President's Letter: A Year to Remember
Randle Pollock, FSMPS, SMPS National President and Principal, Walter P. Moore
This has been a year of great achievement for SMPS.

Your 2003-2004 SMPS Board of Directors—in collaboration with our terrific staff and many committees and task forces—has worked hard to maximize the return on your investment and enhance and expand the benefits of your membership.

As our term of office ends, I am pleased to report that the state of SMPS is strong: financially healthy, operationally robust, organizationally vibrant, and enhanced by the passionate involvement of a growing and creative membership. By all accounts, your ROI has been exceptional.

What did we accomplish this past year? I believe there were seven truly signature accomplishments of sustainable value.

1. "Hug Our Clients": We focused on both our internal and external "clients" like never before.  Internally, we focused on:

• Chapter development—developing chapter leadership and management skills through the Presidents' Leadership Symposium, held this year in Alexandria, VA. We also added one new chapter-SMPS Long Island, chartered in July 2004. The board visited a record number of local chapters and regional events (more than 50%), showing the SMPS flag and meeting with and listening to local leaders.
• Membership retention—Achieving an historic high number of renewals.
• Education—Expanding educational programming, offering three full-day business development workshops in Chicago, Orlando, and Denver; a Senior Retreat outside Atlanta; programs with PSMA, Zweig-White, and Georgia Tech; and our first-ever "webinar."
• Certification—With 80 professionals earning their CPSM designations this year, bringing the total number of CPSMs to 360.
• Alliances—With industry peer groups, establishing several promising new agreements with the Associated General Contractors and the Chartered Institute of Marketing: Construction Industry Group Scotland that will foster closer ties and shared opportunities and resources.
• Financial health and stability—Managing to do all we did within a lean, no-frills budget. Indeed, once the year-end numbers are in, we expect to have met some ambitious profit goals, too, while continuing to build our financial reserves.

Externally, we also focused a new spotlight on our external clients—the many great clients who make possible the success of our firms—and own success in those firms. We created an inaugural "Client Appreciation Day" at our recent national conference and presented a first-ever "Client of the Year Award" to GSA's Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, Chief Architect.

2. Build Business: We rebranded, repurposed and refocused the SMPS/PSMA National Conference and booked a record number of sponsors and exhibitors for the 2004 event.

3. Membership Directory: We brought back a hard-copy version of this venerable member resource, which you shall be receiving in the mail shortly. An updated, online version will remain accessible 24/7 at www.smps.org.

4. SMPS News: We repurposed another beloved publication from the past and transformed it into this new, monthly e-newsletter.

5. Diversity Committee: We elevated what was once a task force into a full-fledged committee and positioned it in the SMPS universe as central to our mission.

6. Publications Strategy Task Force: We undertook a new look at the strategies shaping our many publications, resulting in a good road map to guide our future efforts.

7. A New Generation of Young Leaders: By bringing their talents and energies to the national organization through key committee and task force involvements, we engaged some fresh new faces to help shape our future.

There were many other accomplishments, too, but the bottom line is that your national organization has strived to enhance the value of your membership and achieve SMPS' central mission: To be the premier source for education, information, and resources in marketing professional services for the built and natural environments.

I want to thank my colleagues on the national board, as well as all the committees and task forces and their leaders, and our incredible staff led by Ron Worth, for their great work this past year. And thank you for the privilege of serving as your SMPS National President. It has been a year to remember.

Hail and farewell!

About the President
Randle Pollock, FSMPS, is Principal in Charge of Marketing for Walter P. Moore, engineers and consultants (www.walterpmoore.com). Based in Houston, Randy can be reached at 713.630.7488 or rpollock@walterpmoore.com. [ return to top ]