Letter from the President: By Matt Wainwright

Side by each. (Consult the Rhode Island dictionary for reference if you don’t know what this means.)

It’s difficult to believe it has been six months since the 2014 GMIS International Conference in Savannah, GA! It's hot in Savannah! The 2014 conference was a very successful event, and Savannah, GA, is certainly a remarkable location with some great history. I will definitely be returning.

Since August, I have been a very fortunate GMIS member. Halfway from Savannah and halfway to Newport, I have been surrounded by a Board that hit the ground running in September and continues to represent the GMIS membership in the best possible light. Thank you, Janet, Brian, Bill, Justin, Rick, Lori, Clark and Bob. And special thanks to CMP Management, namely Savanna Lott, for putting the GMIS International Board more ahead of schedule than I can ever remember. Side by each making it happen.

So on to Newport and into our organization’s most important event, the GMIS International Educational Conference. In these next six months, your Board will retool and focus to make this conference unforgettable. Each Board member has his or her own project requirement throughout the year, but each of us knows more effort goes in conference-wise this time of year. The conference efforts include getting sponsorships, building agendas, finding speakers and collecting white papers, marketing to attendance, identifying venues and food and all the aspects of a great event. Yes, it is a considerable amount of work.

On Monday, March 1, 2015, your Board will conduct its annual mid-year Board meeting. The mid-year meeting takes place at the respective year's conference venue. The meeting itself will be an all-day event and will allow us to meet face to face and focus our day together on generally supporting our membership. Projects such as membership development, marketing, agency data collection, budget and many more will fill our day together. We will put our heads together and work as a team to keep GMIS and its respective projects at the top of its game. 

The next day will be used to address and work with our Industry Advisory Council (IAC). The IAC is exclusive in nature and allows certain sponsors to have a hand in the direction GMIS International takes strategically as an organization. Our current IAC members are well-known, strong partners of GMIS and include SHI, Dell, Amazon Web Services, CDR-Data and CDWG. We will be adding a sixth member this year to be announced at the Newport conference.

Fairly soon we will be talking about nominations to Board positions. I ask our chapters to pay close attention to nominations and elections this year. As suggested the Board is a bit of a job, and a volunteer option for any member. Why not you or someone you know? I ask our chapter presidents to take notice here as well, many with whom I've discussed Board positions. Being on the GMIS International Board is a gratifying opportunity.

In any case, register for the conference and pack your bags in August. Monday will feature a lobster bake, surf and turf-style too, paying mind to those with specific food needs. Tuesday, as always, will be an open night for you to work your way around everything historical Newport has to offer. And our Wednesday night dinner event is going to be very special as it will take place at Rosecliff Mansion – an exceptional venue – sponsored by SHI. It's hard to believe the early bird rate for this entire event for GMIS members only is $199! Get in while you can because early bird registration is limited! I look forward to welcoming you all to Newport.