Was the president position something you always wanted?

Yeah, I think so. I have just gotten so much benefit out of the organization. More contacts, meeting new people, it really is invaluable from a networking perspective.

What will be some of your general responsibilities as president?

Really it is just like running a business, so we are accountable to our members as a board. We want to make sure that we provide great educational opportunities for our members. We also want to make sure we have strong networking events so they can meet other marketing professionals. We want to make sure we are a fiscally sound chapter, so making sure we are watching our money.

What is one of your short-term goals for the year?

I really had a vision of putting on a larger programming event, where we are bringing in a couple of big-name speakers and really trying to get attendance of anywhere between 250 to 500 people from a variety of businesses throughout Iowa. And the vision for that really centers around the idea that not a lot of people in this economy can travel for educational opportunities. So wouldn’t it be a great idea if we could bring the speakers and those opportunities here to them?

What are some of the long- term goals you’ll work on?

I think the situation is that I have a really strong board, and one of the goals I had in putting together this board is to get new members and our members more involved. Sometimes on a board you can get re-elected for several years, and nothing speaks louder than somebody’s own personal experience to go out and be an advocate for the organization. So half of my board is actually new to the board. So in doing that, I hope to bring new vision and new ideas, and I think we are already seeing that from some of our committee members.

You mentioned more networking as a short-term goal of yours; what ideas will you try?

We wanted to be able to try some things that are a little bit different. And something that our chapter hasn’t done before. So at the end of September, we are going to do what is called an agency crawl, where our members can participate and go to a variety of agencies here in town that are participating in this. They can learn who they are, what they provide, what their creative is like, as well as networking with other marketing professionals.

Now, there is there going to be beer at this agency crawl, right?

Um, so … we are trying not to go down that path, but if the agencies want to provide beverages, that is something that they can do. But we are not promoting drinking and driving by any means.

What are some of the large challenges you’ll face?

With great ideas, you never want to squelch people’s ideas, but realistically you can only accomplish so much within a 12-month period of time. And this is a volunteer organization and so we all have full-time jobs, and as passionate as we are about marketing and wanting to be able to see our organization grow and become stronger and really be the premier marketing organization in the state, I guess my challenge is going to be making sure that we actually execute on our ideas and not fall short. So there were a lot of great ideas that the board brought to the table, and I think just making sure that we are managing those expectation will be the challenge.

What are your escapes from work?

I love to golf, love to fish. Basically I’m a taxi service for my kids, you know, can you take me here or run me there. And really it is about family and that whole work-life balance.

How much do you think you’ve learned being a part of AMA so long?

Without being involved in the AMA, I just don’t feel as though I could have evolved and become the professional I am today. It has really allowed me to be not only a well-rounded marketing professional, but it has allowed me to have business savvy.