Dear Chapter Leaders,

As you all know, this month is Member Month, and we’re offering 15 months for the cost of 12 to the first 1000 members, new members and lapsed members who take advantage of the offer. Members are the heart and soul of our association, and as chapter leaders, you are the most direct interaction we have with them. We’d like your help in supporting this promotion and helping retain existing members, attract more new members, and getting previous members to come back. The success of this effort will benefit us all.

Thank you for your support,

Robin Russell McCasland
2013-2014 Chair
International Executive Board

The 25 November deadline to enter this year’s Chapter Management Awards is just weeks away! Don’t miss the chance to nominate your chapter in any or all of the following eight categories:

• Membership Marketing
• Professional Development
• Financial Management
• Leadership Development
• Communication
• Student Involvement
• Community Involvement
• Sponsorship

This is your opportunity to have your chapter’s accomplishments recognized by your IABC peers.
Winners will be announced during the Leadership Institute in New Orleans in February. Enter your chapter to win here.

Do you have an award program that’s ready for positive change?

We’re getting ready to launch IABC’s Awards Alignment program and we’re looking for chapters and regions already running and awards program to participate in year one of this association-wide endeavor.

The Aligned Awards program will help to reduce the number of volunteer hours invested in awards by providing administrative help through online systems for registration, entry and evaluation. A trained and tested global evaluation team will score your entries, reducing the volunteer time and effort it takes to run an awards program even more.

Partnering with AwardSentry, an external provider of online solutions for professional associations, we will build the premier global communication awards program.

We need input from chapter and regional leaders to work out some details and make sure that the program adds value to chapters and award entrants.

The program aligns with Gold Quill rules, divisions, categories, and score sheets based on IABC’s Global Seven-point Excellence scale.

Interested? If your chapter or region would like to participate in year one, please email Claire Watson, ABC at cwatson@iabc.com and get connected.

This year IABC celebrates its leadership in New Orleans at the Loews Hotel, three blocks from the French Quarter. From professional development to networking, nightlife, the food, the fun and the memories, LI 2014 promises to be a unique experience.
Join us on February 6 early for a specially priced pre-conference workshop offering certificates in Executive Leadership and Personal Brand. At lunch time, Gregg Lederman, best-selling author of Engaged!, shares his insights on how to create customers for life.

LI is open to all members, but it is targeted to our chapter leaders around the world. We’re working on a fabulous agenda to help you learn everything you need to know about how IABC works from the inside-out, so that you have all the tools and information that you need to be successful in your community. This year we will offer an in-depth “IABC 101” session led by International Executive Board Chair, Robin McCasland. Presenters will include other IEB members, staff and other IABC volunteer leaders. This session is designed to provide leaders with a total picture of how IABC is structured and how it works. You'll receive information and inspiration to lead your chapter and learn where to go to get more support through regions, chapters, headquarters staff and the IEB.

We'll honor our chapters of the year in the small, medium and large categories and salute our regional and chapter leaders of the year during the Chapter Management Awards at the welcoming reception on Thursday evening. It's a highlight of the conference that you won't want to miss.

The registration fee for the regular conference is $125 per attendee. Watch for information coming in November and book your flight early to get the best deal. Plan to participate in two days of leadership development, networking, bonding and loads of fun!

We are looking for volunteers to fill eight positions on the inaugural Certification Council. The Certification Council will be tasked with overseeing the development and implementation of a new professional certification credential to serve and reflect the changing needs of 21st-century communication professionals around the globe. Once launched, the new certification program will offer two credentials that will meet standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

You do not have to be an IABC member to serve on the Certification Council, and the new certification process will be open to all professional communicators around the world. All applications are due by 15 November 2013, and council members will be named by mid-December 2013. Read more about the Certification Council and how to apply here.

Among IABC’s wide variety of leadership opportunities, serving on the International Executive Board (IEB) offers a unique perspective on our association, as it is the body that sets the organization’s strategic direction. Every June, the IEB welcomes a new slate of directors, including a vice chair and treasurer/secretary, to fill vacancies created by term expirations. To get to that point, a nominating committee consisting of regional leaders from around the world considers applications from any members in good standing, with an eye toward balancing out the skills, abilities, knowledge and perspectives of prospective leaders.

As a current IABC leader, you might want to consider an IEB role as part of your personal leadership development plan. For more information, download the application and start preparing your responses —the submission deadline is 2 December 2013.

The November issue of Communication World (CW) magazine is out! In this month’s issue, learn how to turn your content marketing inside out by putting your customer front and center.

The web edition of CW is still open to the public, so feel free to share it with colleagues, prospects and friends. Members can also access the magazine through dedicated apps for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and Android devices.

Share CW with your chapter members: This informational flyer details how members can get the digital magazine, and includes links to the app stores.

We're excited to have Savanna Cheer join the staff at IABC as the new Chapter Relations Manager. Savanna’s first day was Wednesday, 6 November, and her primary responsibility will be to ensure that chapter leaders have what they need to successfully manage and grow their chapters.

She joins IABC after spending several years as a program manager for the alumni association at the University of California at Berkeley. She worked with over 80 District Chairs and engaged with almost 1,000 volunteers ensuring that they were well-trained, collaborative and engaged in various programs throughout the year.

Savanna has a real passion for working with volunteers and says she’s anxious to start building relationships with the chapter leaders at IABC. You can reach Savanna by email at scheer@iabc.com.

Special recognition and thanks to the following chapters and their leaders for recruiting new corporate memberships since the last newsletter:

IABC/Atlanta: Terry Cerisoles, International Executive Board member, recruited GE Power & Water as a Bronze corporate member.

IABC/Detroit and Chicago: Sheila Tomkowiak formed a Bronze corporate membership for her company, Grayton Integrated Publishing.

IABC/Greater Cincinnati: Amy Purcell formed a Bronze corporate membership for her company, Luxottica. 

IABC/Silicon Valley, Hawaii, NC Triangle: Brad Whitworth, ABC, IABC Fellow, referred Cisco HR Communications, which formed a new Bronze corporate membership. 

Find out if your team qualifies for savings now by getting a quote from Marie Coppola at mcoppola@iabc.com. The larger the group, the bigger the discount.