December 2001 Newsletter

Mark S. Gilfand, CDP
Region 5 President

Another year has passed. How quick it has been. 2001 has been a challenging year for all of us, on many different levels. The end of the year marks a time when most chapters elect new officers. These new officers will need your guidance as the baton passes to them. Please be sure to give them all the assistance you can.

Send new Chapter Officer lists to the Region and Association

Please be sure to send in your new chapter officer lists to Association headquarters. This includes the student chapters.The forms are part of the Professional and Student Chapter Operations Manuals, available for download at the Association Web site: http://www.aitp.org .

As a shortcut, the professional chapter officer list form can be quickly found this way:

• Go to the Site Index off the AITP home page
• Scroll down to "AITP Monthly Report Package" (on right side of the page)
• Click on "HQ Information, Memos, etc."
• Click on the "Chapter Officers/Chairs form" under the heading of December 31, 2000

Please send the name, address, phone, fax, and email address of your new Chapter President and Chapter Liaison to both me and our Region 5 webmaster, Perry Fritz.

If your chapter changed its web site address, please pass that information along to Association Headquarters, Perry Fritz, and me.

My address is:mark.gilfand.ah3y@statefarm.com
Perry's address is:fritzp@schencksolutions.com

Please be sure to check the Region 5 web site ( http://www.aitp.org/region5/ ) and let us know if any of the links to your chapter or your student chapters are wrong.

Use the new AITP Marketing/Membership Promotion Presentations

There are two new impressive Marketing/Membership Promotion Presentations available to chapters. The first is a 52-slide Marketing presentation put together by George and Julia Koscho.When assembled, it is a comprehensive slide show explaining all facets of AITP. It is great for conferences, trade shows, etc. and even for display at a chapter meeting.

You can access this presentation from the AITP web site.

• See the "New PowerPoint Presentation" at the AITP home page.
• It will point you to the Region 18 web site:http://www.aitp-region18.org/ .
• From there click on "Marketing Powerpoint Presentation Available".
• Scroll down the page to "AITP-Associated Documents".
• The presentation is "mktppt.exe".
• Be sure to read the "Read Me" documentation after you download and unzip the presentation.

The second presentation was noted on the last page November/December Information Executive. The Central Florida Chapter in conjunction with the AITP Membership Committee put together a great 38-slide presentation for all chapters. To access this presentation:

• Go to:http://www.itmweb.com/aitpchapter.htm
• Look in the Chapter Marketing Material section under "Orlando Marketing Presentation".
• You can modify the presentation to meet your needs.

Return AITP Chapter Support Committee Surveys by December 15

In early November, Chapter Presidents should have received an email from Chuck Brown, who is leading an association-wide "chapter support committee". That committee has been working very hard to develop ideas to help chapters develop and grow. Part of that very important work, is the survey.

Chapter Presidents, please visit with your boards, complete the survey, and return them to Chuck Brown by December 15th. Your ideas are not just wanted...they are vital.

Region Conference Committee needs your ideas

The 2002 Region 5 Conference committee is hard at work. The conference, hosted by the Twin City Chapter, will be held in the fall of 2002. Dates are not yet final. Part of the conference plans include a chapter leadership seminar. In order to make sure that seminar meets your needs, please let the committee know the following:

• What do you think your chapter does best?
• Would you be willing to speak about it at the Chapter Leadership Seminar during the conference?
• What does your chapter need help with, that we can cover at the chapter leadership seminar?

The conference committee would also like to know if you had a "dynamite" speaker in the last few months.If so, please send the committee, the speaker's name, address, topic, etc.

Please send your input and ideas to 2002 Region Conference Chair, Cathy Clary. Her address is: cathy.clary.ad63@statefarm.com

NCC Funding Assistance

Region 5 will allocate $400 for each of up to six teams that register and compete in the 2002 National Collegiate Conference. More information about NCC is available at the AITP web site.

Early in 2002, I'll be sending a memo to Faculty Advisors, carbon the chapter Presidents, about this allocation. The memo will contain an application to request Region NCC funding assistance.

A Region 5 committee will review the applications and select the 6 teams. (In 2001, 10 student chapters applied for the 6 funding allocations.) Checks will be mailed to the faculty advisors of the selected teams just prior to NCC.

The students must have already registered for NCC. In fact, a copy of the NCC registration must accompany the NCC funding assistance application.

Region 5 Semi-Annual Meeting, April 25-26, 2002 in St. Louis

The 2002 Region 5 Semi-Annual (Chapter Liaisons) Meeting will be held in St. Louis, on Friday April 26, 2002.A Chapter Leaders Seminar is also planned.

The St. Louis Chapter would like to invite attendees to their chapter meeting on Thursday, April 25th.Details will be solidified over the next couple of months. Chapter Liaisons and alternates...please mark this date on your calendars.

An old fashioned "Horse Race"

It looks like we have a neck-to-neck race to see which chapter will be the "largest chapter in the universe". For most of 2001, the Northeastern Wisconsin chapter held the title. But in October, the Windy City Chapter took over the top spot.As of the October month end figures, Windy City had 204 members, Northeastern Wisconsin had 195.

Did you know that 3 of the 4 largest AITP chapters are in Region 5:Windy City (#1), Northeastern Wisconsin (#2), Baltimore (#3), Twin City (#4).

As of the end of October, Region 5 (the Pacesetter region) led the way in the Membership Campaign with 13.2% growth. Two Region 5 Chapters are in the Top 10:St. Louis (with 25% growth) and Windy City (with 23.4% growth).

Chapter news

One of the purposes of the Region is to share information among the chapters. Send me information about chapter events and activities that you'd like other chapters to know about. Information received by the 16th of the month will be put in the next newsletter, which will be completed by the 29th.You can email me at: mark.gilfand.ah3y@statefarm.com.

Twin City presents two Student Education Awards

At its November meeting, the Twin City Chapter gave two $500 Student Education Awards.The recipients of these awards were:Airong Yang, a graduate student at Illinois State University and Miranda Pickel, a senior at Illinois State University. Twin City gives these awards each year, which are funded in part by a 50-50 raffle at each meeting.

St. Louis Chapter planning Webcasts

St. Louis is experimenting with a unique form of presenting educational sessions -- webcasts. Look for more information in this newsletter over the coming months.

Northeastern Wisconsin Newsletter publishes last "paper" newsletter

There was a great newsletter article by Northeastern Wisconsin Past President Todd Pingel. In the article he explained to the chapter that the newsletter was going electronic.Why?As Todd so eloquently put it:

• We'll save between $800 to $1,000 per month in printing, assembly, and mailing costs.
• The "TP" in AITP stands for "Technology Professionals".It's 2001.

Windy City Changes Website

The Windy City Chapter changed its website.It is now located at http://www.aitpchicago.org/

From all the Officers in Region 5, we wish you the very best this holiday season.