remaining in hopes that bringing them into the executive family earlier in the year will give them time to meet with the current board member in their position, shadow and learn from them instead of it being a true “new beginning” every start of the academic year.

One thing we strived to change was how A.M.A. at RU had been perceived. We wanted to not only make it a professional organization but a social one where our members could learn more about marketing but also network with new and interesting people that share common interests. The new perception has helped membership increase over the past year our regular attendance continued to be inconsistent. This semester general body meetings seems to have a strong showing and always new faces. We kept our meeting day and time consistent to help able the students to work the meeting into their schedule. Unfortunately, due to university construction, we were unable to keep our location consistent this semester which may have hurt us. Luckily, our executive board has been able to find a new constant location. With this change we have had to rely on our promotional efforts to make sure that everyone knew when and where the A.M.A. meetings would be held. Promotion has been a key strength for us this year, by making sure flyers were posted around campus and in teachers’ mailboxes, regular emails about our next meetings sent out, and by keeping our bulletin board up-to-date.

Our community service projects have done extremely well this year. We have partnered with project linus, were we made blankets in which they take those blankets to terminally ill children those who are in need around the new river area. We also had a fundraiser to raise money for the peace corp. This money was used to help women in El Salvador start a business that would help them create a steady income.

Programs we want to continue focus and succeed in were to keep the RU chapter of the American Marketing Association award winning as well as focusing on our project orientation and fundraising efforts. Efforts continue in trying to increase the hands on experience of our members by finding new projects that will keep our member’s skills above the rest. Fundraising has been a difficult challenge for us this year. As we learn what our consumers want we continue to find new ways to raise money and work on our marketing abilities at the same time.

Our biggest strength is probably that we have continually strived to keep our chapter an award winning chapter. Since AMA’s revitalization in 2004 the RU chapter of AMA has won multiple awards at the International Collegiate Conference to include: Outstanding New or Revitalized Chapter Award (2003-04), Outstanding Professional Development Award (2003-04), Outstanding Membership Award (2003-04), Outstanding Website (2004-05), Dr. O. Karl Mann Website Award (2005-06), Outstanding Communication (2005-06), Outstanding Website Award Runners-Up (2006-07), Outstanding Chapter Planning (2006-07).

Section B

Professional Development

This year the American Marketing Association Radford Chapter successfully provided its members with adequate opportunities for professional development. This year the club was focused on giving its members useful and unique opportunities to come to guest speaker lectures that will benefit them in ways not achieved by other clubs.

The RU Chapter began planning for guest speakers early in the fall semester. In October Eric Melnicheizc presented a lecture to AMA members about marketing yourself to employers and creating a great first impression during interviews and career fairs. Mr. Melnicheizc is a very vibrant speaker and the members were very impressed with his presentation.

The second semester the Chapter has invited the RU director of marketing, Don Bowman, to speak at an AMA meeting. Mr. Bowman has recently been named the RU athletics marketing director and will be speaking to the AMA members about his plans and some of the strategies he will be implementing in his marketing plan for the RU Athletics Department. The AMA members are very excited to hear about Mr. Bowman’s ideas.

The final Professional Development speaker event will take place at the end of March. The RU AMA Chapter has invited Lee Clark, a marketing professional who works for the Rescue Mission in Roanoke, VA to speak to the club. The Rescue Mission is a non-profit agency and has a very unique outlook on marketing. Mr. Clark has indicated that he would like to bring one or two of his colleagues along to the event and have a panel of professionals to answer questions after his brief presentation. Mr. Clark will speak about the marketing strategies used by the Rescue Mission and will also speak about marketing on a “shoe string” budget.

