President's Blog
Posted on Dec. 22, 2021 / Subscribe 0
Like many of us, I have been reflecting on the past year. Looking back on my presidency, I chuckle when I think about the priorities I laid out at the beginning of my term. I’m sure most past presidents feel this way when they near the end of their tenure as president.
My priorities changed very quickly in April when Nancy Skidmore, PRSA Detroit’s beloved executive administrator of 33 plus years announced her retirement. Rather than putting my attention on the outwardly facing development of the chapter, I turned inward, bringing our leaders - our executive board, board of directors, and committee volunteers - together and challenging them to join me in learning the operations of the chapter. We dug deep to learn chapter processes – things we always leaned on Nancy to take care of for us.
Our first hurdle was the bookkeeping, and I’d like to thank PRSA Detroit Chapter Treasurer, Maribeth Farkas, for managing our finances this year. She did not sign on to do this level of accounting for the chapter, but she leaned in, learned the books, and joined me in the research needed to hire a bookkeeper who now helps us close the books each month. She also helped in the process to move our bookkeeping process off of paper and into Quick Books, which will make next year’s treasurer role much easier.
We also took a look at our program promotion, email communication and member cultivation processes, and have made a move to make these processes seamless and digital. I’d like to thank Secretary TaQuinda Johnson and the website, membership and program committees who worked together to research and present to the board association management platform options, and then build it out. I’m pleased to announce our new website is now live at PRSADetroit.org, and its new capabilities will make program promotions, RSVPs, payments, and member cultivation much more seamless.
And while many of us were working on the internal processes, the program, blog and social media committees were collaborating with the ethics, diversity, and accreditation committees to keep PRSA Detroit Chapter visible and in the forefront, providing excellent professional development programs and actionable content that provided professional insights, information, and connection, to our members.
Every committee stretched themselves this year to self-manage their timelines and execute upon committee roles and responsibilities. Committees worked collaboratively to get the jobs done. I’d like to list all of our committees and thank our committee volunteers profusely for their support and teamwork – Accreditation, Blog, Diversity, Elections, Ethics, Sponsorship Fundraising, Membership, Programs, Scholarship Fundraising, Senior Council, Social Media, and Website.
I could not have gotten through this year without the leadership and commitment of the executive board. We met weekly in the beginning, learning the timelines, banking, systems, processes and procedures. Thank you, president elect Michelle Gilbert, treasurer Maribeth Farkas, secretary TaQuinda Johnson and past president Kim Eberhart.
The goal throughout the year was to make chapter operations easier, streamlined, and digital, for next year’s leaders. And the overarching strategic goal was to create a sense of ownership within the board of directors, so that chapter operations never again fall to one paid administrative support person.
I’d like to thank my team at The Salvation Army, Eastern Michigan Division for their support of my PRSA membership and my presidency. Finally, I’d like to thank our valued members, sponsors and partners for their support and collaboration this year. I wish you all a very happy holiday, a Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
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