With three-quarters of my wonderful term as LMA Midwest President, oh so quickly gone by, I thought it was about time for me to drop you a brief note.
This has been a great year for our chapter. I am thrilled to say that, as of this writing, LMA Midwest has almost 500 members and counting. The Kansas City City Group, launched in June 2014 under the leadership of Allison Berey, CMO of Polsinelli, is flourishing and our city groups in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee and our largest city group, Chicago, are going great guns with excellent programming, social and networking events and membership recruitment. This year, LMA Midwest Board members and city group liaisons Anne Frohock, regional marketing manager at Polsinelli, and Christy Baas, formerly with Miller Canfield, introduced regular Best Practices calls to share growth and organizational strategies and member enhancements. They kept our city groups in touch with each other and strengthened the concept of “one LMA.” Our president-elect and chapter programming chair Maureen Farr, business development manager at Stinson Leonard Street, provided excellent programming to all our city groups and assumes the president’s chair in January.
The Chicago City Group, under the direction of Ian Turvill, CMO at Freeborn and programming chairs Robin Iori, marketing director at Arnstein & Lehr, and Jonathan Becks, formerly with Horwood Marcus & Berk and 2015’s Rising Star, effectively experimented with two programs a month, one educational and one keynote, on four quarterly topics: strategy, professional development, communication and innovation. In addition, the Chicago City Group successfully partnered with Ken Hall of StoryView to tape many of the Chicago programs, which are available to LMA members on our website. Our chapter also partnered with the Bay Area Chapter of LMA to offer access by our chapter members to their excellent technology programming. Further, LMA Midwest has teamed up with the Bay Area to present our inaugural LMA Midwest Technology Conference in June, 2016. Very exciting.
Our chapter administrator Yvonne Kriss has worked diligently to keep all of our notices going out, among her myriad of other duties that keep our chapter running smoothly. Sincere kudos to treasurer Taryn Elliott, marketing director of Plews Shadley Racher and Braun, and treasurer-elect Suzanne Donnels, CMO of Jenner & block, who have streamlined, enhanced and institutionalized our financial reporting and administration, allowing us to track our progress and growth and creating a process to pass on to future leadership. Sincere thanks to chapter secretary and counsel Megan McKeon, senior marketing manager of Katten Muchin Rosenman, who keeps us toeing the line, administers our chapter records and minutes and provides invaluable wisdom and guidance. Finally, a grateful nod to Rich Marsolais, immediate past president, sponsorship chair and director of marketing at Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, who toiled mercilessly to introduce the benefits of chapter sponsorship to our service providers, who we thank abundantly for their continued support.
Our committees continue to be dynamic, inexhaustible and creative. The fabulous Molly Kean, of Swanson, Martin & Bell and chair of the Solo and Small Firm shared interest group (SIG), continues to lead this group of marketers in a casual, peer-to-peer environment to network and discuss topics and issues of importance and to enjoy the benefits of shared enlightenment. Our Social Media Committee, led by Ann Morris of Finn Partners and Keith Ecker of Jaffe PR, has done a great job of getting our messages out on LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter and other media outlets. Great big thanks to Jennifer Gamber, business development manager at Kirkland & Ellis and editor of our chapter newsletter In the Loop, who has done a wonderful job keeping our members up to date on chapter activities. Jen steps down at the end of this year, and Stephanie Richter, marketing data analyst at Thompson Coburn and 2015 St. Louis City Group co-chair, will assume the editor role in 2016. We have introduced a new Shared Interest Group, our Mentor SIG, led by Andrea Gordon, director of marketing and client service at Butler Rubin Salterelli & Boyd, Joy Long, marketing director at ORBA and Paulette Yanow Valentin, CMO at Smith Amundsen. The Young Members SIG will soon re-emerge with social, networking and educational events, and there are a couple of new SIGs in the works. We will keep you posted.
Finally, we held this year’s Your Honor Awards the night before the 2015 Midwest Conference and welcomed attendees to both events from all of our city groups. The Your Honor Awards accepted more than 75 entries – a record number – and the Midwest Conference offered a full agenda of valuable and useful information, participation by our much valued service providers and great networking opportunities. Thanks to MWC co-chairs, Maureen Farr and Beth Massing, marketing manager, Dykema Gossett, to programming chair, John Byrne of Glencoe Media Group, sponsorship chair Rich Marsolais and YHA chair, Kate Harry Shipham, senior recruiting manager, J. Johnson Executive Search. Heartfelt congratulations to the 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, the incredible and matchless Alycia Sutor, partner, Akina Corporation, to board member at large Bill Fitzgerald of Werner Printing & Engraving, our Outstanding Service awardee, who has led our chapter in giving back to the community, and to Jonathan Becks, the 2015 Rising Star, who has done an amazing job of finding us new and varied locations and presenters for our CCG programs.
I want to personally acknowledge and thank those members who have served or continue to serve in so many ways to keep our chapter vibrant and moving forward. The heart of our organization is our volunteers, and we have some of the most diligent, inspired and loyal volunteers in the LMA family.
It has been, and continues to be, my honor and privilege to be involved with LMA, our chapter and you, our members. I look forward to many more years of assisting whenever and however I can. Talk to you soon.
Best always and hugs,
Sydney
2013 Hall of Famer, Sydney Iglitzen, is the 2015 president of LMA Midwest and was also president in 2008. She sat on the 2007-2009 and 2011-2014 Boards of Directors, was also the LMA Midwest program chair for many years, creating the city groups in Indianapolis, Milwaukee and SE Michigan and providing programming for the fledgling groups and was also former chair of the PR Committee. She was the first director of marketing and BD for three law firms, was the first public relations director for a major IP law firm and now consults on BD, marketing and public relations, focusing on smaller to mid-sized law firms. Sydney has been a Your Honor Awards co-chair for the past few years, including chairing the 2014 YHA, and was chair of the 2013 LMA Midwest Conference.