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July IMC-MI
Summer Recess
There will be no meeting in July;
however, that does not mean that nothing is going to
happen this summer - we will just not be having meetings
for the months of July and August. The newsletter
will continue to be published to keep our membership
updated on the activities underway for the next program
season.
We had a smaller turnout than normal for
the June meeting - although that was actually
good in that the smaller group permitted everyone
in attendance to participate in the conversations.
Dennis Schumaker started the conversation by presenting
his thoughts on the topic of a Business
Plan To Grow Membership and Membership
Participation . The Business Plan
presented was based on the following basic
premises:
1. Consultants participate in local chapter
activities to get more business
2. Certification is important, but is not a
primary driver for member participation at local
chapters
3. Professional development is important, but has
little to do with member participation
From which the following overall conclusion was
drawn:
Membership participation will only grow if we
create more business for consultants
From this overall conclusion the
following strategy has been developed for next years
program:
IMC-MI needs to create more business for
consultants thought increased visibility, networking
opportunities, and practice development.
Several initiatives were presented and
discussed along the lines of :
Newsletter
Initiative - The newsletter will continue
to be published for the next year. The
distribution will be expanded over the next several
months to include, in addition to IMC-MI members, past
guests where they must opt in to continue
receiving the newsletter, select members of other IMC
chapters, candidates for memberships in Southeastern
Michigan and eventually potential clients or buyers of
consulting services.
Website
Initiative - The website will be
operational by September when the 2005-2006 program will
be publish on the site. We will also be using the
newsletter to point readers to our website for such
things as signing up to receive the newsletter,
downloading presentations, etc.
Meeting
Initiatives - The meeting program is being
reconsidered. We are currently looking at a couple
of evening dinners as networking and membership "rush"
opportunities. In addition, an evening meeting in
Grand Rapids or Lansing is also under
consideration. More use of materials from IMCUSA,
Taking Flight and other programs, is being
considered for meetings. This will require more
member participation to put on these
programs.
Membership
Initiatives - We are looking
to connect with other organizations in
southeastern Michigan including the Chamber of Commerce,
Financial Executives ? Group, Marketing Executives ?
Group, and other consulting firms to be able to
increase IMC-MI visibility and perhaps "harvest" email
addresses that can be added to our newsletter
mailing list. Ravi Nayar and Don Reimer have
agreed to work on the Chamber of Commerce connect
and Steve Schnell is working on the FENA connection
since he is a member.
Public Relations/Advertising
Initiatives - The general consensus at the
meeting was that the visibility of IMC-MI in
Southeastern Michigan is very low. We are
investigating methods of increasing our visibility via
meeting announcements in Crains, Great Lakes Journal (3
month ad $150), articles in print media, speaking
engagements, and interviews on radio,
including advertising on radio. The general
consensus is that more public relations effort are
needed.
Over the next several months, these
ideas will be taking shape. The newsletter will
keep everyone posted on our progress. |
Bill Newman, CMC, ASQ has over 20 years
experience in Information Technology, Management
Consulting and Engineering Services and serves as an
Executive Director with gedas, a brand services company
of the Volkswagen group providing technology management
and consulting services (