Don't Get Sad, Get MaD!
Don't Get Sad, Get MaD!
By Steve Konnath
I'm honored to be the new chairman of the Marketing and Distribution (MaD) Section Council. I have a tough job living up to the expectations set by our outgoing chair, Juliet Sandrowicz. However, I'm up for the challenge. I want to thank Juliet for helping me learn what it takes to be a great section leader. Now all I have to do is do it.
I want you to know that you have an excellent leadership team with Keith Dall as your vice–chair and Steve Dobronyi as your secretary–treasurer. Nancy Manning is continuing in her role as our publications coordinator. All of the rest of your section council have stepped up to take leadership roles in SOA meeting planning, Web site management, etc. We are servant leaders and we're here to serve you.
The first step of any good leader is to listen to the people they serve. You spoke and we heard you. In the survey that we conducted earlier this fall, we learned two major things that we need to take action on. These two things are:
- Increase the value of the content and activities we provide.
- Increase awareness of the purpose and value of our section.
We will do that. We have several ideas on how to do this including using different methods to deliver educational content to you as well as coordination and cooperation with other sections. You will start seeing these changes right away.
You also told us the topics that you are interested in learning more about. Among the top subject areas were product development and speed to market processes. We will find ways to bring more content to you in these subject areas.
In addition to the changes mentioned above, we're researching the possibility of providing educational content via webcasting/webinars. We hope to bring more information about this to you very soon.
We want to serve more of the SOA members (as well as non–members). That's the intent of the cheesy title of this article that plays off an old TV commercial. We'll do this by making the changes mentioned above.
If you want to see the details of the survey results, look for the article in this issue of NewsDirect. My contact information can be found in the membership directory at www.soa.org.
As I mentioned above, we're here to serve you. So, if there are ways we can do that better, please don't hesitate to call or e–mail me. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you!