Chicago AMA Embraces the Challenge - Bitly

Chicago AMA

Making Every Marketer Count

2012/2013

Chicago AMA Embraces the Challenge

Ensuring relevant programming and networking and setting a new long-term direction to ensure member relevance, and to reach the next generation of marketing leaders

Redefined the Chicago AMA Brand

To reflect our true value proposition, mission and the evolving marketing landscape in Chicago

SIG Community Thrives

Elevating our membership engagement, securing 60+ new members & driving renewal rates higher with 11 SIGs and over 30 events

Introduced new Sunrise Executive Series, Evening with an Expert and inaugural Momentum conference Partnered with 1871, Microsoft, Heartland Mobile Council & more to deliver cutting-edge programming

Up-and-Comers Strategy Launched Implemented Phase I of Chicago AMA’s future membership growth platform targeting Young Professionals

Chicago AMA Meets Financial Goals Through KPI tracking and aggressive forecasting and management

Table of Contents Leadership

Section

Page

Section

Recruitment

Executive Summary

4

Acquisition Campaigns

Mission and Vision

5

Retention

Constitution & Bylaws

6

Member Surveys

Volunteer Management

Page 24

24

Programming

Board & Volunteer Rosters

8

Programming Planning

25

Board Turnover

13

Programming Chart

26

Succession Planning

13

Programming Surveys

26

Volunteer Expectations & Accountability

14

Delivery

Volunteer Recognition

15

Programs Delivered

30

Board Recognition

15

Program Content

30

Volunteer Surveys

16

Program Types

31

Program Attendance

31

Financial Managment Financial Goals

17

Communications

Reserves

18

Communications Planning

32

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

18

E-mail Communications

35

Traditional Earned Media

35

Sponsorship Sponsorship Plan

19

Internal Communications

36

Sponsorship Goals

19

Event Communications

36

Sponsorship Benefits Package

20

Website

37

Community & Collegiate Relations Community Outreach & Goals

Interactive Media 21

Membership Membership Planning

22

Member Benefits

23

Member Testimonials

23

Group Membership

23

2 | Chicago AMA 2012/2013 CEA Submission

New and Social Media

38

Signature Page

40

Schedule of Attachments

41

Chicago AMA 2012/2013 CEA Submission | 3

Leadership

Executive Summary Building on the 2011-2012 theme of “Every Marketer Counts”, we entered 2012-2013 - our 75th Anniversary year, not only focused on the near short-term but the future of Chicago AMA as a Chapter. Our mantra evolved to “Making Every Marketer Count” and we embraced both the challenge of ensuring relevance and setting into motion a new long-term direction for Chicago AMA intended to reach the next generation of marketing leaders, provide the next generation of marketing content, deliver an exceptional and highly relevant platform for marketers to network and to generally enhance our marketing community in Chicago. In a word, it was an explosive and innovationfilled year.

Membership Growth & Marketing Community Networking: •

Through our Membership efforts, we were able to welcome 350+ new members to Chicago AMA, held over 15 SOLD-OUT Membership orientations and Networking Mixers for 1,100 members & introduced AMA to a broader community of 7,000 marketers.

•

Over 20 events were hosted by the SIG groups to serve the interests of marketers within Consumer Packaged Goods, Digital & Social Media, Healthcare Marketing, Integrated Marketing & Communications, Market Research, Higher Education and Mobile Marketing among others. Our SIG community elevated our membership engagement & renewal rates with 60+ new members & highest satisfaction scores.

•

Looking towards the future – we launched Phase I of our Young Professionals initiative – called the Chicago AMA “Up & Comers” program to provide a relevant platform for early-career marketers.

Thought Leadership Through Programming: •

•

•

We blazed new trails with our annual BrandSmart conference, “Owning the Tectonic Shifts in Marketing” held in Oct, and attended by over 200+ marketers. We had the highest levels of satisfaction, community/ media buzz and sponsorship engagement & provided a branding platform to build on for 2013-2014. We re-branded our Programming and formed relationships with leading organizations to bring forward our new Sunrise Executive Series, Evening with an Expert and inaugural Momentum conference with partners such as 1871, Microsoft, Heartland Mobile Council, Big Data Week, Techweek and CMO/ CIO Shift. Over 1,600 marketers attended our 30+ events this past year. We delivered relevant content and marketing thought leadership with c-level speakers from Virgin Mobile, Google, 1871, Razorfish, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Rite Aid, Second City, Clean Energy, IDEO, Redbox, United Airlines, Caesar’s Entertainment, Northwestern University, Microsoft, Guaranteed Rate, McDonald’s, Alzheimers Association, Cars.com, Walgreens, Networked Insights, Gartner, Simple Relevance, Siemens, BCBS, Edelman, IBM NA, American Heart Association, MillerCoors, Act-On, CloserLook among others.


Ensuring CAMA’s Long-Term Success & Sustainability: •

We redefined the Chicago AMA brand to reflect our true value proposition, mission and the evolving marketing landscape in Chicago.

•

We achieved a significant increase in engagement and response to our Communications channels from our website, to email to Social Media – our website unique visitors, event communications open rates and new fans gained far exceeded our goals. We gained over 1,900 new Twitter followers, almost 400 new Facebook fans, 880 new LinkedIn members and had over 1,100 mentions during the 2012-2013 FY.

•

We revamped our Membership retention strategy that’s led to an uptick in retention & a long-term lifecycle approach.

•

We achieved our highest level of sponsorship returns in many years, and developed the Chapter’s first media kit and sponsorship prospectus.

•

In tandem with the Momentum conference, we launched a new Marketing Center of Technology Excellence (MCoTE) initiative.

•

We launched a Volunteer engagement platform aimed at bettering the volunteer experience within 20132014 and beyond.

•

We surpassed our financial goals through KPI tracking, aggressive fiscal forecasting and management, revenue growth and a focus on bottomline in-kind relationships – 6% net income ($12,500) will be reinvested in strategic initiatives for 2013-2014.

•

We saw our highest level of retention among Board leaders – who were passionately and expertly focused on our collective mission!

Mission and Vision

As we entered FY 2012-2013, we were in a strong position financially and operationally – but we were starting to see our general membership, volunteer base and attendance at the Chapter’s core events wane a bit. We recognized that the marketplace was shifting, and in order for Chicago AMA to thrive – we needed to innovate, and make “relevance” our #1 priority not just among our Members, but all marketers in the Chicagoland community. Chicago AMA’s mission and vision statement had not been updated in at least a decade, so the first thing we did was revamp our value proposition to reflect what Chicago AMA truly offered, to elevate Chicago AMA’s stature in the community and to start to plant the seed in communicating our investment in next generation platforms that would provide high value to marketers in the community. To that end, we focused not only on near short-term but the future for the Chapter, and so our mantra for 20122013 was “Making Every Marketer Count.” This theme guides us throughout the year and fueled our strategy across all facets of the Chapter. This materialized into a new definition for our long-term mission, re-branding all of our Programming, launching new platforms within our Shared Interest Groups and the Young Professionals group. A full re-branding campaign has begun, and will be executed upon in 2013-2014 as a result.

We were very deliberate in communicating with our Membership in a variety of ways. We featured regular updates through our AMA Connection newsletter –via the “Letter from our President” and Board commentary. We communicated the mission at every one of our Membership and programming events, and we ensured our 100+ volunteers all were aware and had access to our mission. Below is the revamped vision, mission and value proposition we developed and launched. We believe this will guide the Chapter’s efforts for at least the next 5 years. Vision To be recognized as the Midwest’s foremost marketing authority and resource, and an organization which all marketing professionals want to belong. Mission The Chicago AMA is a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. Our principle roles are: advancing marketing competencies, practice and thought leadership; being an advocate for marketing and promoting its importance, efficacy and ethics; and being an essential resource for marketing information, education/training and relationships. Value Proposition Over seventy-five years strong, the Chicago AMA delivers cutting-edge marketing programming, connects marketers across all disciplines and business industries, and enables marketing career advancement. With Chicago as an epicenter for marketing excellence today and tomorrow, no other organization connects as many marketers with as many opportunities as the Chicago AMA. Cutting-Edge Programming •

Chicago AMA keeps you a step ahead with more than 50 multi-faceted programs and events annually

•

Thought-leading content with real world application delivered by C-level marketing leaders across intimate roundtables, full-day conferences and convenient online webinars providing you the “know how” to thrive in the ever-changing landscape in both B2C and B2B industries


Connections •

Engage, connect, and establish relationships with thousands of marketers across all disciplines, industries and career levels locally and nationally.

•

No other organization opens more doors to share ideas, find new opportunities, business partners or mentor others than the Chicago AMA.

•

Get real one-on-one dialogue among power players and peers.

Advancement •

Get inspired and more motivated through the abundance of opportunities available with Chicago AMA.

•

Gain hands-on experience, tackle new marketing challenges as a chapter volunteer, share thought leadership, or leverage a plethora of career insights

•

Find your next career next opportunity like many others through Chicago AMA.

