Spring 2005
Chapter Leadership Meeting
Presentations
Joe Hadzima, Chair of Enterprise Forum Global Board
"Strategic Planning:
The Future of the MIT Enterprise Forum "
Carol Covin, Chair of Washington-Baltimore Chapter
"Raising Money: It Isn't
Just For Startups Anymore"
Bob Lonadier, Program Chair of South Florida Chapter
"Case Study: Managing
and Retaining Your Volunteers"
MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board Content Committee
"Let's Put on a Show:
Sharing Your Content with the Global Forum Audience"
Antoinette Muller, Program Manager, and Greg Wymer, Program
Coordinator, Enterprise Forum Global Office
"A Report from the Global
Office"
"HIGHEST ATTENDANCE, FRESHEST IDEAS"
MITEF Chapter Leadership Meeting of Spring
2005
By Crystal Lu, MIT/Stanford VLAB
"We've received 18 requests for new chapters in the past
18 months. With little or no marketing, the MIT EF keeps expanding," announced
Joe Hadzima, chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board,
in his opening remarks at the latest MITEF Chapter Leadership
Meeting (CLM).
When the Enterprise Forum gathered for the Spring 2005 CLM,
27 representatives from 17 of the 23 existing chapters marked
a record-high chapter representation by spending the weekend
of April 29 and 30 and May 1 together in sunny and breezy Silicon
Valley . The Bay Area chapter, also known as VLAB or Venture
Lab, hosted the event at the Stanford Park Hotel in Menlo Park
, California . The tasteful minimalist style of the 5-star
hotel's Atherton Room provided a cozy setting for the friendly
meeting of the chapter leaders in business casual attire. The
majority of them arrived the day before and appeared moderately
polished at the Friday evening mixer that was meant for them
to unwind after a long day of travel (or work for the locals)
with cocktails and light conversations.
The conference officially started Saturday at 8:30 am after
continental breakfast, also in an intimate atmosphere. Antoinette
Muller, project manager of the global office, and Susan Ayers-Walker,
chair of the host chapter, briefly welcomed everyone to the
meeting and threw an elevator pitch to warm up the discussion.
After all the one-minute self-introductions, Joe Hadzima led
the first session on "Strategic Planning." He recommended replacing
the current model of a central-to-local flow of programming
and information with an alternative model of central-to-local
plus local-to-local and local-to-central communications; better
still would be the same with an enhanced alternative model
incorporating reaching out to partnerships and alliances worldwide.
In the last half of the Strategy session, the participants
worked in three groups to discuss "Who are we?", "What do we
do well?", and "Who do we serve?" After each group finished
their list of answers, the three lists were compared with a
list of answers developed by the MITEF Global Board to the
same questions. The local chapters evidently resonated with
the Global Board in defining the vision and mission of the
MITEF: to inspire innovation, encourage entrepreneurship, stimulate
economic growth, and enhance the MIT reputation with an open
membership to non-alumni.
With common goals in mind, the chapter leaders spent all Saturday
afternoon in four breakout sessions exchanging ideas on how
to accomplish and improve upon certain best practices. First,
Chapter Chair of Washington/Baltimore Carol Covin gave a presentation
on fundraising to about half of the attendees. She used her
chapter's example to demonstrate effective ways of nurturing
the relationship with sponsors, including annual lunch meetings,
open invitation to monthly board meetings, prominent website
placement, standard tag line in all e-mail announcements, free
attendance at any event, and recognition on program agendas.
Meanwhile, the Program Chair of South Florida, Bob Lonadier,
presented a case study on volunteer management and retention
to the other half of the crowd. Then, after a short coffee
break, Global Chair Joe Hadzima led a breakout session on sharing
content with the Global MITEF audience; Bill Brown from Northwest/Seattle
and Carmen Hughes from the Bay Area co-presented a breakout
session on how to market events successfully to your audience.
The Saturday agenda also featured an entertaining evening
program, a combo wine tasting/bus tour to Fisherman's Wharf,
and seafood dinner in San Francisco .
