December 2011 President's Message | ISPI

As ISPI Potomac prepares to kick off the New Year, I'd like to share our challenges and successes and let each of you know that we're getting ready to celebrate them both next week. (Note: Since challenges are the life blood of performance improvement, we should celebrate them!)

At the beginning of the chapter year, we laid out goals we believed would put the organization on the right track and lead it in the right direction. Those goals were:

Increase member engagement and retention through use of social media.
Increase number of chapter members with CPT through recruiting, programming and messaging.
Increase membership by building relationships with higher education institutions in DC metro area.
Gain access to high quality facilities for monthly and special programs by building relationships with DC metro area institutions.
Increase visibility of ISPI Potomac by cooperating with other high-visibility associations in the DC metro area.

Here's a quick rundown of how we're executing against our goals:

To go along with its LinkedIn and Vimeo pages, ISPI Potomac is now on Twitter (@ISPIPotomac) and Facebook.

We were fortunate to have Gay Bruhn, Director of Certification and Industry Relations from ISPI, join us on September 13 and provide a roadmap showing our members how to get from Point A to CPT. For those of you who are considering getting your CPT, Gay and the members of this year's ISPI Potomac Board are ready to help!

After building a solid relationship last year with Georgetown University and University of Maryland Baltimore County, we are looking to expand our reach into the colleges and universities in the area. If any members would like to assist with this effort, please contact me directly to let me know.

After struggling to find venues in previous years and relying on the good graces of some of our members (Thanks to Roz Morgan and Steptoe among others!) we were fortunate to run into Doug Leigh, Instructional Technology Project Leader at National Science Foundation, at the 2011 ISPI Conference in Orlando and secure use of NSF through the 2011-2012 chapter year for our programs. Additionally, we received a discounted rate for the brand new Virginia Tech Research Center where we held our full-day workshop, Make Work Great with Ed Muzio of Group Harmonics.

As we recruited Ed Muzio to come to DC and present a 2-hour program and full-day workshop to our members, we were able to offer him the opportunity to present to the American Marketing Association's DC Chapter. AMADC members were very pleased with Ed's workshop and Ed was pleased to present to a group he wouldn't ordinarily engage with.

Beyond the chapter goals, this year we submitted an entry for the ISPI Chapter Award of Excellence and were very excited this week when we received the news that we won! The Awards of Excellence will be bestowed during the lunchtime Awards Recognition Ceremony on Saturday, April 21, 2012 at THE Performance Improvement Conference in Toronto, ON, Canada. Many thanks to Molly Wankel who drove the entry completion process and put the chapter in position to win this award.

In closing, I'm pleased with the first half of our year and excited about the second half and now it's time to celebrate! I encourage each of you to join the ISPI Potomac board on Tuesday, December 13 for a Holiday Mingle at the Center Cafe at Union Station. The Center Cafe is right in the center of the entrance to Union Station. Come out enjoy some food and company while celebrating the holiday season.

Where:
Center Cafe at Union Station.
Washington DC
www.unionstationdc.com

When:

5 pm to 8 pm

Cost to Attend:
$5 members

$10 non-members