Constitution and Bylaws

Chicago AMA last adapted our constitution and bylaws at the conclusion of FY 2009-2010. As a general practice, the Chapter reviews its constitution and bylaws every three (3) years to ensure relevance. While we did not have a need to make changes to our bylaws within FY 2012-2013, we did begin the evaluation/ discussion on doing so within the 2013-2014 year. One of the biggest areas of change as a result of new initiatives the Chapter has launched – is that we see an opportunity to expand our Board structure. Our current by-laws limit the number of Board members to 21 (10 Officers, 11 Directors), and the Executive committee agreed that as we are “future-proofing” the Chapter – it would be important to broaden this range to strengthen our bench, allow us to add new leadership (like we needed for when the SIGs were launched or in adding a Director, Technology), but also to provide Board recognition to more Chicago AMA leaders. The process and approach for changing our by-laws and constitution for 2014-2015 has been established, and will be completed within the 2013-2014 FY (by Nov), in order


to allow our current President-Elect (Darcy Schuller) to have full liberties in slating the 2014-2015 Board Attachments: •

CAMA By-laws

•

2014-2015 change proposal

Strategic Planning

Chicago AMA kicked off our planning for 2012-2013 in a strong way. Building on ideas and key strategic imperatives from the Leadership Summit – there was much deliberation between the President, President-Elect, Executive Director, Treasurer and Chapter Excellence with each of VPs for Membership, Programming, Strategic Relations, Communications, SIGs and Market Research in creating SMART goals, plans and establishing our collective financial and KPI goals for the FY. Our Board then developed their plans across each division against these priorities and came prepared to share at our kick-off planning retreat which took place on June 8, 2012. The planning retreat was held at WBEZ (a sponsor venue) at Navy Pier with a backdrop of Lake Michigan as “inspiration” and to get the Board energized for a powerful year ahead. Historically while the Chapter did review financials on a monthly basis, we did not have a system in place for KPI or quarterly financial reviews. In 2012-2013, we launched a new KPI Scorecard matched to our strategic and operational plan that was reviewed at every Board meeting, and we held quarterly financial reconciliation reviews to ensure we were fiscally on track. At the mid-year in February, we held a Board retreat to discuss our progress towards our strategic plan. Each VP came prepared to discuss how we were doing against the original plan and to provide recommendations on how to close the year strong and/or adjust goals or financial projections if needed. We additionally dedicated time to discuss what was the most challenging issue we had for the FY – and that was membership retention. At our midyear retreat, we developed and approved a go-forward Membership retention plan that called for a “front-load” CRM strategy of engaging new members at the 30-60-90

day mark which proved successful in reversing the trend, and raising our retention rate significantly. We attribute much of the success of the Chapter for FY 2012-2013 to our disciplined approach towards KPIs, financial forecasting/tracking and to being flexible enough to introduce new strategies to accomplish our goals.

Attachments: •

Planning retreat kick-off agenda

•

2012-2013 Strategic & Operational PlanKPI Scorecard

•

Quarterly financial review – “State of the Union”

•

Mid-year “Retention go-forward” plan


Volunteer Management Board & Volunteer Rosters To run effectively and per BIB guidelines – Chicago AMA requires 100+ volunteers. In the 2012-2013 year, we are proud to say we surpassed that number with 120+ dedicated and passionate volunteers, and realized the lowest Board turnover in recent years – all of which helped us make it a stellar year. •

•

How many membership committee volunteers did your chapter have? 21

•

How many programming committee volunteers did your chapter have? 54 (inclusive of core Programming & SIGs)

•

How many communications committee volunteers did your chapter have ? 48

How many board members did your chapter have? 21

Name

Positon

Committee

Board Member (X)

Matthew Saleski

VP, Strategic Relations & BD

Strategic Relations/BD

x

Ben Bradley

Director, Sponsorships


x

Stepheny Lauer

Director, Strategic Relations


x

Kerianne Acra

Committee Member


Laurie Skurow

Committee Member


Martin McGovern

Comm Member, Young Professionals


Ross Matthews

Committee Member


Todd Starr

Committee Member


Tyson Braun

Committee Member


Vicki Park

Comm Member, Young Professionals


Sloane Moore

Committee Member


Darcy Schuller

VP, Branding & Communications

Communications

x

Claire Slattery

Director, Social Media

Communications

x

Lisa Edwards

Director, Membership Comm

Communications

x

Suky Lawlor

Director, SIG Communications

Communications

x

Mandy Zaransky

Chair, Membership Comm

Communications

Sarah Witzig

Chair, Membership Comm

Communications

Caroline Hoyt

Editor, AMA Connection

Communications

Korey Witalka

Social Media team

Communications

Iris Liu

Website team

Communications

Stefanie Sillin

Social media/blog team

Communications


Name

Positon

Committee

Sharon Bryant


Communications

Denise Jones

Social media team

Communications

LaChandra Simon

SIG Communications team

Communications

Shannon Evans

Membership communications team

Communications

Megan Jasin

Email team

Communications

Annessa Lacey

Social media team

Communications

Popsy Aiken


Communications

Alex Tobin

Chair, Blog team

Communications

Sajna Abdulrahman

Blog editor

Communications

Marilyn Canna

Social media team

Communications

Imelda March

Social media team

Communications

Jennifer Kirchen

Website team manager

Communications

Angela Wysocki

Website team

Communications

Aziz Harrington

Social media team

Communications

Jennifer Wojcik

Website team

Communications

Kim Rodriguez

Programming email team

Communications

Aisha Daniel

Social media team

Communications

Alicia Carpenter

SIG Comm team

Communications

Brook Rosini

Email team

Communications

Cari Perlman

Website team

Communications

Carolyn Bombart

SIG Comm team

Communications

Ed Pickart

Video/Youtube channel manager

Communications

Erin Anthony

SIG Comm team

Communications

Jamie Billow

Social media team

Communications

Jen Rehm

Youtube channel team

Communications

Jennifer Grady

Event communications team

Communications

Justyna Kuczaj

Social media team

Communications

Board Member (X)


Name

Positon

Committee

Board Member (X)

Kara Greven

Social media team

Communications

Katy Schlake

Social media team

Communications

Kelly Vega

Social media team

Communications

Lindsey Davis

Social media team

Communications

Lisa Wellington

Social media team

Communications

Omar Villalobos

Social media team

Communications

Stephanie Markadonatos

E-mail team

Communications

Marty Hill

VP, Market Research

Market Research

Chris Zhang

Chair, Event Surveys

Market Research

Roxanna Mazloom

Special Projects, Market Research

Market Research

Paula Kapacinkas

VP, Membership

Membership

x

Steve Sonn

Director, Membership Acquisition

Membership

x

Terri Graser

Director, Membership Retention

Membership

x

Emily Kroll

Volunteer Engagement Coordinator

Membership

Eric Smith

Membership Mixer team

Membership

Janelle Edwards

Membership Mixer Operations team

Membership

Jill Goldstein

Chair, Volunteer Engagement

Membership

Hunter Koerner

Membership Mixer team

Membership

Jetuan Mohammed

Membership orientation team

Membership

Mary Bober

Membership, special projects

Membership

Kitty Ciscke


Membership

Megan Mitchell

Membership acquisition team

Membership

Priyanka Rathmore


Membership

Rachel Claman


Membership

Stephanie Potocny

Membership retention team

Membership

Chris Spallino

Membership orientation team

Membership

Alisa Clifford


Membership


x

Name

Positon

Committee

Board Member (X)

Juliann Drew


Membership

Kristell Bell

Group membership team

Membership

Mara Magdich

Membership retention team

Membership

Nancy Gross


Membership

Dyana Flanigan

VP, Programming

Programming

x

Brad Messinger

Director, Programming

Programming

x

Patrick Steffes

Programming & special events team

Programming

Kim Rodriguez

Programming comm coordinator

Programming

Daiga Kirstein

General programming team

Programming

Paul Stark

VP, Shared Interest Groups

Shared Interest Groups

x

Todd Hatley

Director, SIGs


x

Alexey Kudashev

SIG support team


Allen Hailey

SIG support team


Amanda Topper

Young Professionals SIG team


Amy Rosko

SIG support team


Archana Gidwani

Suburban SIG team


Ashley Camillo

SIG support team


Caitlin Zwick

Young Professionals SIG team


Cari Bucci

Chair, Financial Services SIG


Carrie Fuller

NP SIG


Cary Schmidt

SIG support team


David Galinsky

Chair, Digital SIG


David Partain

SIG support team


Dean Petrulakis

Higher Ed SIG team


Deirdre Junta

Chair, Healthcare SIG


Ellen Feldman

Young Professionals SIG


Erika Krehbiel

SIG support team



Name

Positon

Committee

Jessica Wesley

SIG support team


John Levine

Co-Chair, CPG SIG


Kacey Albertine

Young Professionals SIG


Kelsey Diao

CPG SIG team


Kirsten Fedderke

Non-Profit SIG team


La Sridhar

Non-Profit SIG team


Lauren Smith

SIG support & events team


Linda Wing

SIG support team


Lynette Morris

SIG support team


Mark Sterne

SIG support team


Mary Katherine Krause

Chair, Higher Ed SIG


Matt Feldman

Co-Chair, Non-Profit SIG


Matt Herek

SIG support team


Matthew Mitchell

SIG support team


Maya Norris

SIG support team


Megan Sweeney

IMC SIG team


Melinda Myers

Co-Chair, CPG SIG


Molly Hague

IMC SIG team


Monica Heckman

SIG support team


Nicole O’Connell

Higher Ed SIG team


Norman Ameer

SIG support team


Patricia Ebbers

Co-Chair, Healthcare SIG


Pon Angara

Chair, Non-Profit SIG


Qiao Li

SIG support team


Rebecca Darmoc

Higher Ed SIG team


Roxana Vergara

Non-Profit SIG team


Steve Magnino

Chair, Market Research SIG



Board Member (X)

Name

Positon

Committee

Board Member (X)

Tom Roberton

Higher Ed SIG team


Ann Kostopanagiotou

President

Executive

x

Bonnie Reid

Tresurer

Executive

x

Tara Giuliano

President-Elect

Executive

x

Ellen Albright

Secretary

Executive

x

Scott Ablin

Past President

Executive

x

Board Turnover Position

Programming Chair

Communications Chair

Time Vacant

Strategy

Less than 1 week

Our Director, Programming was going to be traveling globally for the second half of the FY, and was not going to be accessible to contribute in a meaningful way. Given that we had identified a successor for the Director, Programming role for 20142015 – we asked that individual to take the role earlier.

