Greetings everyone! I am hoping that this President's message finds everyone enjoying the end of this very mild summer and finds everyone weathering the on-going economic situation with as much optimism as you can muster. Maryland Chapter 16 stands at the ready to help each and every one of you through it. Our goal is to provide you with the proper tools you can use every day. In an effort to do so, we conducted a survey recently, asking each of you to let us know what is important to you as members and what we can do to better serve each and every one of you.
Out of our 200+ members, we had participation from 58 people. We strive to get 100% participation, but think we got a relatively good sampling from this group. The experience level of respondents ran the gamut from our newest members to those that are more "seasoned". One half of the respondents were CPM Members, with the other half split almost perfectly with CPM Candidates and ARM Members, and then a few Associate Members for good measure.
For those that have not received the CPM designation, we asked what has been the factor holding them back. Many responded that the process was too expensive. This gives me a great opportunity to remind everyone about not only the IREM National Scholarships and Grants but also of the IREM Maryland Chapter 16 Past Presidents' Grant Fund. These scholarships and grants have been set up to assist those of you who are not receiving help from your employers or cannot afford the costs on your own. The grants cover not only classroom costs, but costs of study materials and travel to classrooms and testing sites. The Chapter 16 grant also can assist you in paying National and Local dues. Please don't let cost keep you from obtaining your designation. Now is the time to be pursuing education, not shying away from it.
We then asked each of you to rank the value of several benefits provided through both IREM headquarters and the local level. Not surprisingly, the most important benefits to all of our members were the IREM credentials, networking and education. We hope that we have provided ample networking opportunities and are currently looking at other options to further enhance your abilities to spend time with your peers and learn best practices and other means to better enhance your career. Also ranked as important benefits by our members were monthly meetings, access to the tools available on IREMFirst.com, IREM Publications, the Chapter 16 website, free IREM webinars and local seminars. We began discussing all of these things when the Chapter 16 leaders met in Chicago for the Chapter Leadership Conference at the end of July, and will continue to seek ways to expand and improve the services that the Chapter provides.
When we asked how many meetings you had attended in the last year, we were happy to see that 69% of those who responded had attended between one and ten meetings. Conversely, we were discouraged to see that 31% of respondents had attended no meetings in the last year. This is an issue that has been at the forefront of our strategic planning. How do we get more participation at our meetings? The more people we have together, the better networking and idea sharing we have. We dug further and asked why you had not attended any meetings in the last year. 60% of you said it was because you didn't have time in a day to come. While I understand that we are all being asked to do more with much less (including time), now, more than ever, is the time to carve out that hour and a half to two hours to get together as a group to network and talk about best practices.
When asked what kind of meeting you like best, most people responded by saying the "lunch and learn" meetings were most preferable. However, coming in at a close second was Happy Hour networking. Look to see more informal events like this in the future.
We were happy to see that the majority of our members are satisfied with the level of service and benefits they feel they are receiving. But there is still room for improvement. Half of the respondents left suggestions how we can improve and gave us ideas for new programs. Among the ideas were round table discussions on timely topics (cost savings, keeping employees enthused in a down economy), marketing of our credentials, mentoring, more emphasis on residential property management, and posting of employment opportunities. The last suggestion has already been implemented and will be updated as we receive notifications from our members. Chapter leaders have begun the process of looking at how some of the other suggestions can be implemented over the next year.
Just because the survey is closed does not mean we are not open for further suggestions. We are here for you. Let us know what we can do to improve and what we can do to continue to bring each of you meaningful member experiences. Talk to you in a couple of months!
Steve Antonsen, CPM® president@irem16.org
