The annual business meeting for the Southeast Chapter was held Thursday, November 2 immediately preceding the Chapter Dinner at the AMWA annual conference.
Kim Korwek (Immediate Past President) summarized the key achievements of the 2016-2017 year. Notably, the chapter achieved its governance goals, becoming a registered non-profit organization and meeting all chapter affiliation requirements with AMWA. The chapter held 5 networking events (3 in Nashville, 1 in Memphis and 1 in Birmingham). The chapter also helped facilitate 3 educational events. This included an educational presentation about statistical concepts for writers (online and in Nashville), a roundtable discussion in Atlanta, and the chapter book club. The chapter has secured programs for many back-office functions to help volunteer leaders with chapter duties, including a new bank account and accounting system, a mass emailing system, and a new website. Finally, the chapter has a full slate of volunteer officers and is recruiting local networking coordinators to help facilitate connection with members in all geographic areas.
Whitney Smalley-Freed (Treasurer, 2016-2017) provided a summary of the chapter’s financial status. Expenditures were below budget due to fees for incorporation being less than anticipated. The largest portion of expenditures (38.6% of total spend) were related to incorporation and aligning with the requirements of the chapter agreement. Approximately 33% of expenditures were related to sending a chapter delegate to the spring Board of Directors meeting; this cost will not be incurred next year due to changes in the board structure. The remaining expenses were for educational and networking events and maintaining the website.
Eva Stabenow (President) introduced the 2017-2018 officers: Rebekah Koutny (President-Elect), Callie Compton (Treasurer) and JoAnna Pendergrass (Secretary). Eva introduced the goals for the chapter, including more local programming. She stressed the importance of local volunteers for event organizing, and solicited volunteers to serve as Local Networking Coordinators (LNCs) to facilitate this process.