Illinois state university 2014 2015 annual report

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ANNUAL REPORT

2014-2015

MARKET DRIVEN

Welcome to the Annual Report of the Illinois State University chapter of the American Marketing Association.

36 %

increase in overall membership

15 %

increase in underclassmen membership

65 %

interviewed for leadership positions

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Table of Contents Executive Summary & Introduction SWOT Analysis Environmental Analysis Key Achievements Professional Development Community & Social Impact Fundraising Membership Internal & External Communications Chapter Operations Organizational Hierarchy Income Statement Calendar of Events

2 4 6 7 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18

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Dear AMA Colleagues,

We have made it our goal to prepare striving towards the goals we set forth opment of our members through our members for life in the real world months ago. a variety of activities such as AMA of business. This preparation for the conferences, company tours, speaker professional world is made possible panels, and networking events. through a variety of activities, such The ISU-AMA executive board is very as corporate speakers, tours, mentorproud of our accomplishments this When setting goals and planning activiship opportunities and more; building year, and we are confident this Annual ties to achieve these goals, we looked knowledge of the marketing field and Report will demonstrate to you that we at previous years and determined future career possibilities. We host truly have provided our members the their strengths and weaknesses to socials to develop strong establish different networking skills among We have made it our goal to prepare our members for ways in which we our members, commucould improve our nity service efforts to life in the real world of business...We strongly believe chapter as a whole, help others and teach while still benefiting members the value of that we have done all that and more members. societal responsibility, and a wide range of other programs opportunity to unlock their potential.

ISU-AMA is extremely motivated and to ensure our members are prepared The Illinois State University American aimed to demonstrate our motto for for a future in marketing.

Marketing Association has made its the year, “Market Driven, Student mission to prepare members for the Powered.� We wanted to create an The ISU-AMA executive board began professional world. During the planning exciting and beneficial experience for our quest for an outstanding chapter sessions held throughout the summer our members, by adding value to their this past summer. We began to layout and academic year, the Executive Board collegiate experience and help make an a year that would be full of professional scheduled events that we thought would easier transition into the professional experience, personal growth, and a be exciting, as well as valuable to our world. We strongly believe that we great time for all of our members, direcmembers, while keeping this mission have done all that and more. tors, and officers. The ISU-AMA was in mind. Some of these events include presented with awards for outstanding providing professional speakers every This Annual Report includes a detailed fundraising and communication at the month, scheduling unique tours, and description of all the activities that our Annual Collegiate Conference this past providing social events that will build chapter has taken part in and those year, and our goal for this year was strong ties among our members, faculty planned. We believe that our inspiration, to build on that success. We believe and the community at large. leadership skills, and determination we have accomplished that objective, Our primary focus this year has been has made Illinois State University’s and even exceeded it by relentlessly to improve the professional develAmerican Marketing Association a chapter to remember.

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ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Meet Our Executive Board Jake Massey President

A senior double-majoring in Graphic Design and Marketing, Jake is a self starter with a relentless work ethic and high ambitions. He is always looking for ways to gain new, wide-ranging experience and knowledge. He has an entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for leadership, and values relationships as of paramount importance.

Jake has also spent his college years as a member of the hockey team, the University Program Board, and Cornerstone Church. In his free time he enjoys trying new things (he recently became obsessed with downhill skiing and tried his hand at rock climbing).

Amanda Zindel

Vice President of Programming Amanda Zindel is currently a senior Marketing major at Illinois State University. Amanda has been able to increase her knowledge in the marketing field through her marketing internship at Mutare Software, Inc. and her current internship at The Baby Fold as a Development and Public Relations intern.

Erin Moore

Vice President of Communication Erin Moore is a senior Mass Media Communications major specializing in marketing.

Erin’s current internship at the Marquette Group has allowed her to work within a team in a professional setting and gives her working knowledge of the marketing communications industry.

Jack Rumsey

Vice President of Finance Jack Rumsey is a Junior marketing major at Illinois State. Hailing from the western suburbs of Chicago, Jack has been an avid member of ISU-AMA since his freshman year. He works for a student living company called CA Ventures, where he is a leasing agent for student apartments around ISU’s campus. Jack values great communication, problem solving skills and high ethical standards. Jack has been recently elected to lead ISU AMA as President for the 2015/2016 term. In his free time you can find Jack at the driving range improving his golf swing or socializing with friends on campus.

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SWOT Analysis Strengths Professional Development

At the beginning of our time as the Executive Board, we had a shared vision of bringing our members the best preparation for the real world of any organization on campus. We have accomplished this through our mentorship program, attendance at conferences, company tours, guest speakers, and our various other networking events throughout the 2014-15 academic year.