Section C

Community Service

During the 2007-08 year, the RU Chapter participated in several communityservice projects. Within the Chapter Plan, we set specific goals to get involved with local

community events, and throughout the year, we have achieved that goal. In the fall, our

chapter participated in the Purple & White Ribbon Campaign in which we raised awareness for domestic violence and sexual assault, we achieved this by pinning ribbons on information cards, and then passed them out during Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

We participated in Project Linus in which the chapter made fleece blankets for terminally ill children in the New RiverValley. Lastly in the fall AMA members attended the Special Olympics Christmas Dance where we danced with the area 9 athletes.

Spring semester the chapter participated in Project Linus once again, the chapter made fleece blankets for terminally ill children in the New RiverValley. AMA completed a fundraiser in which $100 was raised for the Peace Corps and the families of Chagalapa, El Salvador. The fundraiser was for the introduction of a better breed of chickens and enclosures for them, the families will benefit not only from the improved health of their stock, but also sanitary conditions that will lead to healthier living conditions. All of these efforts ensured our chapter’s involvement in the community this academic year.

Section D

Fundraising

One of our major learning experiences this year came through our fundraising efforts. AMA’s goal for this academic year was to raise $1,000 to be used to support the members attending the 2008 International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans in March. The first fundraising effort of the year, the annual Krispy Kreme donut sale, failed to raise the amount anticipated because of a mix up in ordering. One fourth of the usual amount of boxes was ordered. Boxes of donuts were sold on the RadfordUniversity campus for $6.00 a box or two for $10.00. Our profit was about $80.00. After the disappointing profit from the first fundraiser, we were eager to begin another project to raise money. In the spirit of Valentines Day, we held a raffle offering several “Date Night” themed prizes. For a week prior to Valentines Day we manned a table located strategically in the high traffic student center from 10am to 2pm. AMA members also volunteered their time to walk around campus selling tickets to friends, faculty, and students. Tickets were sold for $2.00 each and 3 for $5.00. The prizes included the following: First Place, a $35.00 gift certificate at the delightful Mama Concettas restaurant, a $35.00 credit at a local flower shop, two $10.00 gift cards to the movies, and a Valentines Day card. Second Place, dinner for two at Cabo Fish Taco, a $35.00 gift certificate to a local flower shop, and a Valentines Day Card. Third Place, his and her perfume and a Valentines Day card. Because all of the prizes were generously donated by the participating business, everything earned from the fundraiser was 100% profit. This fundraiser was a volunteer effort; members were given tickets to sell independently. In the end, we made a profit of $210.00 on the raffle. Our last fundraising effort turned out not to be the “Dog Show” originally discussed on the Chapter Plan. Instead, we were given the opportunity to sharpen our marketing skills by the Chairman of the Marketing department. The task was to call all incoming freshmen, who had responded as being interested in the marketing major, and congratulate them on their acceptance to Radford and to answer any questions they might have. Members of the AMA executive board graciously called each student encouraging them to explore the marketing major at RadfordUniversity as well as membership in the AMA. This proved to be a great success. Not only did we improve our person-to-person marketing skills, we also earned $100.00 for the AMA. We were not completely successful in earning our projected amount set in the Chapter Plan. However, these fundraising efforts enabled all that participants’ very practical marketing experience.

Section E

Membership

The AMA achieved it is goal to increase its total of 70 active members, at the end of 2007-08 academic year. (not all are on record) right now it is 44 not including the executive board.

We first started our journey to find more members by participating in the university’s Club Fair it helped promote the club and gather a list of leads in the form of email addresses of interested students. Our board members then developed a strategy that would increase the number of students interested in our organization. Our strategy was to get students interested by holding socials and meetings that focused on conversation and face to face communication between all students and board members in a friendly social setting. This made the students feel welcomed, wanted, and accepted within our association. They enjoyed meeting all the new faces and other interesting students around.

We held an AMA BBQ early in the fall semester, which inducted 44 new members to our association. We also held another social in February that was a great success with many new students wanting to know more about the AMA and we received ----? more members. The board also used flyers all around campus to alert members when the meetings are and what was going on during that meeting. We also sent out E-mails to the interested people and new members about the meetings.

