2010 - A Year in Review

[Lisa Qualls]

SMCKC Members,

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2010 and give a big hello to 2011, we thought it was a good time to assess how well the organization performed against our goals this year. We strongly encourage you to provide your feedback and help us prepare for 2011 by participating in our survey.

If you recall, we established an aggressive plan for our first year with an executive board in place and thanks to all of you we experienced triple-digit membership growth! This post includes the 2010 goals as we originally communicated them to you, our results to date, and areas in which we will continue to improve in 2011.

We built the 2010 plan based on three foundational pillars:

1. Membership. Our most important priority is YOU! Social Media and therefore, SMCKC is first and foremost about engagement, connection, and community for you, the members.

2. Community. We want SMCKC to be a valuable resource for the Kansas City community. We also want to help elevate Kansas City to be recognized regionally and nationally as a leader in the social media industry.

3. Business. We want to enable each of our members to be an advocate for social media in the business community … as employees, owners, consultants, or simply as a voice to a decision maker saying, "Hey, have you thought about ..."

2010 Goals

1. Establishment. Build a foundation for growth and value for our members, communities and businesses.

 Evaluate non-profit and membership dues benefits – We were one of the first four chapters globally to receive official charter status from the international body. By obtaining official status, we are now a 501c6 organization which allows donations to be tax deductible. We also receive accounting, insurance and legal coverage from the international body. Free membership is still available; however, we do encourage our members to consider Student, Non-Profit, Professional, Small Business and Corporate memberships that are now available.

 Create a repeatable election process – We pride ourselves on being a member-managed organization with all officers (Chairman is the only exception) being nominated and elected by the membership. In an effort to maintain momentum, thought leadership and opportunity for new ideas, we have implemented a six-month election process with each board member serving an 18-month term. Every six months, three board seats will become open for nomination and a vote. The rotation schedule is described in Bylaw 4 listed in the SMCKC Board Manual.

 Launch a new website in first quarter with multi-daily posts by year-end – This is a goal that was met with the launch of a WordPress site that unfortunately due to server issues was permanently deleted. As luck would have it, a very giving member donated the necessary fees to upgrade our Ning site offering new features and capabilities on the smckc.com site. At this time, we are satisfied with what the Ning platform provides us and do not have any plans to create a new site.

 Develop a speakers’ bureau to showcase our speaking talent and be a resource for events – This effort is underway and is coordinated by Brooke Beason, our education and membership chair. If you are interested in becoming a member on the speakers’ bureau or have a need for a speaker at your upcoming event, please contact Brooke.

 Offer an editorial committee to showcase our writing talent and provide valuable content – This effort is underway and is coordinated by Mike Burns, our National Standards chair. If you are interested in sharing your writing talents and having your work showcased in front of our 1500+ members, please contact Mike.

 Establish an organizational presence through a variety of online channels – When we created our 2010 goals we had a Ning site, the #smckc hashtag and a Twitter handle. We now have the following online assets:

• FB Fan Page: http://facebook.com/smckc
• FB Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_119812798075355
• FB SMCKC Tweeps Page: http://www.facebook.com/kctweeps (our SMCKC sports crew!)
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/smckc
• Twitter SMCKC Tweeps: http://twitter.com/kctweeps
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/socialmediaclubkc
• LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/exReT0
• SMCKC live stream interactive platform: http://intefy.com/smckc
• Iphone App (Android coming soon!): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/social-media-club-kansas-city/id400342752

 Provide a regular cycle of events – We have made good strides in this area but still have areas to improve on. Our evening development events have been very successful and we plan on trying to offer these at least every other month in 2011. If we can obtain additional funding by way of sponsorship or an increase in paid members to secure speakers, venues and snacks/drinks we will be able to produce monthly evening events. If you are interested in sponsoring, donating or becoming a paid member, or know someone who might be, please contact Joe Cox. We are also seeking committee leads to help coordinate monthly social happy hours and topic specific lunches throughout the metropolitan area. If you are interested in helping schedule happy hours and lunch discussions, please contact Steven Chau.

