The mood at the IAMC January 2010 meetings, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 19-20, at the Atlanta Airport Hilton, was positive, energetic and forward thinking. The meetings included Governance Institute, Strategic Planning and Board of Directors in that order.

The year 2009 saw progress on many fronts. The Professional Forums in Asheville and Minneapolis-St. Paul were two of the best. The Membership Committee has stubbornly held the line on numbers, recruiting new Actives and Associates in the face of recession-related churn. The Industry Groups got off to an enthusiastic start. And IAMC social networks are growing their followings.

The planning and decision making over the two days favored quality over quantity. A survey showed that member expectations are largely being fulfilled.

Primer on IAMC History, Committees and Leadership
The Governance Institute (GI) has existed only for three years but already has matured into a key piece of leadership infrastructure. The Institute's purpose is to familiarize new board members and committee chairs with how the organization works; it's like a high-level users' manual.

On the morning of Jan. 19, the GI topics included history, mission, vision, by-laws, finances, leader responsibilities, the leaders' names and membership policies. After a mid-morning break, GI covered committees, industry groups, future sites and strategic alliances.

Todd Clark, Cummins

The Governance Institute is intended to reduce the amount of on-the-job-training leaders must slog through before they become confident contributors. As a result, new leaders spend less time and get more done. This is more satisfying for the member volunteers and enables them to move the organization along at a faster clip.

Lots of Member Input; a Little Greek Humor
After lunch on Tuesday, the annual strategic planning session began with opening remarks by board Chair Jim Winter and votes by the board of directors to approve the addition of Kevin Dollhopf of Hanesbrands as a new director and Todd Clark of Cummins as board secretary.

Following a financial update and review of 2009 metrics, the group spent about 10 minutes reviewing the results of the just completed Member Expectations Survey. Here's a sampling of the findings:

• 81% of Active member respondents indicated strong agreement with the statement "IAMC is fulfilling my expectations."
• 72% of service provider respondents said they strongly agree with the statement "I am satisfied with IAMC's professional networking."
• 91% of economic developer respondents strongly agreed with the statement "I would recommend membership in IAMC to a colleague."

Doyle Shea, 3M

The survey will be repeated each January to track the movement and direction of member-expectation metrics.

Next, Vice Chair Doyle Shea of 3M moderated breakout discussions to provide input for the 2011 strategic plan. The four discussion topics were member engagement, industry groups, membership development and the relevance of the organization. Many of the attendees said the resulting discussions were among the best they'd experienced at an IAMC governance meeting. The conversation covered both sides of every issue, but was always collegial if not humorous at times. For instance, when reporting the outcome of his table's vote on one question, George Manos recorded the response in Greek characters on a flip chart and then translated it for the group. Manos is unabashedly proud of his Greek heritage.

The second day, Wednesday, was dedicated to the board of directors meeting, which included a financial update by Treasurer Mert Livingstone of Johnson & Johnson, votes on several issues and updates by committee chairs. Livingstone reported that IAMC's finances are sound. Among other business, the board approved a measure to complete the funding of IAMC's one-year Reserve Fund.

The meeting concluded with the attendees satisfied that the two days had been time well spent and that the organization's prospects are strongly positive. Many challenges were discussed and solutions proposed. A spirit of teamwork kept the deliberations on track, constructive and focused on what's best for the organization.