Presidents Message
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”- Winston Churchill
As I begin my last quarter as your Chapter President, I’d like to take a minute to reflect on the year we’ve had so far and thank a few people. We’ll be busy the next few months so I’m taking the time now to say this. I am honored to have served as your President the past 9 months and have learned so much during my years with IFMA and on the Board. It’s truly a unique experience. I’m better for the years I’ve been involved and what I’ve learned from so many inspiring people. I’d like to first thank my husband Drew who has supported me being President even when we were buying our house and having our daughter. I can’t say it was easy trying to juggle everything, but I know it was easier with his love and support.
We opened our year last July with the most successful sponsorship campaign the Chapter has ever had! Due to this overwhelming support we were able to have our Annual Chapter Appreciation, Mega Networking Event and our 1st Professional Member Event and Annual Sponsor Reception which was an overwhelming success! Thank you to Nicole, Roberta, and team for planning such fun events!
Our Monthly Programs this year were also great. Each year they seem to get better and better, and I know it’s difficult to find interesting, relevant programs year over year with little to no cost. Thank you to Ethan, Sydney and team for their hard work putting on our monthly programs.
We’ve been working tirelessly to improve our Chapter Membership experience and ensure that a recruiting process is in place and that new members feel welcome and stay on for years to come. Thank you to Amanda, Dianne and team for their hard work reshaping this committee.
This year we rolled out Cvent and a new chapter website design! We are always pushing forward to ensure we have the best system to reach our members with the most up to date information and relevant content. Thank you to Connie, Mike and team for your dedication to the Chapter for years and hard work on Communications.
Professional Development is the core of our chapter, and we strive to give opportunities to our members to learn and grow. This year we gave away $10,000 in WWP scholarships! We are always pushing to promote our credentials and give our members options to assist with their professional development. Thank you to Bob, Randall and team for all your efforts keeping education at the forefront of our mission.
We are also blessed to have members that love to donate their time and efforts to help others. Our Community Outreach events are very well attended, and we are so proud to know that our members wish to give back even after how busy we all are daily! Thank you to Marcia, Dana and their committee for planning wonderful events for our members to help the community.
We are looking forward to our upcoming Mike Bradley Memorial Greater Triangle Chapter of IFMA Foundation Golf Tournament! I hope to see many of you out on the links and hopefully we’ll have great weather this year! Thank you to Buck, Nancy and team for your dedication over the years, and we look forward to honoring Mike this year and for years to come.
I’d also like to say Congratulations to the 2015-2016 Board of Officers who were confirmed by the Chapter a few weeks ago! Randy, Dianne, Carol and Hayden will be a great team to lead us in the coming year! I look forward to working with you all and a special thanks to Neville for his guidance over the past year! Thank you to Tamara and Candi for their support of our Chapter as well. I have been very fortunate to have a great team to work with this year and in years past, and while I won’t miss being President I sure have enjoyed it! Looking forward to finishing out strong this spring!
Thank you!
Laura Shaw President 2014-2015