2 days

Our Director, Event Communications secured a new job that put her traveling most of the time out of state. We had a strong and capable Chair managing Event communications in Judi Myers, and asked her to take the role.

Succession Planning The Chicago AMA chapter continually looks at best-inclass succession strategies. We believe the best way to ensure longetivity is to always be recognizing and looking for talent within the Volunteer teams and nurturing leaders. As such our strategies and approach around succession can be categorized as follows: •

Our by-laws and operations call for an 18-month term for each and every Board role. Besides the active 12 months, Board members are responsible for onboarding their successor and also for being available for support if needed post the July 1 new fiscal start date. This has helped us transition more smoothly, and set succession plans in place in advance of the new fiscal year beginning.

•

Our succession planning begins in Sept of the new fiscal year, where first priority is to identify the next year’s President Elect. A nominating committee which includes President, Immediate Past President, second Past President (Chair) and Member at large discuss possible candidates for interviewing, and that process takes about 2-3 months. Once the President-Elect is identified – the incoming President begins approaching both current Board members, and general members who’ve submitted a nominations application to slate the next year’s Board.

•

In general, though we don’t have VP-Elect roles – Directors within each division are mentored and “groomed” to eventually take the VP role. In many


cases (i.e. within our Programming, Communications, Market Research teams) – this has worked out well. In others, given that the longetivity of Board members is decreasing from year-to-year or Board members look to vary their experience– we are evaluating better tactics to commit Board members to what is essentially a 2-year term. •

For Director roles, we build a pipeline of leaders by evaluating and recognizing key Volunteers within each of the groups. For priority volunteers – we invest the time as a Board to develop these key members and approach them about taking on more responsible – sometimes they join us as Board members, and other times as key Chairs. But in general – we try and foster a community of leaders committed to Chicago Position

AMA. •

Finally, we recognize that in order to build a sustainable Chapter, and ensure good Succession – we had to better develop and activate Operations guidelines. To address this, we launched a Chapter playbook that can be used long-term by division which acts as a training to either new Board members or new Volunteers.

Attachments: •

Succession planning & key dates for nominating committee

•

Board nomination application

Successor’s Name

Position Category

President

Tara Guiliano

Leadership

VP, Communications

Claire Slattery

Communications

VP, Programming

Matthew Saleski

Programming

VP, Market Research

Marty Hill

Market Research

Director, Sponsorships

Ben Bradley


Director, Strategic Relations

Stepheny Laurer


Volunteer Expectations and Accountability Most of the key positions, including ALL of the Board of Directors roles did have job descriptions which outlined key responsibilities within each role and division. For the Board roles, time was invested to ensure that each key leader knew their responsibilities, shared the vision for the Chapter and had a clear sense of the level of engagement necessary. Each Board member was required to sign a commitment form prior to the start of the new fiscal year. With our volunteers, VPs developed an org chart prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year that outlined their Volunteer team structure, and operational plan to achieve the goals. Along with this org chart, role summaries were


crafted for each position. In cases where there was a gap – the Chapter did a “call for volunteers” at the beginning of the year providing a full description of the roles available with Chicago AMA. As volunteers raised their hands, and became available – the leads were forwarded to each of the VPs to reach out personally, discuss roles and invite Volunteers to the next Committee meetings. In some cases, VPs split responsibilities for roles among several people to keep the engagement manageable. As needs changed throughout the year, there was a constant refresh of volunteer opportunities that was shared out to our Membership via AMA Connection, www. chicagoama.org website and through networking at our Membership Orientations, Mixers and events.

With over 120+ volunteers, it’s been a critical step for us to ensure we communicate clearly with Board members, Volunteers and set the right expectations to deliver an optimum experience that makes them want to stay engaged.

Attachments: •

Board nomination form (with job descriptions)

•

Board & divisional volunteer org charts

•

Board commitment form

Volunteer Recognition Tactic

Frequency (times/yr)

Planned or Spontaneous

Announcement of new Board at beginning of FY & thank you at close through “President Letter” in AMA Connection

2/yr

Planned

Board guest column within AMA Connection – each Board members gets visibility by guest writing in our newsletter

24/yr

Planned (per editorial calendar)

Thank you email to Board members after key initiative

1/week

Both

Call-out of Board members and key volunteers at events

40-50 times/yr

Planned (at every event)

Recognition of Board members & key volunteers on www.chicagoama.org

Continual

Planned

Official CAMA roles/positions and recommendations on LinkedIn to help build profile for Board and volunteers

Continual

Recommendations are Spontaneous

Board meeting praise for Board members for key success

12/yr

Spontaneous

Special event email communication to Volunteers with special incentive/ discounted rate

6/yr

Both

Personal “thank yous” to key Volunteers by President & VPs

12/yr

Spontaneous

Volunteer of the Year recognition

1/yr

Planned

Board Recgonition Being a part of Chicago AMA does have its rewards. As we all know, among the best rewards are some of the intangibles including: building your network, honing your business and leadership skills and learning from best-inclass marketers. Beyond the intangibles however, the Chapter offers the following benefits for Chicago AMA Board members: Benefits of being a board member: • Opportunity to receive and refer selected business and/or job referrals • Opportunity to generate 10 references based on your results as board leader • Prominently listed on the Chicago AMA website as an

•

• • • •

organization leader Visibility at monthly meetings - introduced as board leader, flyer on board members and their companies occasionally available to all attendees List 3-5 accomplishments on resume Eligible for board discount for monthly programs (with prior registration for each event) Board-invite social events (we host a Holiday social and end of year celebration) Board-invite leadership development and comp participation in AMA Leadership Summit

Attachments: • Board Benefits pdf


Volunteer Surveys One of our key objectives for 2012-2013 was to launch a new Volunteer engagement and experience strategy to help us retain key volunteers, esp. as a Chapter of our size needs anywhere from 100-120 volunteers to operate effectively. As a key stakeholder base, we also view Volunteers as our #1 ambassadors and so for the first time – we did launch a Volunteer survey conducted in November 2012. About 45 volunteers responded to the survey. Here are key highlights:

7. More than 60% said they will volunteer again, 29% were unsure, and 9% will not 8. Two-thirds (65%) of volunteers are CAMA members with the majority having been a member of CAMA for 3 or more years 9. Over half (59%) had more than 10 years of marketing/ market research experience and over half (56%) were at least 40 years of age

“Opportunity to attend a variety of educational programs, participated in and contributed to thought-leadership, built up my portfolio with recent writing samples, helped promote the CAMA SIG initiative, and actually got a job based partly on the writing I did!”

1. Volunteers were satisfied with their CAMA volunteering experience (mean 6.82, 40% top 3 box) – but we learned there is room for improvement. 2. They were likely to recommend CAMA to colleagues or friends when volunteering (mean 7.15, 59% top 3 box) 3. Volunteers generally enjoy their experience, are excited to be involved, and proud to be a CAMA volunteer 4. On the other hand, there was concern about how beneficial the opportunity was to their goals, and general time commitment 5. Satisfied volunteers cited the following as reasons on why they volunteer: •

Chance to network and meet people/peers

•

Build relationships

•

It’s fun

•

Gain knowledge/become educated about marketing/market research

•

Professional development

•

Attend great events/programs

•

Build resume/portfolio

6. Conversely, the criticisms includes: •

Poor/unclear communication

•

Incongruent task/activities with volunteer skills/ interests

•

Unclear roles/responsibilities

•

Inconvenient for those who live/work outside of the city


As a result of this survey, we implemented a Chair, Volunteer Experience (Jill Goldstein) who began the process orchestrating a more seamless and effective volunteer engagement strategy. Her role along with the Volunteer team will be to manage Volunteer communications, coordinate and communicate Board/ divisional needs across the volunteer and membership base, be the key liaison for CAMA volunteers, manage ongoing recognition programs (including Volunteer of the Month, Volunteer of the Year and Volunteer parties). These initiatives began at the end of FY 2012-2013, and we look forward to seeing our satisfaction scores rise into 2013-2014 and beyond. Attachments: •

Volunteer survey report & questionnaire

Financial Management Financial Goals Our mission was to continue to operate the Chapter in a fiscally sustainable manner with an eye toward funding innovative and strategic endeavors that drive the evolution of the Chapter. We also sought to involve the Board and Committees through education of sound accounting practices and accountability for fiscal responsibility within their operational areas.

Lead and support the Chapter in pursuit of fiscal responsibility and health:

Run CAMA like a business:

•

• • •

• • •

Start the year with an aggressive revenue growth plan, particularly from programming Revise budget mid-year to reflect the current state and achievement of In-Kind sponsorships. Involve VPs and Directors in budget discussions and provide an opportunity to learn how to read a P&L and take an active roll in running the business. End the year with 3-5% net profit. Use net profit to fund new initiatives and for charitable giving Ensure the relevancy & longevity of CAMA.

