Glancing Back, Looking Forward
Karen Courtney, AIA, FSMPS, SMPS President & Marketing Director, Sr. Associate, BSA LifeStructures
December finds many of us busy in year-end activities. At work we are closing out budgets, calculating yearly hit rates, evaluating goals met, and reviewing performances. At home we are active with holiday commitments, planning for family gatherings, and perhaps using the end of the year to reflect on the 12 months gone by.

At SMPS, we do a similar type of review of the year end, despite our fiscal year ending officially on August 30. With expenses from conference still coming in during the early fall and an audit to complete in October, it is finally early December when your board can take a look at how the year ended financially. Depending to a great degree on the success of our national conference, we can place any excess revenues for the year in our reserve fund and reward our national staff for jobs well done.

This year’s conference was again one of the most successful in recent years and allowed us to add 12.4% to our reserve fund. Through the hard work of the staff and the national boards over several years, we are finally seeing a reserve fund that is appropriate for an organization of our size and age. Our reserve fund exists to serve two major purposes. It is certainly there for a "rainy-day" situation in case the economy or external force adversely affects our organization, but it is also there to be used to invest in the future. And we should not hesitate to use it in this way when it will help SMPS make better decisions and reach new levels of excellence and service.

When I first joined the board in 1999, then-President Eric Mott recognized that there was a disconnect between the work of the National Office and board and our chapters. He made the bold decision during his term to challenge the board to visit every chapter to begin the outreach needed to become a stronger national organization. At the same time, the certification program was just getting off the ground and needed money to keep it from floundering. Fortunately, our reserve funds had grown to a point to be able to make both of these things happen with a relatively modest outlay, and both investments have been paying dividends for our organization ever since.

Taking the long view of certification proved to be a smart choice as this program has continued to grow and now provides a standard of excellence for our industry. To date there are 375 members with the active designation of CPSM. We’ve been able to make investments in the certification program with new test-taking options and refreshed content so as to keep the program relevant in a changing environment. This was a wise, although controversial, decision at the time, and one I believe marked a turning point in our quest to create a true profession.

The huge chapter outreach in 1999 and 2000 also has continued to reap many benefits. There is a renewed connection now with our chapters, allowing us to work together in ways not previously done. A recent partnership with SMPS Boston provided both the chapter and SMPS National a large speaking presence at Build Boston in mid-November, one of the East Coast’s premier design industry events. This has helped us in membership recruitment as well as industry relations with our alliance partners and the press.

At the same time, through the visits of CEO Ron Worth, the staff, and the board, we are witnessing the superb work being done at the chapter level that helps in strengthening all of our society. Earlier this month I was honored to be the guest of the Los Angeles Chapter for its annual Leonardo Awards gala. What a wonderful night of honoring the best of the chapter’s membership and a tribute to the strong bonds of friendship that exist between our members. Earlier this fall, I was also the guest of one of our newer chapters, SMPS Oklahoma, as it celebrated its region’s finest marketing communications efforts. From large to small, each chapter has unique things to recognize and celebrate, and I am very proud to see our chapters taking the time to honor their best work and members at these yearly events.

The reason I mention these past investments is to give you an idea of the benefits that have come from thinking beyond just the one year that each president of SMPS serves. Your current board is getting ready to make another investment in the future so that SMPS is well positioned to serve its members for years to come. While attending an association institute meeting earlier this fall, the speaker mentioned the importance of having an environmental scan done periodically for every organization. An environmental scan is somewhat like a market research project in that it serves to identify the needs and desires of the membership before they are clearly evident to an organization. Armed with this information, an organization can be more relevant and proactive for its membership and thus grow, instead of playing catch up from ignoring these unexpressed needs.

SMPS has not commissioned this type of work since 1991, and we all know how much has changed in our world in the intervening 13 years. This winter we will be commissioning an environmental scan for SMPS and may find that we have to use some reserve funds to do this important work. With the information gained, your board and succeeding boards can make sound decisions about the direction of SMPS so as to better serve our membership. In the spring I will share with you the results of this scan, and it will provide excellent material for our annual strategic planning meeting in June.

I’d be remiss in not closing with some mention of the 2005 national conference, Build Business: Beyond Boundaries, scheduled for August 10-13 in New Orleans. The conference committee of chair Dana Birkes, FSMPS; PSMA President Brack Reed; and I met last week with National staff Ron Worth, Lisa Bowman, Bill Scott, Vikki Torrence, and Melanie Penoyar and meeting planner Karolyn Kiburz to cull through dozens of presentation submittals. Our review, together with the hard work of five track leader teams, has resulted in an outstanding lineup of programs to tempt you with later in the year. I’ll have more complete details next month, but you should all be planning now to attend Build Business this summer and take advantage of the year-end discounted rates and chapter group rates being offered. Think about it as an investment in your future, just as SMPS is doing with its environmental scan.

Happy holidays to all and enjoy these upcoming weeks of friends, family, and festivities. We have much to celebrate in SMPS and much to look forward to in 2005.

About the President
Karen O. Courtney, AIA, FSMPS, is 2004-05 SMPS National President and Director of Marketing, Senior Associate, with BSA LifeStructures in Indianapolis, IN. Karen can be reached at 317.819.7878 or kcourtney@bsalifestructures.com. [ return to top ]