Some of our successes/achievements/changes for the year include:

• Adding new Board Members:  Nancy Jess, VP of Finance; Kayla Kreis, Director of Leadership Development; Kimberly Williams, CMP, Member-at-Large; Caitlin Gaborow, CMP, Director of Communications; Laura Vecchio, CMP, Director of Sponsorships; Jessica Joralemon, CMP, Director of Special Events; and Jennifer Kearney, CMP, Director of Monthly Meetings.

• Operating a large portion of the year without a Chapter Business Manager assigned from MPI Global since they too were going through staff changes.

• Working through a staff transition with Paragon Events mid-way through the year and being assigned Julee Cooke as our Chapter Administrator during the second half of the year. THANK YOU JULEE for everything you did to make our chapter run smoothly.

• Interviewing and hiring a new Chapter Administrator who starts officially on July 1, 2018 while stepping away from our existing Paragon contract. Nancy Wengert will serve as our new Chapter Administrator for 2018-19 year. She comes with a wealth of marketing and communication expertise along with an association management background. Our board is thrilled to be working with Nancy this coming year.

• Holding another successful Fall Focus event with over 100 people in attendance while also producing four additional education events with great speakers and discussion groups. Kudos to our VP of Education Carla Rosenbaum, CMP and Director of Monthly Programs Jennifer Kearney, CMP and their education team for their hard work and dedication to make these events happen.

• Replacing our Annual Golf Tournament with an amazing Inaugural Global Meetings Industry Day Gala this past April 12, 2018. This spectacular fundraising event at the Albany Capital Center hosted 145 attendees and raised over $10,000! Congratulations to our new Director of Special Events Jessica Joralemon and her team of volunteers who really “hit one of out of the park.” On top of the Gala, the Special Events team also held four Cocktails and Connections with high attendance numbers.

• Creating another successful online Gala Silent Auction with bids totaling $8,505 and 54 items valued at $21,872 available. The action hosted 78 bidders and 286 bids, netting approximately $6,400 for our chapter after auction expenses.

• Participating in the MPI Chairman’s Challenge for the first time in years and donating $367 to the MPI Foundation.

• Organizing a fabulous membership event in January with National Speaker Judi Holler followed by a successful committee and membership drive. We could not have done that without the hard work of our membership team led by VP of Membership Melissa Carter and Director of Membership Colleen Whitaker, CMP.

• Finalizing the merger of the Eastern Great Lakes Chapter into the Northeastern NY chapter to provide new opportunities for networking and education while increasing membership by 50 individual members. With this change, we added two members from the Western Region to our Board structure.

• Creating an investment account with Edward Jones so that our reserves are managed to produce higher returns.

• Transitioning to a new website that now truly reflects the brand and quality of our chapter. Thanks to VP of Communications Theresa Wutzer Moore, CMP and her team of volunteers who made this happen with Global. We also thank our communications team for keeping us connected and supporting all areas of our chapter through program eblasts, newsletters, social media posts and announcements throughout the year.

• And managing an annual budget of just over $65,000 for a volunteer-based organization with the expertise of our amazing VP of Finance Nancy Jess.

Our chapter always strives to reach the highest goals presented by Global. We share the  survey results below  as a testament to you that we will continue to work to achieve our goals. I hope you will agree with me that this was a spectacular year and the 2018-19 year has even more in store for you!  

I look forward to seeing you on June 20th at the June Cocktails and Connections at The Mill on Round Lake where we will induct our new Board Members and celebrate the year.

Truly grateful to all of you,

Steven Preston, CMP

• Using your conference app in case of an emergency or even using it as a backup during presentations should the power go out. Typically, speakers and attendees can find the presentation on the app.

• Putting emergency contact information on the back of name badges in case someone is incapacitated during a health crisis and cannot assist.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Welcome to our
New Members

New MPI Board to be Inducted at Annual Meeting in June