I have also noticed that word-of-mouth has increased the size of our chapter asking the students how they herd about the AMA. They joined because there friend did also.

Another goal that has been on the rise for us this '07-'08 school year was to increase member attendance at the meetings. Radford Chapter AMA meets every other Wednesday for a full body meeting. The board meets to discuss and prepare for these meetings the Wednesdays between. We have also reintroduce the point system to help members become active in club sponsored events and activities. Many students have earned a significant amount of points, so they could have the opportunity to go to conference in New Orleans. We try to have refreshments at most all meetings to give the members some incentive for coming.

Finally, we are planning to hold a huge BBQ on April 4th and invite all marketing majors and AMA members to come to at a local park around Radford. We are in the process of putting together games, prizes and food items to have a marketing blow out for the 2008 spring semester coming to an end.

Section F

Internal/ External Communication

Our organization works to ensure that current and prospective AMA members are kept informed on all AMA activities such as meetings, speakers, community service programs, and fundraising projects. Being a marketing driven club, we believe external communication is vital to our success. We also believe in the importance of internal communication. Our communication strategy is consistent with the chapter plan goals, and we have demonstrated excellent internal and external communication skills throughout the year.

The organizations executive board meets twice a month in order to keep internal communication stable. During these meetings we make agendas for our upcoming full body meetings as well as discuss any noteworthy topics. We make executive decisions on speakers, fundraising projects, and community service projects. Meeting so frequently helps ensure that all executive board members understand what is expected of them and keeps them informed on all upcoming activities.

We keep the community informed about upcoming events in a variety of ways. Sending out emails to all marketing students before interest meetings proved to be a successful way to increase membership. We have also gathered an extensive list of members and prospective members by keeping sign in sheets at meetings. Emails were sent out to contacts to remind them of meetings. Flyers were also made and dispersed around campus to promote meetings, speakers, fundraising events, and community service projects. We also updated the club board located in the College of Business and Economics. The board provides students with a calendar of meetings, previously earned awards, pictures of events, and contact information for students seeking to join AMA.

Our organization also created a Facebook group. This allowed us to easily contact students and post upcoming events, pictures of past events, and information regarding membership. Our organization strived to keep the external community informed and by using numerous promotional tools our efforts proved to be successful.

Our organization’s website, has been utilized through frequent updates of chapter news and events on the organization’s homepage and calendar. We have contributed to the communication with current members as well as marketed to and informed prospective members by posting valuable information. This information includes but is not limited to biweekly general body meetings, fundraising and community service activities, executive board contact information, and a calendar of events. Through the accessibility of the website our organization has been able to reach out to prospective members and reminder current members of present and upcoming chapter events.

Section G

Chapter Operations

The RadfordUniversity chapter of American Marketing Association goal this year was to increase member participation by offering membership incentives and ensuring that the executive board is operating effectively and efficiently by keeping all membership records, chapter applications and financial funds organized and updated. This goal was met by implementing a few key strategies in the operation of the chapter. First, we had the members fill out surveys at the beginning of the year with events and ideas they would like to participate in to keep member involvement high. Second, we gave members of the chapter a point system to follow each general body meeting was worth ten points and each community service event was worth twenty points. Projects were worth thirty-five points and Professional events were worth twenty-points and fundraisers were worth ten points. This point system was started to have members become more involved by have an incentive that the member with the most points would get assistance with funding to conference this year. This was a very beneficial incentive more members did actually become more involved. I kept track of all the members points in a excel worksheet and a sign- in sheet would be passed out at each event. I also kept track of membership information in a excel worksheet as well as the financial transactions in a separate excel document. I copied all the original applications and kept them in a folder as a backup file. The chapter is also electing the new executive broad earlier so the new executive members can have a better transition period. Altogether as far a member involvement and chapter operations I feel we have had a pretty successful year.

RadfordUniversity

2006-2007 Annual Report