Hello, Presidents-Elect! It's Friday morning and I am sitting in my room preparing for the kickoff of Leadership Summit 2007 in just an hour or so. I'm feeling inspired to write about the April truth of the month: Great AMA leaders have a strong, unified vision for their chapter. Leadership Summit is the perfect time to think about this because it's a real opportunity to think about your chapter in relation to the bigger brand of AMA. So many exciting things are going on within the Association! So the question becomes what is your vision for the 2007-2008 fiscal year? What will your chapter do and be to create an incredible experience for your membership?

Most of you will be here this weekend, and I encourage you to spend the weekend thinking about your chapter's vision. If it isn't clear to you, find some team time to really talk about this important issue. Ask other chapters what their thoughts are about it. Commit to getting crystal clear (for yourself, of course, and also for your entire team) about what your vision is and what steps you need to take to make it real.

What I know for sure is that people rally behind leaders and organizations with vision. What I also am confident of is that the vision you put in place will not only guide your planning, but it will sustain you and carry you forward when you encounter those inevitable road bumps along the way. So this weekend, dream big. Imagine the possibilities. Be confident in yourself and your team. Find your rallying cry and you will be well on your way to an incredible year in 2007-2008!

Please feel free to post your ideas and comments in response in this forum. If you have a question or chapter issue that you'd like to discuss anonymously or have recommendations for this blog, please contact me directly at
ama-elects@linkageresearch.com.

Michele DeKinder-Smith
President-Elect
Professional Chapters Council

Posted by Michele DeKinder-Smith at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rachel, president-elect of XYZ chapter, has been thinking about the current board members who are staying on to serve with her in ’07-’08. She’s a little concerned about Tim, VP of Communications. Tim does great work for the chapter but always seems on the edge of burnout. Rachel feels he is doing too much of the work himself, but every time he is given a volunteer for his committee, he doesn’t really utilize that person’s time and talent, and they end up falling by the wayside.

When Rachel meets with Tim, she listens to him talk and learns that he wants to be promoted in his job. Asking questions, she sees that Tim is reluctant to delegate at work, too. Clearly, he’ll need to learn to do that if he wants to manage the department. Tim has a great opportunity to learn delegation skills. Rachel gently broaches the subject and Tim is in agreement. He wants to be better at delegating, but he simply doesn’t know how.

So, Presidents-Elect, what can Rachel do to help Tim grow in his ability to delegate?

Please feel free to post your ideas and comments in response in this forum. If you have a question or chapter issue that you'd like to discuss anonymously or have recommendations for this blog, please contact me directly at
ama-elects@linkageresearch.com.

Michele DeKinder-Smith
President-Elect
Professional Chapters Council

Posted by Michele DeKinder-Smith at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hello, Presidents-Elect! Just think, only 5 more months until you become president of your chapter! Now is the time to really hone down on the type of leader you intend to be and start showing your team what they can expect.

A perfect way to do this is to set your intention to follow the truth Great AMA leaders help their teams develop personally and professionally. Think about it … Everyone who volunteers to be on your team does so for a reason. Your job as a leader is to understand why they volunteer and then make sure they are seeing results in those areas.

So, this month, plan to spend time with each person you can. Ask them the following:

• What are the three key things you hope to get out of your volunteer experience as a member of our team?
  
• At the end of the year, how will you know whether you were successful?

Everyone’s reasons may vary. Some may want to hone their presentation skills. Some may want to broaden their network. Some may want the opportunity to lead a team (committee). Regardless of their individual motivations, if you know what they want and how they will evaluate whether they got it, you have all the information you need to help ensure you have a happy and productive board.

Next take this information and see if there are common themes. If so, perhaps you have the opportunity to have a guest speaker give a workshop on this topic at your board retreat or an extended board meeting. For goals that are unique, develop a simple action plan that will help that volunteer achieve their personal/professional goals. If they want to learn presentation skills, have them introduce the speaker at a couple of events. If they want to broaden their network, get them involved with membership acquisition or retention so they can meet lots of people. If they want to lead a team, help them build a committee and make sure you have 1-on-1 time with them to help them learn the best ways to manage that team so they see themselves being successful.

As you go through this process, don’t forget to ask yourself! What do you want out of your volunteer time and effort? How do you need to structure your board and your own workload to make sure you are getting what you need out of your AMA experience?

Good questions to ask yourself over the coming week. Happy February!

Please feel free to post your ideas and comments in response in this forum. If you have a question or chapter issue that you'd like to discuss anonymously or have recommendations for this blog, please contact me directly at
ama-elects@linkageresearch.com.

Michele DeKinder-Smith
President-Elect
Professional Chapters Council

Posted by Michele DeKinder-Smith at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Presidents-Elect, did you know there are a host of tools available to you online within the Chapter Resources section that can help you with your efforts to grow your volunteer base? Here’s a list of great tools available:

Within Board in a Box:

• Board Appeal: a letter designed to help you recruit a new board member
  
• Board Benefits Kit: a way to position the many benefits of being a board member
  
• CPA Recruitment Letter: a letter designed to help you recruit a CPA for your board
  
• Expanded Organizational Chart: to help you get ideas for how your committees and team could be structured
  
• Volunteer Sign-Up: template you can use to promote volunteer opportunities at meetings and gather names of interested members

• Job Descriptions for Key Volunteers: List of overall responsibilities of key committees
  
• Value of Volunteering PowerPoint: Slide show explaining the benefits of volunteering, including lots of great testimonials from volunteers across the country. (Scroll down to Volunteer Recruiting Tools-5 Parts)

Take a moment this week to check out a few of them. Report back on what you found that is going to help your chapter make 2007 a great year or share what other tools you have or think chapters need in this area.

Please feel free to post your ideas and comments in response in this forum. If you have a question or chapter issue that you'd like to discuss anonymously or have recommendations for this blog, please contact me directly at
ama-elects@linkageresearch.com.

Michele DeKinder-Smith
President-Elect
Professional Chapters Council

Posted by Michele DeKinder-Smith at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John, president-elect of XYZ chapter, has noticed that Karen, his chapter’s VP of Membership, always seems frazzled at board meetings. The chapter’s overall performance in the area of membership has been fairly average and consistent over time and John thinks Karen has been doing a fine job managing the role. However, she has kind of been a “one-man-band” and John has been stalling in asking her if she will stay on in the role for another year because he’s been afraid she is going to quit.

The membership role within John’s chapter has a reputation of being very demanding. John’s never worked in membership before, so he doesn’t understand all of the individual steps Karen manages, but he’s read in Board in a Box that membership should really have at least 6 volunteers. Karen has been going it alone for two years now and John knows if she leaves a lot of knowledge will be lost.

So, Presidents-Elect, what should John do to help his chapter build for depth and coverage in membership in his chapter?

Please post your ideas and comments in this forum. If you have a question or chapter issue that you'd like to discuss anonymously or have recommendations for this blog, please contact me directly at ama-elects@linkageresearch.com.

Michele DeKinder-Smith
President-Elect
Professional Chapters Council

Posted by Michele DeKinder-Smith at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)