Accomplishments/Progress: Your Triangle AMA Chapter is off to another record year!

• The August luncheon meeting set a record for the largest attendance ever, with 202 attendees and over 241 registrations. (Jane Collins, Director of Consumer Insights for MySpace.com, shared the results of a recent consumer-focused qualitative and quantitative research study, commissioned by Fox Interactive Media, Isobar, and CaratUSA, to understand how and why consumers interact within social networks.)
• The chapter has grown to over 380 members and is on track to reach 400, with membership retention up from 63% to 77%, year over year. 
• The chapter is hosting, for the first time ever, a Branding Boot Camp, December 4-6, 2008. Stay tuned for more details online at www.triangleama.org.
• Congratulations to the following Triangle AMA Board Members on their recent and not-so-recent promotions and/or new positions: Jonathan James - VP-Marketing, Global Outsourcing & Infrastructure Services, Unisys. Shane Johnston - Director of North America Marketing Communications, Nortel. Betsy Gartner Graham - K-12 IT Market Manager, SchoolDude.com Karen Albritton – President, Capstrat

Plans/Actions/Challenges

This year, the board adopted a theme “Marketing and Networking…Outside the Box.” We felt in order to continue to offer the excellent programming, networking opportunities, and other membership benefits of the Triangle AMA, we were going to have to do things a little better and perhaps, differently. To that end: 

•  We’ll be hosting several socials this year where we can continue to meet and catch up with each other outside of the monthly luncheon meetings. 
•  Don Mazzella, CEO/Publisher of Information Strategies and The Small Business Digest, will be speaking on the 7 Tested Keys to Successful Small Business Marketing at our September 18, 2008 meeting at Brier Creek Country Club.
• We’re looking to grow the chapter, with YOUR help and referrals, with the Fall 2008 Member Acquisition Campaign that runs September 1 through October 31. New members will get their $30 application fee waived (member and chapter fees still apply) and $20 prepaid MasterCard will still be offered as a special incentive. Another offer, $200 conference discount coupon, will also be available on the web, as an alternative to the $20 MasterCard.
• We may need to raise the monthly luncheon prices to cover the increases in food and beverage costs, as well as speaker compensation and expense reimbursement. We’ll be looking into the issue and will form an ad hoc committee to evaluate and report on this.

Parting Thoughts

There’s never been a better time to renew your membership, become a member, or become a more active member of the Triangle AMA Chapter than right now! With the Chief Market Strategist of JPMorgan Funds forecasting “continued weakening in the (US) job market through the end of this year,” why wouldn’t you want to be having fun and networking with the area’s leading marketing professionals?

To become more involved in the chapter, please check out our volunteer opportunities at http://www.triangleama.org/JoinConnectGrow/13/volunteer-opportunities-triangle-ama-nc/ or send an email to volunteer@triangleama.org.