'Tis the season to be thankful and for giving back to our community! I am thankful to be part of such a wonderful organization. Our members are kind-hearted, generous individuals that never seem to tire of giving back to their community.
One example is the level of caring and giving witnessed at our recent November program. More than six boxes of donations were collected from our members to be donated to Project reStart, an interfaith ministry that works with Kansas City's homeless to find them shelter. Additionally, when I reached out to several chapter members about adopting a few families for gift giving, the outpouring of generosity of our members warmed my heart.
In addition to our members, I am also thankful that as an organization we are making great strides this year. Earlier this year, I challenged you, our members, to provide us with feedback in our bi-annual needs assessment. We had a record number of responses in this assessment, most of it was positive, however, there were several key areas of improvement.
I am happy to announce that your board listened and implemented many of your suggestions into our plan for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
You asked ... Members asked for changes to the monthly programs. The most common responses called for specific program topics, such as focusing on industry trends, face to face vs. virtual meetings, advanced planner topics, wine pairings or food and beverage events, unique venues in Kansas City, different ideas for annual dinner, social networking/social media.
We answered ... Our overall programming theme this year is Drive Change. After careful planning and brainstorming, the program committee was able to "drive change" through the following programs in 2009-2010:
• October Monthly Program – R U Ready for Web 2.0? A Lesson in Social Media Strategies
• November – Wine Tasting/Pairing Reception with Leslie Sbrocco
• January Monthly Program – Face- to-Face or Virtual? That is the Question!
• March Monthly Program – Twittering Around, A Twist on the Traditional Dine-Around This event focuses on unique venues in KC and incorporates use of social media
• Professional Education Conference includes topics on social media and latest industry trends
• Annual Awards Banquet and Dinner will be a new experience this year!
You asked ... Better tracking and follow-up with strategic partners and sponsors.
We answered ... Our strategic partners and sponsors are an extremely important part of our organization. We recognized that our current system of tracking and following through with sponsors was not working. In an effort to re-vamp this program, we applied for a grant from the MPI Foundation to build a new interactive database that would create efficiencies for our committee members, thereby, making the process more fluid. We were awarded the grant in May and have been able to implement the database to track all sponsors for the fiscal year to-date. Additionally, the strategic alliance committee reviewed all other MPI chapters current ROI for sponsors and revised our chapter's ROI.
You asked ... Improve chapter's recognition of volunteers for their time and services.
We answered ... The chapter volunteers are the most important component of our organization. Without our volunteers we would cease to exist. We took this feedback very seriously, and worked to create programs that would reward volunteers for their service and ultimately entice others to join. The leadership development committee hosted several volunteer recognition events in 2009 and has planned additional events for 2010. Additionally the committee created an incentive program for volunteers to win a "Day in Kansas City" and the Leader of the Quarter recognition for volunteers to be recognized by the board and rewarded for their time and service.
You asked ... Although the chapter did not comment specifically on the Web site. The statistics from the assessment showed that our membership does not the visit or use the site on a regular basis. These statistics showed that a change in formatting and communication of information was necessary.
We answered ... The communications committee is currently working with MPI and a third-party company to bring KCMPI a new Web site to be launched in January 2010. This new site will feature up-to-date information from KCMPI. In addition, we will have several cutting-edge functionalities to help keep our chapter on the forefront of Web 2.0 technologies.
Over the next six months, we will also continue to work to improve the chapter newsletter, scholarship programs and the job bank.
Have additional suggestions for the board? Feel free to contact me to discuss, I'd love to hear your feedback!
I wish each and every one a very blessed and happy holiday season! See you in 2010!
Warmest regards,
Michelle Lizak, CMP
Michelle.a.lizak@gmail.com