Use financial best practices to: • • • •

Improve membership value Provide security from adverse situations Review current financial results versus budget as well as year-end projected results at each board meeting Meet quarterly with VP’s to ensure their planning is in alignment with the budget

•

Provided guidance to the Chapter regarding the current and future fiscal health of the organization (based on Board in the Box); reinforced throughout each division • •

• •

•

• •

•

Reserves Event Pricing

Acted as a sounding board on financial viability of Sponsorships Provided transparency into allocation and usage of revenue Assigned ownership of expenses and revenue to division VPs; and collaborate on providing financial guidance with quarterly budget reviews Revised budget midway through the year to reflect new revenue and expense targets and re-aligning allocation of expenses with chapter priorities Validated that chapter reserves are aligned to chapter commitments and goals Provided quarterly status report at appropriate Board meetings and supplemented reporting with education on basic accounting and budgeting practices Worked closely with the Executive Director and the Board to assure Chapter goals for growth and innovation are aligned with achievable revenue goals

Financial Summary Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2012 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2012-13 Budget (projected)

Fiscal Year 2012-13 Budget (revised)

Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2013 (actual)

Total Beginning Assets

$151,879.87

$152,947.91

Total Revenue

$193,094.60

$239,800.00

$205,071.00

$210,865.85

Total Expense

$192,026.56

-$228,805.00

-$191,685.00

-$197,297.64

Total Assets & Revenues Minus Expenses

$152,947.91

$181,662.33

$195,230.54


Reserves The Chicago AMA considers Reserves as the amount of money our chapter sets aside to protect us in the event of an unexpected loss or expense. This does not include scholarship or donations we have set aside for specific purposes. •

• •

76% of Chicago AMA’s annual operating budget was held in a separate reserve fund at the close of the fiscal year Had $146,750 reserve fund balance at the close of the fiscal year Chicago AMA manages two accounts outside of its day-to-day chapter account for its reserves

Account

Percentage

Charles Schwab Investment Account

81%

Morgan Chase Savings Account

19%

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) The Chicago AMA utilizes the account firm Porte & Brown accounting firm (CPA) to assist in the financial managmenet of the chapter throughout the year. Throughout the fiscal year, Porte & Brown suppored our chapter by: • •

Auditing our books on an ongoing basis Compiled our annual IRS filing


Sponsorship Spomsorship Plan

The Chicago AMA had a formal sponsorship plan. We developed a tiered approach, that sought sponsors at both an annual level as well as individual event level. We targeted sponsors for both in-kind services and product donations as well as cash sponsorships. Our plan included the development of potential sponsorship database and the implementation of a marketing automation platform associated with digital campaigns. Note, our business development efforts go beyond just sponsorship, and include revenue-sharing opportunities with potential partners, advertising, and job board sales. •

Phase 1 – Develop a sponsor database (includes 750 potential contacts) •

•

Aggressive collection of vendor contacts from executive director, board members, and volunteers

•

Data mining of marketing resource directory listings available online

•

Data mining of LinkedIn for companies identified, missing contacts

Phase 2 – Implement an integrated and automated digital marketing campaign, supplementing with promotional and informational materials such as event prospectuses and a media kit. •

Annual generic promotion

•

Event specific promotion

•

Digital integration of sponsorship promotion in social media, as well as related websites

•

Aggressive promotion of job board positions

•

Phase 3 – Follow-up sales calls and scheduling faceto-face visits

•

Phase 4 – Execution and follow up

•

Phase 5 – Resign for fiscal 2013-2014

Sponspoship Goals In-kind goal priorities:

Seek out venue partners. Given Chicago is one of the top 5 most expensive cities to do events and meetings in, and an extremely competitive market for programming

by both local, national, and vendor organizations, it was determined a top strategic priority to stay competitive by offering high-quality events at a competitive price-point, that seeking out free venues and in-kind donations for food and beverage for events was a top priority. •

Seek in-kind sponsor venues for Evening W/Expert

•

Seek in-kind donors for food and beverage

Seek in-kind sponsors for 1. Web development 2. Event production for promotion of events 3. Database and, marketing automation platform for Chapter and Business Development 4. Social media metrics platform 5. Market Research software/platform 6. Printing services In-kind valuations: •

Priority 1 – Event sponsorship – Valuation $61,000 – Goal 1 and 2 met

•

Priority 2 – Chapterwide service sponsorships – Valuation $64,000 – Goal met for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Sponsorhip revenue goal: •

Cash goal for business development: $51,300

•

Actual cash achieved: $50,127.55, 98% of goal

Notable achievements: •

Sponsor/exhibitor space for fall BrandSmart 2012 was sold out

•

Sponsor/exhibitor space for spring Momentum 2013 was sold out

Attachments include: 1. Chapter sponsorship prospectus and media kit 2. BrandSmart Sponsor Prospectus 3. Momentum Sponsor Prospectus 4. Evening W/Expert Sponsorship Prospectus 5. Sunrise Executive Series Sponsorship Prospectus 6. Marketing Directory Media Kit


Sponsorship Benefits Package chapter does have a generic sponsor benefits package as related to our prospectus packages. However, most of our sponsor relationships require custom deliverables. Attachments include: •

Chapter sponsorship prospectus and media kit

•

BrandSmart Sponsor Prospectus

•

Momentum Sponsor Prospectus

•

Evening W/Expert Sponsorship Prospectus

•

Sunrise Executive Series Sponsorship Prospectus

•

Marketing Directory Media Kit

Benefits that sponsors are most interested in is customized engagement with our constituents and quality lead generation. Primarily, when the Chapter has been able to assist the vendor or sponsor in demonstrating their capabilities or content knowledge, sponsors have been the most happy. Examples include: •

Having an agency sponsor a presentation given by one of their clients, and being able to introduce the speaker or co-present, or by doing co-branded research projects that are co-published. Allowing a sponsor to lead a moderated discussion.

•

For quality lead generation, we actually ask sponsors who they would like to attend, and also ask who their target customers are, and work together with the sponsor to get those people in the audience. Of course, the number one ask is enterprise level attendees and/or top 1000 companies.

•

Other sponsors, have found great satisfaction from being able to meet/host CMO speakers in our speaker’s lounge.

20| Chicago AMA 2012/2013 CEA Submission

Community and Collegiate Relations Community Outreach & Goals

As part of our “Making Every Marketer Count” initiative, and in effort to increase our engagement with what we consider the future of our membership – we put a significant focus on Community outreach. We realized in order to accomplish our goals, and initiate our efforts – we needed to add a Board Director role to this important imperative. It was a year of beginnings with our goal quite simply to build relationships with: Local colleges and universities – including collegiate chapters & marketing department staff

Phase I of YP program launched in April 2013: •

Goal: Be the association of choice for young marketing professionals in Chicago, bringing together and educating driven young marketers on the rise.

•

New YP group called “Up & Comers” featuring their own logo and identity (brought to you by Chicago AMA).

•

The offer: •

Young Professionals as the next generation of marketers and members

Community of young driven marketers on the rise

•

$175 reduced membership (our current offer)

Key organizations in Chicagoland area:

•

Early career development, workshops & events

•

Access to one free members only event

•

Exclusive LinkedIn Community & Up & Comers content

Collegiate Relations On the collegiate relations front – Chicago AMA invested in systematic outreach to both collegiate chapters and Marketing department staff offering access to events, our Board for mentoring, and potential internship opportunities. Key relationships were formed with Northwestern/Medill, Loyola, DePaul, North Central College and Purdue University. Young Professionals With the Young Professionals initiative – we established a committee of young professionals to help shape what and how this group would function, and what the offering would be in terms of membership, networking and career programming.

The “Up & Comers” YP program will be fully activated through press efforts, targeted outreach, potential partnership with Young Professionals of Chicago (YPC), and a full programming calendar of quarterly and monthly events in 2013-2014. We ended the year with an increase in YP members over previous years (44 in total for the Chapter). Key Partnerships We’ve expanded partnership with 1871, Heartland Mobile Council, CMO/CIO Initiative, Big Data Week and Techweek to increase our visibility in market.

This YP group functions as a junior board with membership and revenue goals. We expect they will be our next generation Board members – who continue to recruit and retain members, while providing valuable educational and social experiences.


Membership Membership Planning We had separate goals and plans for acquisition and retention. We exceeded the number of new members and with our retention at 55%, we finished out the year with 1105 members which was up from the 2011-2012 number of 1096. Membership Recruitment Our acquisition goal for the year was to increase new members overall by 420 new members by focusing on three key targets: 1. Chicago Area Fortune 500 Marketers/Small and Medium Sized Businesses 2. Shared Interest Groups 3. Young Professional/Collegiate We gained a mix of these three audiences through the Fall and Spring Membership campaigns which are coordinated by AMA IH. The Fall campaign netted the Chicago AMA 20 new members. For the Spring 2013 campaign, we also provided an incentive to a group of prospective members offering them free admittance to two our local events if they joined by a certain date. We added 42 new members in the Spring Campaign. We had significant success in gaining new members through our Shared Interest Groups (SIGs), and almost doubled our goal to see 61 new members join Chicago AMA as a result of their engagement with SIGs. Through dedicated outreach, and increased focus on Young Professionals – we also saw 44 members in 20122013, an increase over previous years. Finally, we secured 15 new group members within 20122013 for a total of 85 new members – a 79% increase in new members from FY 2011-2012 at the end of the acquisition campaign. Membership Retention Our retention goal was 5% growth from the previous year of 59%, and we finished the year with 55% retention. While we didn’t meet the goal – with the shifting trends towards retention- we did do considerably better than national averages. Of the chapters greater than 500 members (ten in total) – The Chicago chapter had the highest retention rate with


the average retention rate of these ten chapters at 48% (based on June report). Of the chapters greater than 300 members (21 in total) – Chicago had the third highest retention rate after Nashville and Iowa. The average retention rate for this group was approximately 49% (based off of May & June numbers). This challenge of retention additionally spurred Chicago AMA to devise a new strategy that we feel will be a strong new approach towards managing member retention longterm. Given the research on how “engagement” is the key to renewals and the fact that 1st year members are most vulnerable to lapsing, we made it a priority to adopt a “front-load” CRM strategy mid-year. We put in place a communication plan to reach out to our members that includes: •

New Member communication #1 (within 30 days of joining)

•

New Member communication #2 (60 day mark of joining)

•

New Member Communication #3 (90 day mark of joining)

•

Expiring Member (anyone who’s membership is about to expire in next 30 – 60 days)

•

Lapse Member (anyone who’s membership expired in last 30 – 60 days)

•

Rejoining member on their anniversary date (after they have renewed)

The early results of this approach have been very promising, and we credit this proactive outreach approach to increasing our retention numbers in the second half of the year. We held monthly orientations which were all sold out events for us. We also engaged our membership with our Mixers which take place after work at bars in the Loop. We held 4 events and a Speed Networking Event, each with attendance of over 75 people.

