President Message: It’s going to be a great IABC/BC year!!

Back to Blogs By Gemma Lawrence Posted: September 27, 2018

Hi everyone! Fall is upon us already. I hope that you all had a great summer and are looking forward to another IABC/BC year! Our board officially began its term on July 1st and we’ve been busy planning for a great year ahead for our members and volunteers.

We kicked off the year with our Fall Kick Off mixer at Craft Beer Market. It was our best attended Fall Kick Off in the last 4 years…and I suspect the most food we’ve had at an event for a while. Many of us even took home doggy bags (it was so good). We hope that those of you who attended had as much fun as the team did. A big thank you goes out to Craft, Bananatag and Invisionation Photography for sponsoring this event. Your support is always appreciated.

The food, service…and beer at Craft is so good that we’ve actually decided to hold some of our board meetings there! Thank you Craft for providing a private space for us.

Check out the rest of our photos courtesy of Invisionation Photography

Our annual membership survey

Earlier this year 103 of you took time out of your busy schedules to tell us what you think about IABC/BC and the programming that we offer – Thank you. Your feedback, and opinions really matter and I was happy to see so many of you sharing your views.

Current satisfaction levels are averaging out 3.5 out of 5, with 57% of you rating us at 4 or 5. While 88% of you saying that you are likely to renew your membership next year and 72% of you telling us that you would recommend us to other communications professionals. It’s clear to me that although some of you are really happy with our offerings, there are many of you whose needs aren’t being met currently so we have some work to do!

You’ve told us that personal development programs, networking events, SIGS and Jobline are most important to you – and when it comes to PD topics of Leadership, Digital Marketing Skills, Emerging Technologies, and Strategic Planning came out on top. You are also interested in professional certification and mentoring programs to help you all in your careers.

While a high percentage of our survey respondents have indicated after work/evenings and downtown Vancouver as their preferences for events, some of you told us that you want events outside of Vancouver, or at different times during the day. I hear you and I would love to be able to offer events at varying times, in varied locations – we just need teams of volunteers in order to do this. So if you live in the lower mainland or you would like some daytime events and can spare a little time then please come join the team and help us to offer this. Just drop me a note if you’re interested.

Here in BC we are lucky to have a wonderfully diverse membership, which has many benefits for all of us but it also makes it tricky as a leader to meet everyone’s differing needs. But I am working hard with the team to offer more diversity and ensure that our offerings this year are aligned with the feedback you’ve given us.

Check out the high level 2018 Membership Survey Results here

Want to share your views?

If you were not able to complete the survey and have feedback to share you can contact me at any time at president@iabc.bc.ca or you can send me a message via any of our social channels Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram

 

Summer planning

In July and August, the team spent two full days planning for the year ahead. Using the member survey results, feedback from past and present board members, Internationals 1720 framework and the changing landscape of communications with regards to digital and technology we have created a new 3 year chapter strategy. This strategy is the foundation for all of the portfolio plans for the year ahead. A very special thank you goes out to Ryan Williams, M.A, ABC, MC for facilitating two days of collaboration and team building. We had a great time!

 

Our 2018 – 19 Goals

So what do you all have to look forward to? Well we have a very busy and jam-packed year ahead of us. Building on the programming we ran in 2017-2018, and our financial successes  we intend to continue offering events and programs that will enable you to build on your existing skills and knowledge, while making meaningful connections within the IABC/BC community at all stages of your career. We are focused on delivering value for money and are committed to offering a mix of free and pay for events at varied pricing levels to suit all budgets. In essence, this year we are looking at ways that we can give back to our members.

Check out our Vision, Mission, Values

This year you can look forward to:

…and this is just the start…can you tell I’m excited!?!

Get Involved with IABC/BC

Our IABC/BC team consists of the exec (President, Vice President, Past President and Finance Director), a board of directors, portfolio managers and other volunteers. We are fortunate to have a VERY international team which includes Canadians (of course), Brits and Brazilians. Some of us are long-time senior members, some are newbies, some of us are recent graduates, current students, or newcomers to BC (including me!).

We wouldn’t be able to any of the things that we do without a large team of committed volunteers. Some volunteer on a regular basis, while others just help us casually. If you’re interested in volunteering this year to help us deliver our plans, we’d love to hear from you! Whether you only have a couple of hours to spare at a one-off event or can commit to a longer term role we have opportunities available for everyone. You can view our current open volunteer roles here or get in touch with our Volunteer Services team at volunteer@iabc.bc.ca to chat about potential opportunities that could be a fit for you.

You can also find out more about volunteering with us – and other ways that you can get involved with us at our next free Get Connected with IABC/BC event on October 16th.

 

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