Membership and Marketing

Standing Committee

Spring Board Meeting, 2011

Committee members: Stefan Baratto, Ruth Collins, Mike Hardie, Nancy Sattler, Donna Saye, Jane Tanner (chair), Beverly Vance, Steve Wilson, Jean Woody, Bruce Yoshiwara, and Rob Farinelli (ex-officio)

The FBM 2010 was very productive from the Membership and Marketing standpoint. Many of our initiatives from the past three years were institutionalized with the approval of the following motions:

  • Motion that the Thursday evening First-time Attendee Social Event, first held at the annual AMATYC conference in Las Vegas in 2009 and continued in Boston 2010, be institutionalized as an annual conference event with the expectation that this event will take place at every annual AMATYC conference.

That the AMATYC budget be updated to include a separate line item for this event in the conference budget, beginning in 2012, and be taken from special projects in 2011.

Should the Conference Committee determine that it is not in the organization’s best interests to hold the event in a given year, the Committee will notify the Executive Board of their determination and the Executive Board will discuss how to proceed.

  • The amended Motion that the two initiatives below, put forth by the Membership & Marketing Committee and approved by the Executive Board in 2008 and continued through 2010, be continued indefinitely.

1. Discount Registration for New Conference Attendees ($50); originally approved at SBM08.

2. Coupon for New Conference Attendees to receive discount for following year’s membership dues ($50); originally approved at SBM08.

Additionally, the Bring-a-Friend Campaign originally approved at SBM08 will be retired.

Much brainstorming occurred during the committee meetings in Boston. In fact, Keven Dockter, in his role as Conference Coordinator, submitted a motion to award scholarships for members to reduce their registration costs at AMATYC Conferences. Part of the motion was that the Membership and Marketing Committee would decide the guidelines on how to distribute the scholarships. According to the motion this was to be completed by SBM 2011. This motion was postponed so that the committee could discuss it further during their committee meeting in Boston.

What developed at this meeting was a new motion that was easier to oversee the distribution of the scholarships. The following motion was approved:

  • Motion that one affiliate scholarship in the form of a complimentary conference registration (member rate, early registration) be given to each affiliate to be awarded to an individual. It is recommended that this be given to an individual who hasn’t previously attended an AMATYC conference. An individual can receive this scholarship only one time from the affiliate. These scholarships will be made available for the 2011 Austin and 2012 Jacksonville conferences. The funding for these affiliate scholarships will come out of Special Projects. The effectiveness of this initiative will be reported at the 2013 SBM.

Jim Roznowski, in his role as President-Elect and liaison to the affiliate presidents, has emailed each affiliate president with the details of the scholarship. The affiliate president from Texas has already responded with his recipient.

The committee wishes to thank the Board for their patience as new ideas are generated and motions are formed during our face-to-face meeting time. It has always been our intent to have a conference call before board meetings, but it seems these ideas come up when we are meeting face-to-face. Rather than delay bringing a motion forward, it is brought to the meeting with hopes that board members will be excited about our ideas.