2. Contribution. Provide ample opportunity for our members to contribute to the membership, community and business.

 Create committees to enable active participation for everyone – This is an area in which we would like to see much improvement in 2011. We do have an educational committee and need to model this practice for all of our other chairs. If you are interested in joining a committee, please let one of the board members know. The more committee members we have the better we can deliver value to the membership.

 Establish an organizational structure that makes it easy and simple for members to participate – We continue to seek out committee leaders and members to provide ample opportunity for everyone who would like to serve in a leadership/volunteer capacity. We have created processes to explain membership benefits, welcome new members, and communicate board policies and responsibilities. This is an area we will continue to develop in 2011.

 Develop and communicate a talent catalog to showcase our unique skills – We have long promised to develop a list to showcase paying member’s skills and expertise. We will release this soon and encourage your participation … community members relying on community members to develop their multimedia portfolios and eleveate each other. Watch for our announcement on the Ning site.

 Encourage participation in the various online channels available – We have seen an increase in participation in all of our online channels throughout the year. We continue to encourage our members to discuss, share, inquire, and support members in their channels of choice.

 Provide an events calendar to communicate local, regional and national events – We now provide event information on both the Ning site and on Facebook. We have added a weekly newsletter that is e-mailed to all SMCKC members to highlight events and community happenings, and share meeting summaries. We post the newsletter on the LinkedIn groups page and tweet the link. In partnership with KC Clubs United, we will also communicate various KC groups and their related events when possible.

3. Outreach. Helping each other. Helping our communities. Helping our business.

 Establish standards and ethics for our members to uphold – Please refer to the SMCKC Board Manual for board member responsibilities and ethics. We plan on expanding on the manual to describe general membership responsibilities and ethics in 2011.

 Create a Social Media Advocacy award to showcase local businesses using social media in a positive manner – We have discussed this goal at various times throughout 2010 but timing and other priorities has delayed our efforts to bring this to fruition. We have tentatively planned a formal Social Media awards gala in 2011. If you are interested in helping with the planning of the SM awards event please contact Jenn Bailey.

 Actively volunteer at events, non-profits, and fundraising efforts – We are very fortunate to have some of the most active community volunteers in KC as SMCKC members. CFCA, United Way, Operation Breakthrough, and a host of other local non-profits received member support throughout 2010. You can expect even more community support in 2011. Be on the look-out for a March of Dimes March for Babies announcement coming soon!

 Establish sponsorship program to help fund events for our membership and communities and shine the spotlight on our businesses – We have received some great sponsor support throughout the year from companies such as Sprint, Verizon, Vitamin Water, and H&R Block to name just a few. We will continue to develop a formal sponsorship program and look for ways to leverage corporate memberships in 2011. If you know of a potential sponsor, please contact Joe Cox.

4. Fun/Grass Roots. The thread that connects us all.

 Participate in and encourage ad-hoc events – Our members continue to embrace our grass roots philosophy and have coordinated, hosted, and participated in events such as bowling, softball (KC Tweeps!), Ugly Sweater Christmas party and Mashable Meet-up Day. We encourage members to leverage the SMCKC channels to share and communicate their fun events with others!

 Provide social-only events – We all love to learn but sometimes it is just as nice to socialize and chat with one another. We have offered a few happy hours in 2010 and want to see these happen monthly in 2011. If you would like to help serve on a happy hour and/or social committee please contact Steven Chau.

 Double membership – This was initially thought of as a stretch goal. If we shot for the moon we would still land in the stars. Well so much for being a stretch … we MORE than doubled our membership and are now sitting at almost 1,550 members! We can only say THANK YOU for joining, participating and sharing with others about how our group is making a difference for members, the community and our businesses!!

We wish you the happiest and safest of holidays. We look forward to hearing from you and how we can be stronger, better, and even more successful in 2011!

Thank you,

Your SMCKC Executive Board

[Lisa Qualls]

We hope you will come join us as we celebrate a terrific 2010 this Saturday, December 11 at our private screening of the yet to be released remake of True Grit. More information is available on our events page. Free tickets, a cocktail and light concessions are available!