IMA-GMC Members:
I appreciate the opportunity to be this year's President of the Greater Milwaukee Chapter of IMA. As of this writing, our board has put together some great events yet in 2018 while continuing to finalize details on events to be held in 2019. We are expanding our scope of topics, improving our venue selection, and developing relationships with our community.
Something I have struggled with personally is the cost of events. What value can an IMA member receive from paying for an event? This, in addition to the time commitment, gas money, travel time, and so forth, those variable and opportunity costs our members are acutely aware of. My hope as a board member last year, as well as President this year, is to ensure that coming to an in-person meeting is worth the resource investment for our local members.
With that said, there's something to be said as well for the old adage of "you only get out of it what you put into it". What drives our members? What encourages them to attend an event? What can we do to empower our members to put more into it, so they can get more out of it? It's in this regard that I have to shift some burden to you, our IMA members. We, as your board, are receptive to feedback on how to improve our events and engagement. Our ears are open, so please do not be shy to give your feedback and advice!
Better yet, I implore you to get involved with us on the board! The time commitment can be minimal to accommodate a busy schedule, but we have open spots and a hunger to improve our chapter. You can be part of that improvement and help influence your local chapter and community.
In any case, I believe what we have in store so far is going to be great. If you haven't attended one of our meetings before, I would strongly encourage you to come out to one. Meet with us and other members, take advantage of the networking and growth opportunity, and learn from some of the top-notch speakers we work hard to bring in. For those of you who we see regularly, I appreciate your continued attendance and engagement with IMA and the Greater Milwaukee Chapter. I look forward to seeing you at an event soon!
Royce Hix
President 2018-2019