Fundraising

We also hit fundraising hard this year by hosting our 3rd annual ISU’s Got Talent event in the Fall, which raised close to $1200 for our organzation. Throughout the year, we continued to find other revenue sources. We put together a website for the Intelligent Communications Alliance, an international conglomerate of firms, for which we received $1,200. We also held various fundraisers at restaurants and we hosted a LinkedIn professional photo event for all students in both the Fall and Spring semesters which netted over $200 for our organization.

Communication

Another goal we had this year was to increase communication within our organization and also our reach to the rest of the student body. With this in mind, we put together a monthly e-newsletter for distribution to our members, and then increased this scope to the entire campus. We also continued to develop our social media through our Facebook page, making sure to make at least one social media post a day, thus improving our exposure.

Community Service

In addition to our focus on the necessary opertaions to keep our organization functioning, we also found time to remain involved in our community and give back.

We teamed up with the American Red Cross to host two blood drives througout the academic year. Our members also volunteered at the Midwest Food Bank on multiple occasions, and participated in Strike Out Hunger, a bowling event that raised goods for the local food bank. We are also hosting a 5K in April to benefit The Baby Fold, a non-profit organization that provides adoption services for children in need.

Weaknesses Lack of Director Experience

Due to high turnover in director positions, we had to train each director on their position in order to shape them into future leaders of ISU-AMA. Our new directors, however, were able to step right in and fill some big shoes left by their predecessors.

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Member Commitment

Due to busy lifestyles, members struggle to attend all of our events. However the executive board provides members with honors such as member and director of the month to keep members and directors engaged and to offer them an incentive to participate in all scheduled activities.

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

SWOT Analysis Opportunities Registered Student Organizations

Local Business Partnerships

Community and Social Impact

Underclassmen Involvement

We have the opportunity to work alongside other RSO’s on campus with different projects that we may otherwise not be able to do on our own. This semester specifically we are co-hosting a Red Cross Blood Drive on campus with Gamma Iota Sigma and have planned on co-sponsoring a spring event with ISU’s Sports Marketing Student Association (SMSA).

The local community is always looking for strong leaders to help with events and we are glad to assist them. We believe that we can increase our impact on our community even further than we already have.

This year we had the opportunity to provide our members with more real world marketing experience by helping local businesses with their marketing. We teamed up with the Snyder Companies, for example, to help them promote their properties to the students of ISU. This is something that will continue to be built on as our chapter looks to the future.

This year was a historic one for Illinois State University, as we saw our largest freshman class in our school’s history. This allowed us to greatly increase our underclassmen membership, and those numbers will only increase as the university continues to grow.

Threats Other Registered Student Organizations

ISU-AMA competes with sororities, fraternities, and other Registered Student Organizations in the recruitment of members. Within the College of Business, there are 22 student organizations, four of which are in the marketing department. These four organizations have the same target market as does ISU-AMA, leading to extreme competition for events and participation.

Posting and Printing limitations

Posting regulations and printing limitations in the College of Business have encouraged the ISU-AMA chapter to digitally promote events. However, by following University print regulations, ISU-AMA has still engaged with print ads in areas all over campus.

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ISU Undergraduate Marketing Majors

18%

26%

Mission Statement

The Illinois State University American Marketing Association will provide opportunities for professional and personal growth for its members in a friendly and motivating environment. In the application of general business and marketing concepts, ISU-AMA will strive to remain ethically and socially responsible within our immediate and extended environment.

Target Market

23%

Our current target market is segmented into primary and secondary markets. The primary market includes all College of Business majors or minors who are native or transfer students, marketing faculty and alumni. The secondary market focuses on our students with non-business majors, ISU Career Services, corporate recruiters, and the Bloomington-Normal community.

33%

ISU Undergraduate Business Majors

28%

32%

24% 16%

Primary Target Market

ISU-AMA will be focusing on all students with a College of Business major or minor, the marketing faculty and alumni as the primary target market. Our organization consists of a majority of upperclassmen, and is targeting more underclassmen to become involved early in their college career. The marketing faculty has demonstrated a great interest in ISU-AMA and partners with our chapter to encourage student participation in activities. Alumni serve as a critical resource in the development and success of ISU-AMA and we have focused on cultivating personal relationships with alumni.

Secondary Target Market ISU-AMA Student Membership

11%

39%

24%

ISU-AMA will be focusing on employers/recruiters, the Bloomington-Normal community, ISU Career Services and all other majors. Developing relationships with employers/ recruiters and ISU Career Services serves as a benefit to our members and creates opportunities for ISU-AMA members to gain real world expertise. There are many areas that support ISU-AMA such as communications, advertising and promotions, finance, research and development, and accounting, requiring expertise from students in different majors within as well as outside of the College of Business.

