Today's going to be a pretty cool luncheon. Not only will I, and a bunch of my friends in the Training and Learning profession get to eat a whole bunch of chocolate at what has been billed as our local ASTD chapter's renowned annual "Death By Chocolate" event, but I'll also be one of the proverbial "guards" to whom the reins will be passed for chapter management.
Today, I'll be taking over the reins as the new VP for Communications. I'll hold that spot for the remainder of 2010. My predecessor(s) did a great job of laying a foundation for me to build upon. And build I shall... (*sinister laugh*) I've already submitted by budget requirements for 2010.
The big infrastructure projects I've got in my sights for 2010 include:
- Revamping our web site. I've been jonesin' for this for nearly two years now. Our existing site is old, tired and very, very static. (To wit: our site is down hard as of this writing.) Be on the lookout for an RFP from me soon after the new year. I'll be looking for folks who want to bid on helping us install and configure an open source platform (leaning towards Joomla at the moment) with a really slick theme, community features, social media sharing features and...well, be on the lookout for the RFP. I'll cross-post it here on BusinessCasualBlog.com when I have it written. (Email me if you think you'll have some interest in submitting a bid.)
- Getting our chapter solidly on track with a new list host. We need to be able to touch our members and prospective members in a more intelligent way. The existing (internally-hosted) email campaigning system flies blind. What I mean is that there's scant capability to see any analytics that will give us insight to what our members find interesting, what our open rates are, as well as click-through rates, bounces, opt-ins/outs, and so on. Switching platforms will be a relatively easy hurdle (save maybe for having to re-opt in our whole list again), but the real challenge will be in developing coherent, story-based copy and message sequences that our list members will find relevant, informative and compelling. If you have any copy writing tips for me, let me know. I'm a sponge, man!
- Installing a membership management software system. We don't really have one at the moment. Well, yes we do, but, no, not really. It's a very manual process today. A process that finds us ironically foregoing chapter revenue (?!) in favor of pro-rating membership fees when someone joins later in the year. (HUGE opportunity cost!) We have apparently been doing it this way in order to make the bookkeeping and the administrivia of membership expirations easier to manage. (Tell me if you see the same thing I'm seeing... we're incurring no less an 85% opportunity cost by my reckoning.)
- Increasing our chapter's capacity for social media. Ha ha. This is a no-brainer. I started the year with a pledge to change hearts and minds at my chapter. I'm still on that mission. >:)
Here I go. Wish me luck!
Photo courtesy: LeadingAnswers.com
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