Overall Summary

see reflected throughout this entry).

Through our Membership efforts, we were able to welcome 350+ new members to Chicago AMA, hold steady on retention, held over 15 SOLD-OUT Membership orientations and Networking Mixers for 1,100 members & introduced AMA to a broader community of 7,000 marketers and retained our ranking as the largest chapter of the AMA.

Attachment

Attachments: •

Final 2012-2013 Membership report

•

Lapsed member communication example

Member Benefits Benefit

One of the big areas of focus was to more clearly communicate both national and local benefits to our CAMA membership. We did through a variety of channels including digital communications, Membership orientations, Chapter events and face-to-face. Including: •

Discounts to Chapter events including Membersonly Sunrise Executive series events (3 per year)

•

Membership Orientations held to provide AMA members with a face-to-face connection to the local Chapter, and opportunities to get engaged

•

•

•

Opportunities to participate in one of the 11 industry-relevant SIGs (events and membership free or discounted) Potential inclusion within the Chicago AMA Marketing Directory (we offered free listings to interested members) Access to the CAMA and national Job Board

Member Testimonials We used our Connections e-newsletter to provide a voice and share testimonials on different topics regarding the AMA which was written by the President of our Board and different board members for each newsletter. During our orientation events, we typically ask who is a member. We allow for impromptu testimonials from members that are present. And we did collect and plan to publish testimonials provided to us through our Membership survey (as you’ll

•

3-5 Connections E-newsletters intros from board

Group Membership

Our Group Membership goal was to increase group membership by 5%. Another goal of the chapter was to raise awareness of the group membership program and its features and benefits among Chicago AMA members and greater Chicago marketing community, laying the groundwork for future marketing efforts and group membership growth tracking. The strategy was to position the program as a value and resource for training and professional development among companies with at least four professional marketers, Very specific tactics were undertaken to promote the group membership at the macro level as well as with targeted personal outreach. These included: •

Development of a dedicated group membership page on the chapter’s website.

•

Articles explaining the program in the chapter’s e-newsletter

•

Social media promotions

•

AMA IH group membership materials available at a majority of chapter events.

•

Direct personal email outreach to key decision makers at large companies to explain the program and gauge their interest in joining.

•

New dedicated group membership web page

These efforts led to increased awareness and opportunities to discuss the program with decision makers as well several new group membership over the second half of the program year. We secured 15 new group members within 2012-2013 for a total of 85 new members – a 79% increase in new members from FY 2011-2012 at the end of the acquisition campaign. Among some of our largest group memberships were Grant Thornton, U.S. Cellular and renewals by Cars.com, Assurance Agency and others. Attachments: •

Group membership communication

Chicago AMA 2012/2013 CEA Submission |23

Recruitment

Retention

Acquisition Campaigns

Member Surveys

The chapter placed strong emphasis on the fall and spring campaigns as part of its overall acquisition strategy. The strategy of the campaigns was to promote AMA membership benefits clearly and compellingly while highlighting the offer to join now and creating urgency.

The Chicago Chapter conducted a Membership Survey in 2013. The survey and the results are attached. Please see attached pdf with questions and how we fared, but a few quick highlights:

To promote the campaigns, each chapter Board members was asked to submit at least five leads that could be included on a prospect list for outreach. Prospects were also pulled from non-members lists of past events and supplemented by others in the Chicago marketing community who had some engagement with the Chapter. Campaigns relied heavily on email marketing through e-newsletter and dedicated emails, social media promotion (including sponsored posts), event promotions and collateral, word of mouth and promotion through personal networks of chapter leaders and volunteers. The spring campaign also included an added incentive to join: free attendance at a major chapter event for the new member and a guest. Through the two campaigns a total of 62 new members were recruited. The Chapter was in the top three (3) in acquisition campaign efforts. Attachment: •

Spring acquisition campaign flyer & communication

•

Spring acquisition campaign final report

•

We had 10-12% of our membership respond to the survey. Of these that responded, over 90% of CAMA members said they would renew. Of those that wouldn’t renew – primarily it was due to budget cuts, value or if their company didn’t pay for it.

•

On a 1-10 scale where 10 was best, we received a mean score of 6.7. And we received a score of 6-10 on 75% of our surveys.

•

57% of membership attended events within the last year. 87% read an email from Chicago AMA. 59% visited our website ChicagoAMA.org.

No surprise, members most satisfied were the ones who have been engaged for 5+ years, or are active in attending events, and esp. in participating in SIGs (where satisfaction scores were higher).

“CAMA offers numerous educational and networking opportunities throughout the year. I have also had the opportunity to volunteer and be a part of the board. I feel I have had the opportunity to fully take advantage of my membership”. Among the perceived top local benefits included (which helped guide our communications) •

Educational opportunities/programming

•

Attending events

•

Networking

•

SIGs

Attachment: •


Membership Survey PDF

Programming Programming Planning Overall planning: Chicago AMA began strategic planning in the Spring of 2012, and at that time established the overall branded Programming properties including Sunrise Executive Series, Evening with an Expert, BrandSmart 2012 and Momentum 2013. We additionally finalized the full roster of Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) that would be part of our programming portfolio for 2012-2013. Given the number of events – almost 30 just in Programming for the fiscal year – orchestrating a calendar that had the right rhythm and allowed us to manage Chapter operations effectively was critical. For our general programming – we desired to host events that allowed Chicago AMA to differentiate itself from competing associations and claim its “space” in the Chicagoland marketing event world, which is part of the reason we launched the branded programming in 2012-2013. It was our goal to provide a memorable and instantly recognizable format to the market. Additionally, dates and locations were set in June 2012 which allowed us to start promoting our programming early in the year. For SIGs – at the same time – we conducted a “think tank” brainstorming session to map out themes, topics and speakers for the year. SIG Chairs and Volunteers were then assigned to each of the SIG’s quarterly topic / event to recruit speakers, manage content, and interface with chapter support groups such as Sponsorship and Communications. The first half of the calendar was devised by the summer, and the second half of the FY was finalized in the fall/winter as SIG groups got together for mid-year planning. Communications Integration: We realize the only way good programming can come to market is if our community knows about it. And we viewed Communications integration as a way to extend Chicago AMA’s influence pre, during and post programming events. In order to integrate seamlessly, a Communication lead was assigned to each program, Event series or SIG.

The Communication lead was part of the Programming team, and was instrumental in crafting the right content/ messaging to resonate with our members/audiences. Once a program theme and speaker had been identified, Programming would initiate a kick-off call 8-10 weeks prior to the event. Communications would then craft a plan that included email schedule, Social media, video, blog integration, Eventbrite registration page/link, chapter website feature and AMA Connection integration. Processes were established via an Event information form that was shared and collaborated on via our Basecamp online project management tool across all volunteer groups. Sponsorship Approach: Sponsorship integration was a key driver in our financial and delivery goals for all our Programming events, and proved to help us exceed our Chapter’s net income goals. Sponsorship integration was three-fold: 1. We sought to partner with in-kind venues to maintain consistency across all our Programming properties, and deliver an experience that matched the overall programming direction. 2. We sought to bring on sponsors relevant to the theme we were developing 3. In-kind services for Programming and communications support For the venue goal– we negotiated and struck a deal with 1871 to host ALL our Evening with an Expert events, we worked with Gibson’s on a breakfast deal to host our Sunrise event series, we partnered with Microsoft to host our Momentum conference, and we leveraged partnerships for the SIGs and secured in-kind sponsors for a number of events, including providing food and beverage to guests. Additionally, we secured a chapter-wide sponsorship for Cabot Creamery to provide cheese for all our evening/cocktail reception events. Plus printing, video and advertising services via Plum Grove Printers, T60 Productions, MotionPost and Crain’s - which helped us achieve bottom line results.


For the sponsor outreach goal –we took a very customized approach towards targeting sponsors relevant to the theme. We identified key prospects, developed pitch materials and shared that relevance, plus package options based on their goals. In some cases that meant sponsors could host a panel, or provide an interactive demonstration at events, exhibit or simply be provided with tix they could share with their clients.

Programming Surveys Getting feedback on our Programming from attendees is a priority, and we attempt to survey all of our events and usually receive feedback from 70% of them. We don’t typically ask for satisfaction on most of our events. Instead, we ask likelihood to recommend and attend

“... the thought-leadership and content of events allows me to expand my knowledge outside of work.”

