A Piece of the Pie

Kudos

Congratulations Southwest Florida Chapter! The hard work and careful thought your Leadership Team has put into the first quarter of the year was rewarded at the state Association quarterly meeting...

• With a mention in the "Best Practices" section for the creation of the "Credentialing" Chair name to encompass both Accreditation and Certification programs
• With a mention in the "Best Practices" section for the creation of the pie chart image to visually represent where your Chapter dollars were coming from and where they were going
• Our plan to offer six $100 membership scholarships/rebates is the most generous in the state
• There are fewer than 75 CPRC's in the state - and seven of them belong to the SWFL Chapter - that's 10% of all the pr practitioners in the Association who hold this top level credential!

Did You Renew??

The membership renewal period officially ended October 31. As of that date, our Chapter was the 4th largest in the state Association with 54 members; 59.34% of our members had renewed; and we had reached 52.94% of the goal set for us by the state Association of 102 members. If you have not renewed your membership by the end of November, you will not receive member services. On December 31, 2008 your name will officially be dropped from the rolls and you will incur a late fee to reinstate your membership. With so much in store for FPRA this year, you don't want that to happen!

Image Awards to See Big Changes

As Kathleen mentioned in her post last night, we will assume the responsibilities for chairing our local Image Awards program "Super-Powered PR" - along with assistance from various board members and, hopefully, a lot of YOU who would like to get involved in your Chapter this year! There are a LOT of changes to Image this year, bringing the program into the 21st century with new categories that offer a place for podcasts, blogs, webinars and more (no more 1/2" video tapes!).

SWFL Chapter to Sponsor Golden Image Awards

Each year the Chapters are asked to sponsor a portion of the annual conference, such as the Dillon Dessert, Chocolate Break, Hospitality Suite, etc. Your Board of Directors built Conference sponsorship into the Chapter budget and for 2009, the SWFL Chapter will be the proud sponsors of the Golden Image Awards! This opportunity affords our Chapter great ROI, and provides a way for our Chapter to support the program in which our members are consistently winners.

And the Survey Says... You're It!

Do you know what the #1 reason is that people join FPRA? YOU! That's right - according to the annual benchmark survey, existing members are the #1 reason people join FPRA. Who have you invited to FPRA lately?

There's much more from this meeting to share and we will be compiling notes and making them available to you. For now, we're glad to be back home and ready for the next challenge! Oh - a bit of trip trivia - Kathleen knows EVERY word to ALL the songs from "Mamma Mia"! And boy, can that girl SING!