The Sunday meeting began with two breakout sessions, "How
to Take Your Chapter to the Next Level", presented by Ameeta
Soni and Trish Fleming from the Cambridge chapter; and "Generating
Ideas for Buzz-Worthy Topics and Speakers", led by chair of
the host chapter, Susan Ayers-Walker. Then, John Rodney shared
the Pittsburgh chapter's success story of their student outreach
and diversity program. During these sessions, many action items
were being jotted down. The chapter leaders found Cambridge
's establishment of special interest groups, including advanced
computing, energy, life sciences, nanotechnology, public policy,
and telecom, a brilliant model to follow. They also saw the
feasibility of drawing young students and diverse members/audiences
to the MITEF. In addition, they learned about new tools such
as Always On Network, a blog site/online magazine in which
they could advertise future events, and Linked-in, a network
they would be able to use to connect with other MITEF chapters.
Before noon , the meeting wrapped up with an announcement
that the MITEF Board of Directors had converted from an advisory
role to an active role with all board members assigned to liaison
with one or more EF chapters. The Board would also welcome
chapter participation in the following new committees: Strategic
Planning for the Next 25 Years, Global Sponsorship, Content,
Branding and Messaging, Volunteer Recruiting, and Community-Building
Value in the Network of Chapters.
Antoinette Muller and Greg Wymer from Global Office cheerfully
concluded the meeting by putting on a brief quiz show with
prizes. The first quiz question was, "What's the best thing
you got out of this meeting?" The prize, a red MIT baseball
cap, went to Randy Churchill from LA for his spontaneous answer, "Prizes!" In
a room filled with laughter, the attendees said good-bye to
each other and promised to meet again this fall.
The next MITEF chapter leadership meeting is scheduled for
September 23 and 24, 2005. Chapter leaders will meet on the
MIT campus in Boston 's most picturesque season.
Agenda
Friday evening:
6:00 pm - Stanford Park Hotel bar
Welcome to CLM! Our Bay Area hosts
have arranged a casual gathering and networking session in our own
prvate area of the hotel bar, featuring
an assortment of California wines, light appetizers and beer. This
is the best way to make acquaintance with your Forum peers or say hello
to old friends from past leadership meetings.
Saturday:
8:00 am - Breakfast
8:30 am - Welcome and Overview
Joe Hadzima '73, MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. Chair
9:00 am - "Strategic Planning:
The Future of the MIT Enterprise Forum"
Joe Hadzima '73
12:15 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Breakout Sessions:
"Raising Money: It Isn't Just For Startups Anymore"
Sponsorship session
Carol Covin, MIT EF of Washington-Baltimore
"Case Study: Managing and Retaining Your Volunteers"
Volunteer session
Bob Lonadier '84, MIT EF of South Florida
2:45 pm - Breakout Sessions:
"Let's Put on a Show: Sharing Your Content with the Global Forum Audience"
Providing local programs to all Forum Chapters
Joe Hadzima '73
"Marketing Your Events Successfully"
Expanding your reach and audience size
Bill Brown, MIT EF of the Northwest
Carmen Hughes, MIT/Stanford VLAB
4:00 pm - Wrap-Up of Saturday's Session
6:00 pm - Bus leaves hotel for dinner at Fisherman's Wharf in San
Francisco
(please note this dinner is not included in your CLM registration fee)
10:00 pm - Bus departs Fisherman's Wharf for hotel
Sunday:
8:30 am - Breakfast
9:00 am - Breakout Sessions:
"Going Up? How to Take Your Chapter to the Next Level"
For successful chapters looking to expand into new areas and opportunities
Ameeta Soni & Trish Fleming, MIT EF of Cambridge
"The New New Thing: Generating Ideas for Buzz-Worthy Topics and Speakers"
Brainstorming hot topics for your Chapter's upcoming programs
Ken Berger, MIT/Stanford VLAB
10:30 am - "MIT Enterprise Forum: The Next Generation"
Pittsburgh's highly successful student outreach and diversity program
John Rodney, MIT EF of Pittsburgh
11:00 am - "A Report from the Global Office"
Update on services the Global Office of the Enterprise Forum can
offer to help you and your Chapters
Antoinette Muller & Greg Wymer, MIT EF Global Office
11:30 am - Conference Wrap-Up & Next Steps
Joe Hadzima '73 & Antoinette Muller
12:00 noon - Box lunch
Volunteers network at the Friday night
Welcoming Cocktail Reception
Carol Covin, chair of the Washington-Baltimore chapter,
leads her best practices presentation on sponsorship.
Volunteers hungrily read their menus at the seafood
dinner Saturday night at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
Randy Chruchill of the Caltech and Central Coast chapters
can't wait to dig in to his Alaskan King Crab.