]That approach helped us exceed sponsorship revenue projections for BrandSmart 2012, Momentum 2013 and for a few of our Evening with an Expert series events Overall Results: Chicago AMA’s SIGs generated $3700 from five different sponsors, and almost $40,000 in cash sponsorship for the overall Chapter. And we secured almost $160,000 in inkind value through partnerships outlined above. Attachments: •

Programming calendar

•

Communication plan

future events, which we feel is a more useful measure and satisfaction is inherently high for those that do. We did ask for satisfaction scores at BrandSmart, and that was at 90%. Overall, likelihood to recommend top two box is around 80%. •

For what percentage of total programs did your chapter conduct surveys? 87%

•

What was the average satisfaction score for all programs combined (as a % of 100)? 85%

Programming Chart Attendance Event Date

Type

Topic/Speaker

7/19/12

SIG

Mission-Driven Marketing Part 3: Keep Your Donors and Supporters Engaged / Holly Messick, Joey Feinstein

7/23/12

SIG

Market Research Trends / Blair Peters

7/26/12

SIG

Meet & Greet Lunch During Noel Levitz National Conference

8/2/12

SIG

8/7/12

SIG

Sat. Score

Members

Non-Members Total

Attendance Actual as goal % of Goal

NA

11

22

33

28

118%

89%

11

22

33

28

118%

NA

4

8

12

28

43%

Building a Digital Marketing Plan / Jon Morris

91%

13

39

52

28

186%

The Digital Consumer Journey / Kelsey Horine

86%

6

11

17

28

61%


Attendance Event Date

Type

Topic/Speaker

9/19/12

Sunrise with a CMO (Member Only)

Is the Agency Dead? Surviving and Thriving in the Age of Global Crowd Sourcing/Ross Kimbarovsky, Founder, CrowdSPRING

NA

44

0

44

65

68%

SIG

Mission-Driven Marketing Part 4: Innovative Approaches to Fundraising in the “New Normal” / Stacy Ratner, Matt Feldman

NA

9

15

24

28

86%

SIG

Incorporating New Social Media into Higher Education / Jennifer Halpern, Mike Altier, Mark Rowland

NA

9

18

27

28

96%

Auunal 10/17/13 Conference

Owning the Tectonic Shifts in Marketing (Innovation in Branding theme)

95%

113

93

206

250

83%

11/8/12

SIG

The ROI of Social Media / Jessica Levco, Christine Jacobs, Thurston Hatcher, Olman Hernandez

73%

8

27

35

28

125%

Sunrise Series

From Big Box to Redbox: Marketing strategies to change consumer behavior/ Mark Achler, CMO.

NA

53

16

69

65

106%

11/15/12 SIG

Decoding the Meaning of Design and Its Impact on Shoppers / Rob Swan

92%

11

24

35

28

125%

11/29/12 SIG

It’s Time for Higher Ed Marketing to Grow Up / Joselyn Zivin

84%

19

30

49

28

175%

1/15/13

Thought Leadership in a Digital World / Agnes Estes

93%

19

23

42

28

150%

9/20/12

10/3/12

11/28/12

SIG

Sat. Score

Members

Non-Members Total




Sat. Score

Topic/Speaker

1/31/13

Evening with an Expert

Growing your Business through Content Creation, Curation and Conversation./Andy Crestodina, Strategic Partner, Orbit Media/ Laura Chavoen, SVP, MSL Chicago

NA

61

85

146

75

194%

2/18/13

Annual 1/2 Day

Momentum: Engaging a 360 View of CRM

82%

68

118

186

125

148%

3/14/13

SIG

Internet Marketing Hot Seat Challenge / Debra Zahay Blatz

NA

9

6

15

28

54%

Sunrise Series

How a Shopping Experience can be your Differentiator/ Bob Armour, CMO, Guaranteed Rate

NA

43

15

58

65

90%

4/4/13

SIG

Are You Telling a Compelling Story about Your Mission? / Pon Angara

NA

7

14

21

28

75%

4/16/13

SIG

Are You Telling a Compelling Story about Your Mission? / Pon Angara

NA

15

25

40

28

143%

SIG

Brands+Startups Mobile Series / Ruchira Gupta, Corey Bieber, Jeff Ulrich, Frank Ballantine

NA

5

59

64

50

128%


Big Data….Big Relevance and ROI/ / Doug Laney, Research Vice President, Gartner; Dan Neely, CEO, Networked Insights ; Erik Severinghouse Entrepreneur

NA

50

70

120

75

1705

SIG

Marketing the Customer Experience: Balancing Technology & Human Touch / Jeff Pollard, Byron Stewart, Jay Clark

69%

10

16

26

28

93%

SIG

NPO Marketers, Is Your Message On-Target? / Tom Bracy, Ryan Rasmussen, Greg Petersen, Christopher Tiffany

88%

7

14

21

28

75%

3/20/13

4/23/13

4/25/13

4/30/13

5/16/13


Members

Non-Members Total


Type


Sat. Score

Topic/Speaker

5/20/13

SIG

Myths & Realities of Social Media Research / Annie Pettit, Monika Wingate

74%

24

47

71

50

142%

5/22/13

Sunrise Series

Driving Success in B2B Marketing/ Linda Bartman, CMO Cars.com

92%

37

22

59

65

91%

6/6/13


Enhancing the Customer Experience through Social Innovation

NA

36

47

83

75

110%

6/25/13

SIG

Myths & Realities of Social Media Research / Annie Pettit, Monika Wingate

NA

15

13

28

28

100%

6/27/13

SIG

Brands+Startups Mobile Event / Jeff Ulrich, Corey Bieber

NA

23

101

124

100

124%

80%

741

997

1738

1536

113%

Totals

Members

Non-Members Total


Type

*Not all events were surveyed or tabulated. Average is based on results achieved on those events surveyed.


Delivery Programs Delivered Our programming strategy calls for offering a variety of different content and events that will appeal to our membership, and the marketing community at large. We always strive to provide the latest trends, insights and best-in-class thought leaders from the Chicago community.

•

What was the total number of programs your chapter offered?,56 (including Chapter programs, SIG events and Membership Mixers/Orientations). 29 just for Programming.

•

What was the average price differential between member and non-member programming fees? 40%

Program Content Program Content

Panel

Program Name

Program Relevant Content

All of our Evening with an Expert events included a Q&A panel that allowed attendees to get different perspectives

Panelists from Orbit Media, MSL, Walgreens, Georama, Networked Insights, Gartner and Simple Relevance.

BrandSmart 2012 featured two unique Panelists included 1871, Starter panels as part of the overall conferLeague, Fiddlefly, Google, Razorfish, ence – “Think Like a Start-Up” and an Digital Aisle, Power2Switch “Emerging Technology” panel Momentum 2013 featured a CRM technology panel offering expert advice on CRM and Marketing automation integration

Panelists included Act-On, Microsoft, Allant Group, Bravo Solution, TargetX

Hot Speaker

Our goal for 2012-2013 was to bring c-level and best-in-class marketers to our Chicago AMA community. We featured only the hottest speakers within their respective industry.

Included in this list were: Linda Bartman, CMO Cars.com; Ron Faris, CMO Virgin Mobile; Michael Ross, SVP Encyclopaedia Brittanica; Ken Martindale, COO of Rite Aid Corporation; Mark Achler, CMO Redbox; Clark Scheffy, Lead Designer at IDEO; Tom Yorton, CEO of Second City; Dan Neely, CEO Networked Insights; Ted Souder, VP Google; Bob Armour, CMO Guaranteed Rate

Hot Venue

We sought out to bring the most emerging, relevant marketing innovation/tech programming to market by striking a partnership with the hottest venue in the tech start-up scene – 1871. All of our events were sold out as a result, and we drew significant non-member crowds to 1871.

1871 (within the Merchandise Mart)

SIG Panel

ROI of Healthcare Social Media

Panelists from Blue Cross Blue Shield, IBM, Rush University Medical Center and Healthcare Communications Magazine

Roundtable

Momentum 2013: CRM

Event included 5 facilitated roundtable sessions: Healthcare, Nonprofit, Higher Ed, Digital, and Research


Program Content

Program Name

Program Relevant Content Programming topics ranged from:

Between our branded Sunrise Executive Series, Evening with an Expert, BrandSmart 2012, Momentum 2013 conferences and the specialized topics covered through our 11 Shared Interest Groups – we delivered the most relevant topics to our membership and marketing community. Hot topic

We utilized multiple formats – including c-level “fireside chats”, panels, interactive events and full-day conferences that appealed to a wide variety of constituents.

•

Leveraging Crowdsourcing for competitive advantage

•

Mining social innovation to enhance the customer experience

•

Understanding opportunities within integrated CRM solutions

•

Why the future of marketing is around content

•

“Think like a start-up” – innovation lessons from the industries hottest companies

•

How to innovate & leverage emerging technology to reach key customers

And our satisfaction score of 85%+ • across 50 events proved we hit on the • right topics, and provided value.

Myths & Realities of Social media Driving success in B2B marketing

And a host of others as outlined in the Programming chart.

Program Types Program Type

Program Timing

Program Name(s)

SIGs

2 to 3 events per month

20 events developed and hosted by SIGs (see Programming Chart)

Signature Event

Annual Full Day Conference (Late Fall)

BrandSmart 2012 (executed on the 7th year) for this conference

Signature Event

Annual Half Day Conference (Late winter/early Spring)

Momentum 2013 (first annual took place in 2013) – will become an evergreen event around the intersection of marketing + technology

Once per quarter

Sunrise Executive Series is intended as a members-only event with non-members invited as guests. We launched this in 2012-2013, and will continue as a platform in 2013-2014.

Members-only program

Program Attendance • •

What was the total attendance for all your chapter’s programs combined? 1738 What was the average attendance for all programs combined? Different formats had different attendance goals, i.e. – the SIGs and Sunrise events are intended to be smaller, while conferences and Evening with an Expert larger events. On average – it was 60

attendees across our 29 Programming events. •

What was the average attendance as a % of your goal for all programs combined?

•

Overall we exceeded our attendance goal across all events by 13%.


Communications Communicaitons Planning Strategic Communications Plan for Chicago AMA: Overall Mission: Engage and retain Chicago AMA prospects, members, volunteers and supporters by providing marketing thought-leadership, insightful information and value-add communications utilizing the most effective and efficient processes, tools and marketing best practices, in an effort to generate a buzz about the Chicago AMA as a recognized and leading force in the next generation of marketing. Overall Top 3 Objectives: 1. Create and implement a consistent, relevant and effective brand and communication strategy that establishes the Chicago AMA as a thought leader, reliable resource and highly regarded authority for the next generation of marketing in the Chicago-land area. 2. Streamline processes to allow for more efficient and effective integrated marketing and communication efforts, both internal and external to the organization. 3. Increase the level of engagement with the marketing community in Chicago, via our marketing and communication initiatives, in support of the overall mission of the Chicago AMA to increase membership, event participation, volunteers, sponsors and supporters of the organization. Aligning Communications Strategies Across the Chapter: As Communications touches every key aspect of the chapter, it was critical to align strategies with not only the overall Chapter goals, but each division area as well. We aligned our team of directors based on our strategic areas of outreach: • • •

Programming/Events Communication/ Promotion Membership Communications SIG Communications

Our strategic plan outlined how each of these areas integrates with the Communications processes and procedures for effectively communicating and promoting each of these core areas.


Thus, the Communications Strategic plan covered the following key focus areas of Branding & Communications for the Chicago AMA: • • • • • • •

Overall Branding & Communications Committee (Team Operations & Management), Event Communications (Chapter-wide and SIG Event Communications), Membership Communications, Social Media Marketing, Chapter Content & Communications, Website Management, and Branding & Special Event Communications.

Breaking out our strategic planning across all of these areas allowed us to have a precise focus and plan of action for the critical areas of our Chapter. Communications Goals, Measurement & Performance: The Communications committee goals were broken into 7 key areas, aligned with our organizational chart for the committee. Each of these key areas maintained their own goals/ objectives and KPIs, but keeping in line with the top 3 objectives as noted previously. A condensed version of measurable KPIs were created and updated monthly for review at each board meeting to track progress. The 7 key areas for communications, including goals and measurement, were as follows: Overall Branding & Communications Committee (Team Operations & Management) •

Create a high-performing volunteer committee comprised of talented, engaged, enthusiastic and committed marketing professionals across a variety of marketing disciplines to ensure we have the resources to accomplish our branding and communication initiatives. •

Measured by: Number of new & returning communication committee volunteers, volunteer engagement, volunteer commitment/turnover (reviewed in January and July), Chapter volunteer satisfaction survey (if applicable)

•

Instill an overall sense of pride and accomplishment for volunteers on the Brand and Communications Committee. Ensure that volunteers are being utilized as well as recognized for their efforts, big and small. •

•

Measured by: Volunteer recognition, volunteer engagement/turnover, volunteer satisfaction survey

Measured by: Monthly check of actuals/forecast vs. budget

Event Communications (Chapter-wide & SIG Event Communications) Work in partnership with the Programming Team and SIG Team to implement robust program-specific communications that result in the most relevant and valuable marketing programs in Greater Chicago, leading to an elevated brand for Chicago AMA. •

•

Measured by: Event registrations and post-event survey/evaluations, reach and campaign measurement (email, social media and website analytics, promo/campaign tracking codes where applicable)

Optimize event communication effectiveness and increase awareness of CAMA’s events in the public, effectively demonstrating value and relevance within the marketing community, resulting in reaching or exceeding our event registration goals. •

•

•

Measured by: Event registrations and post-event survey/evaluations, reach and campaign measurement (email, social media and website analytics, promo/campaign tracking codes where applicable)

Develop a clear and concise event communications and branding strategy, working in partnership with our external creative team (All Terrain), to heighten the Chicago AMA brand recognition, positioning, value proposition, visual identity and messaging (including “sub-brand” strategy “CMO Series”, “Evening Events”, SIG Events, etc.) •

Measured by: Consistent use of brand strategy, post-event survey/evaluations

Work in partnership with the Membership Team & Brand Task Force to further define our unique consumer-facing value proposition for both existing and potential members within first quarter of new calendar year to increase AMA value perception & retention •

Maintain fiscal responsibility by operating at or below assigned budget •

•

Membership Communications

•

Increase awareness of AMA’s differentiating value among potential new members to drive acquisition •

•

Measured by: 1. Brand survey among existing and potential new members; 2. Acquisition growth YOY; 3. Retention growth YOY

Measured by: 1. Acquisition growth YOY

Drive engagement among Board and existing members to promote & deliver upon AMA’s promise •

Measured by: 1. Board participation; 2. Event participation; 3. Engagement within social media platforms

Social Media Marketing •

Build follower engagement on social media platforms (e.g. Thought Leadership on LinkedIn, Facebook/ LinkedIn Polls, etc.) •

•

Enhance the promotion of programming and SIG events on social media platforms •

•

Measured by: Number of posts/tweets/updates

Utilize social media platforms to further engage college students, in order to increase membership and be recognized as the premier professional organization to join •

•

Measured by: Number of posts/tweets/updates

Utilize social media platforms to recognize and thank volunteers •

•

Measured by: Follower counts / engagement

Measured by: Recruitment of collegiate bloggers, promotion of college events

Determine goals to measure the success of social media activity / Use of Sprout Social to manage social media / analytics •

Measured by: Trained volunteers on use of Sprout


Social; Use of Basecamp to better communicate social media processes

how to volunteer, member benefits and more. •

Chapter Content & Communications •

Increase efficiency and productivity of Chicago AMA communications team and processes with a specific focus on email communication effectiveness, establishing a realigned email strategy within the first quarter of the programming year. •

•

Align and incorporate Business Development initiatives into Chapter content and communications processes, ensuring consistency in branding and messaging and supporting the stated initiatives and goals for Chicago AMA business development. •

•

Measured by: Chicago AMA member feedback, website and social media analytics and overall engagement levels

Measured by: Consistent incorporation of Business Development content into the overall communications editorial calendar, consistent use of processes and templates

Ensure that Chicago AMA content and communications reflect the overall goals, mission and brand strategy of the Chicago AMA, remaining professional but also establishing a more personal, conversational influence. •

Measured by: Quarterly reviews of communications strategy against Chapter goals, mission and brand strategy, Member and Board feedback

Website •

Utilize the Chicago AMA website to further establish our reputation as a marketing thought leader and valuable resource for relevant content, up-to-date information on events and happenings, career information,


Support business development on website redesign project •

Measured by: Achieving milestones / deadlines in process towards full website relaunch by June 2013

Branding & Special Event Communications •

Focus on feature-driven content highlighting Chicago AMA’s marketing knowledge, expertise and insight while engaging prospects and members. •

•

Measured by: Email Open Rates and Click Through Rates, use of new templates across the organization, communication team member feedback, completion of planning and process documentation

•

Measured by: Analytics (Google Analytics reporting on monthly basis and/or as requested), feedback (board, volunteer, members and visitors)

Working with the Brand Task Force, develop and implement overall revised brand strategy for the Chicago AMA that will allow for more consistent and cohesive communications and branding across all initiatives and further establish the Chicago AMA as a leader in the next generation of marketing. •

•

Measured by: Post ReBranding Evaluation, Consistent Use of New Brand Strategy

Lead Communications efforts with BrandSmart Planning Committee to ensure high-quality, effective and efficient Branding & Communications for BrandSmart 2012. •

Measured by: Event participation and evaluations, campaign tracking and measurement

E-mail Communications Frequency & Type of Information •

Newsletter: •

•

We consistently sent out our Chicago AMA Connection e-newsletter bi-weekly throughout the programming year, averaging 2 issues per month. A total of 25 issues were sent during the 20122013 year. More information on our eNewsletter is in the next section.

•

Our subscriber database continued to grow throughout the year, starting at 6800 subscribers and ending the year at nearly 8800 subscribers. Our eNewsletter was sent to all of our subscribers, less those who opted-out. Our Open-Rates remained relatively consistent, averaging 24% for the year. Our Click-Through Rates averaged 3% for the year and our Unsubscribe Rate continued to decrease (a good thing!) to an average of 21%.

•

Throughout the year we continued to tweak our eNewsletter to better meet the needs of our subscribers, and to make our newsletter easier to read and navigate. Examples of the newsletter from the beginning of the year and the end are included to demonstrate the improvements made.

•

We utilized an editorial calendar to outline the theme for our Newsletter and to identify key Board members to contribute to the opening letter.

Other Email Communications: •

•

eNewsletter. This was delivered via electronic format only (via email and published to our website). The eNewsletter was delivered every other week (approximately 2x per month, for a total of 25 issues delivered during the programming year).

We maintained a consistent drumbeat and process for sending out all other email communications, so as to not inundate our mailing list subscribers with too many emails. These emails were carefully timed so as to not overlap with our eNewsletter communications. We utilized the ActOn Email Services to create, manage and track all of our email communications for the Chapter. On average, we sent 15 email communications per month. All other email communications included: event communications (promotions, information, thank-you’s), membership information (orientations, expiring/lapsed membership reminders, member-only information), SIG updates and events, sponsorship opportunities, and other ad-hoc chapter information as necessary (surveys, sponsored emails, partner events, etc.). We targeted our list per topic, so not all subscribers necessarily received all email communications sent. We also focused on personalized emails and personal messages from the president which performed well overall. We consistently focused on the effectiveness of our Subject Lines and the impact on Open-Rates, as well as tying promotions to email communications to track conversions and better optimize our strategy.

Attachments:

Attachments: •

Examples of Connection eNewsletter •

Beginning of Year Example

•

End of Year Example

•

Editorial Calendar for Connection

Traditional Earned Media

We were able to secure several earned media spots this year as a result of our business development and sponsorship initiatives. Below is a list of the following traditional earned media: •

Approximately 30, 15-second announcer-read spots on WBEZ public radio for various events throughout the year, including BrandSmart.

Newsletters

•

Connection eNewsletter

Banner advertisements in Crains Chicago Business and Advertising Age for BrandSmart

Attachments:

•

•

•

Email Communications for Event

•

Email Communications for Membership

The Chicago AMA published a bi-weekly Connection

WBEZ on-air script and Crain’s Banner


Internal Communications

Event Communications

Promote Mission, Vision and Goals

•

On average, the Chicago AMA promoted regular events 8 - 10 weeks in advnace

•

On average, the Chicago AMA promoted larger and special events 3 months in advnace

•

Internally The Chicago AMA shares it’s mission and vision with all internal teams on a regular basis, as a means to ensure everyone understands and is working consistently to achieve what we have stated. We review Chapter goals and individual committee goals via monthly KPIs to ensure that stated goals and objectives are on track, and to change the course if they are not.

Centralized Access •

Our chapter utilizes several tools to allow our volunteers centralized access to important documents and information. We primarily utilize Basecamp as a repository for all of our documents. All volunteers have general access to Basecamp, with specific access levels granted based on role and responsibilities. Within Basecamp, we also can send team emails, assign tasks and manage from a Master Calendar so that all volunteers are up-to-date and know what is up-coming.

•

We also utilize Act-on for our email services, where volunteers can access templates, run reports and manage all email campaigns for the Chapter.

•

We manage our social media through Sprout Social and are able to schedule posts and tweets, assign tasks and respond and engage with our community.

Contact Information •

All volunteers are given access to Basecamp, which includes up-to-date preferred contact information for each volunteer, including what their role is and what committee they are part of. At the beginning of the year, each Board member receives a packet of information which also includes preferred contact information for all of our Board members.

Attachments:

Pre-Event Communications •

We began communications planning and promotion for our Chapter events, on average, 8-10 weeks in advance of the event.

•

For our larger, special events (BrandSmart, Momentum), the promotion and communication typically begins 3 months in advance.

•

Our pre-event communications process for Chapter events was further refined this year and allowed us to have a more consistent approach to event communications. Our event communications and promotions typically included email communications, newsletter announcements, event promotion flyers, Next 5 flyer inclusion, cross-event promotion, social media, blogging (event specific and topic related), post-cards or other mailer (for larger events), media spots (sponsor dependent), website landing pages, dedicated website (for larger events), banner advertisements (sponsor dependent), community postings, partner media exchange/promotions, and sponsor/speaker promotion with their networks.

Post-Event Communications •

Our post-event communications process included a survey to attendees as well as a thank-you email that includes a thank you to speakers and sponsors, link to survey, link to speaker slides, link to pictures from the event, promotion for next event and loyalty discount to future event (if applicable) .

Attachments: •

Next 5 Flyer

•

BrandSmart Postcard

•

BrandSmart Flyer

•

Sunrise Flyer

•

Screenshots of Basecamp

•

EWE Flyer

•

Screenshot of Act-on

•

Momentum Postcard

•

ScreenShot of BrandSmart Website

•

ScreenShot of Momentum Website


•

Example of BrandSmart Banner Ad

•

Example of Event promotion email

•

Example of Event Thank You

Website

Content

On website?

Membership registration/application Member benefits Members-only content Volunteer opportunities

It is critical that our website be responsive going forward, with access from any device. Additionally, we would like to reorganize our content and prioritize based on our analytics and also sharing what is most critical at any given point in time. Thus we plan to move from a static website to a more dynamic website to reflect the changing needs of our audiences. We regularly track our website(s) performance through Google analytics and much of this information is being applied to our website redesign and the prioritization of content. Attachments: ScreenShot of Chicago AMA website specific areas: •

Membership registration

•

Membership benefits

Programs/events

•

Volunteers

Blog

•

Board

•

Events (Events List)

•

Blog

•

Sponsorship

•

Community

•

Career Center

•

BrandSmart Website

•

Momentum Website

Board members and/or chapter contact

Sponsorships Online community Note that we created dedicated websites for our two major events, BrandSmart and Momentum, as we felt these events were large enough and had so much information that a separate and dedicated website was essential. Our current website also has a dedicated Career Center area which garners a lot of traffic for our Chapter. While our current website contains all of the necessary information, except for gated member-only content (currently link to AMA), our site was originally created in Drupal and has grown organically over the last several years. We are now at a point where we need to redesign our website to ensure it meets the needs of our members, the greater audience we serve as well as our volunteers. This is a strategic initiative for 2013-2014 year, but a lot of the work on requirements and vendor identification has occurred in the 2012-2013 year.


Interactive Media New and Social Media Social Media Strategy Our social media strategy was to: 1. Engage an active and loyal audience 2. Promote our events 3. Share the benefits of membership in the AMA 4. Provide thought leadership on marketing topics 5. Recognize our volunteers, Board members, sponsors and speakers To manage each of our social channels, we created dedicated Social Media Managers responsible for the content and engagement on their respective social platforms. The following roles were created within the social media team: •

Facebook Manager

•

Twitter Manager

•

YouTube/SlideShare/Meetup Manager

•

LinkedIn Manager

We created the roles of Content Creators to manage content across all our social channels in an effort to develop engaging and consistent content. Combined with the use of Sprout Social to manage our Facebook and Twitter activity, we were able to develop a regular drumbeat for our social communications. We created dedicated hashtags for each of our events (and consistent for our Branded events) so that attendees and others could easily follow and contribute to the conversation, including live tweeting at events. A dedicated “Blog Squad” was available to provide articles, interviews and more to our Chicago AMA Blog. Managed through an editorial calendar, our blog topics were relevant to our programming initiatives and often provided an avenue to help further promote our upcoming events by creating buzz around a specific topic. We incorporated a feature into our Newsletter that featured


a different Board Member each month. We tied this to our blog to provide more content while also highlighting different Board members. Also included in this was a recurring “Letter from the President” article each month. This effort helped to put a more human touch to the efforts of the Chicago AMA. One of the goals of the Social Media team was to build and grow our audience of engaged marketers across our social platforms. We exceeded all of our goals in this area and have set the pace to begin engaging with our audience on a deeper level going forward. Social Media Platforms Social Platform

Activitity

Facebook

Status updates 2-8x per week (depending on events/topics/other activity)

Twitter

Daily tweets / Live tweeting during events

LinkedIn

2-4x per week (depending on events/topics/other activity)

YouTube

Posted videos as available pre/ post events

Slideshare

Included speaker slides and other relevant chapter information (event brochures, sponsorship information, etc.) as available.

Meetup

Event postings only

Twitter (BrandSmart)

Daily tweets leading up to event / Live tweeting during event

Mobile Technology We utilized mobile as a marketing tool for our BrandSmart conference this year, incorporating a mobile Playbook for all attendees to easily access all the information about the conference as well as additional bonus information and content as it related to the topical areas for the conference. We utilized QR codes within our BrandSmart Playbook as well as for some of our SIG events, so that attendees could access more information on speakers and their bios.

Attachments: •

Facebook Screenshot

•

Twitter Screenshot

•

BrandSmart Twitter Screenshot

•

LinkedIn Screenshot

•

Meetup Screenshot

•

YouTube Screenshot

•

Slideshare Screenshot

•

Blog Example

•

Sprout Social - Social Media Report

•

Brand Smart Mobile App Screen Shot


Signature Page Chapter Representative’s Signature to indicate that this CEA entry is being submitted as completed

Signature: Printed Name: Ann Kostopanagiotou Chapter & Boad Position: Chicago AMA - Immediate Past President Date: 8/29/13


Schedule of Attachments Leadership

Recruitment

CAMA By-laws

Spring acquisition campaign flyer & communication

2014-2015 change proposal

Spring acquisition campaign final report

Planning retreat kick-off agenda

Retention

2012-2013 Strategic & Operational Plan

Membership Survey PDF

KPI Scorecard, Balance Sheet and P & L

Communications

Quarterly financial review – “State of the Union”

Programming calendar

Mid-year “Retention go-forward” plan

Communication plan

Succession planning & key dates for nominating committee

Email Communications for Event

Board nomination application Board nomination form (with job descriptions) Board & divisional volunteer org charts Board commitment form Board Benefits pdf Volunteer survey report & questionnaire

Sponsorship Chapter sponsorship prospectus and media kit BrandSmart Sponsor Prospectus Momentum Sponsor Prospectus Evening W/Expert Sponsorship Prospectus & Flyer Sunrise Executive Series Sponsorship Prospectus Marketing Directory Media Kit Yound Professional Initiative

Membership

Email Communications for Membership Examples of Connection eNewsletter Screenshots of Basecamp Screenshot of Act-on Next 5 Flyer BrandSmart Postcard Sunrise Flyer EWE Flyer Momentum Postcard ScreenShot of BrandSmart Website ScreenShot of Momentum Website Website - Membership registration Website - Membership benefits Website - Board Website - Events Website - Blog

Final 2012-2013 Membership report

Website - Sponsorship

Lapsed member communication example

Website - Community

Connections E-newsletters intros from board Group membership communication

Website - Career Center


Additional Testimonials

• “As a currently unemployed person, I highly value job leads and professional development and events that help me network. “

• “CAMA provides a broad range of quality events, activities, and plentiful resources“

• “Great events and the people at the CAMA events

are very inviting and easy to talk to. The speakers are extremely knowledgeable and come from top notch companies.“

• “High value, relevant topics, diverse range of net-

working and professional development opportunities.“

• “I like the webinars and publications.

I have attended a few of the face-to-face classes and thought they provided a different perspective for approaching marketing issues.“

• “Love the topics and networking at SIG events.

As a more junior professional, I volunteered and made great connections.

“

• “Got to meet great people, learned more about the market research field, got the advice to go to grad school.“

• “Hands on marketing activities to develop skills in ar-

eas where I had not worked before (e-mail production, social media). Ability to meet and collaborate with peers from a variety of businesses in the area.“

• “Networking, camaraderie amongst team members,

learning Drupal CMS, knowledge of the workings of a volunteer organization.“

• “Outside of being fun, it was a great opportunity to

build a network that led several times to clients and build new skills that did the same.“

• “The networking, professional development and

building relationships both professionally and personally through collaboration with other volunteers and Board leaders. The opportunity to enhance and move forward the marketing profession and industry within the Chicagoland area.“