26%

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Freshmen

Sophomores

Juniors

Seniors

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Key Achievements Throughout this past year, we have achieved what we believe to be some great feats. We set goals, and did not waiver on our path to accomplishing them. Here is a list of our key achievements over this past year.

3rd Annual ISU’s Got Talent Our biggest event of the year was ISU’s Got Talent. This was the 3rd year in which we have decided to put on this event, and much like last year, this event was a huge success for the organization. To build off the prior year, we were able to locate certain areas to improve on and these adjustments allowed us to run the event flawlessly.

5K Run and 1 Mile Walk In April, we are hosting a 5K to benefit a non-profit organization called The Baby Fold.

This will be the first such event in our history, and we believe that with the amount of Poster for ISU’s Got Talent.

planning and preparation that we have put in, it will be a great success for our organiza-

tion, the Baby Fold, and the community at-large.

Bringing Home the Hardware For the first time this year, we attended the Aurora University Regional Conference.

This event was a huge success, not only for AU/AMA, but for our members as well.

Not only did our members gain great networking experience, but two of our members, Kevin Eichie and Michael Degradi took home third place in the Sports Marketing Case Competition.

Marketing Week

Official Proclamation of Marketing Week

In honor of Marketing Week 2015, we had the Mayor of Normal make an official proclamation of the week as “Marketing Week” in the Town of Normal, Illinois.

Mike and Kevin with their 3rd Place awards.

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Professional Development Our main focus for this year’s AMA was to improve our members’ preparation for the real-world of marketing. We hosted professional workshops such as resumé critiques, career fair preparation, LinkedIn photos, and Adobe Creative Suite training semiars. In addition, our mentorship program, attendance to conferences, and partnerships with local businesses were able to really add great value to our members’ professional development. We believe we surpassed even our own expectations for professional development within our chapter.

Logo for our “Level Up your LinkedIn” professional photo event.

The AMA Advantage As part of our effort to increase our communications, we created and distributed The AMA Advantage, a monthly e-newsletter that contained creatively organized information regarding upcoming events, member spotlights, industry articles and more. The e-newsletter was distributed to the ISU-AMA and starting in March the entire campus.

AMA Case Competition To better the professional development of our members, we put together a comittee to compete in the AMA Case competition. This allowed members to gain practical experience and consider real-world applications for the knowledge we have AMA Monthly E-Newsletter: November 2014 Edition.

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gained in our marketing curriculum.

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Professional Development We pride ourselves on helping our members prepare for post-graduation, and putting them in the best position possible to succeed in the real-world of marketing.

As part of our professional development for our members, we participated in various conferences, networking events, and the AMA Case Competition.

Professional Relationships Our goal has been to increase interaction with local businesses and other registered student organizations to aid in their marketing efforts so that our members may gain valuable real-world marketing experience. We were able to build and maintain relationships with local businesses that needed assistance with their marketing efforts. We encouraged interaction between members and faculty in order to improve our existing relationships by hosting a faculty and staff luncheon once each semester. As part of this initiative to develop more professional relationships, we are hosting an internship and career fair in conjunction with our CEO Speaker Panel in March. Students from all around campus will be able to network with representatives from Country Financial, Northwestern Mutual, CDW Corporation, Progressive Impressions International, Packback Books, TekSystems, Afni, DP Dough and ISU Athletics, and the Snyder Company.

Professional Speakers & Workshops We scheduled professional speakers that were informative on a variety of topics, including: networking, interviewing, effective resumes, and marketing strategies. Representatives from influential companies like Northwestern Mutual, Country Financial, and CDW participated in our events

Brad Behrens and Susan Hoover from Northwestern Mutual speak to our members about sales and recruiting.

and gave our members valuable insight. These speakers also helped us facilitate workshops for our members on such topics as resumes, software training, and career fair preparation. In addition to our regularly scheduled speakers, we are also hosting a CEO Speaker Panel, which includes 4 CEO’s and Presidents from a wide range of companies. This event will be a town hall format, meaning attendees will be able to ask any questions of the panel, and the discussion will stem from that.

Executive Mentorship Program This year, ISU-AMA launched a new program, in which professional business executives volunteer their time in order to provide mentorship to AMA members. This also includes the Elite 8 program.The Elite 8 program is an extended mentorship program providing additional support to eight members of the AMA in their junior year.

These eight will stay together in the mentorship program interacting with their mentor and each other to learn and grow from the second semester of their junior year, until two years after graduation. This program is the first of its kind for our chapter. To become a member of the Elite 8, the student must be an ISU-AMA member who has shown commitment to the organization, proved themselves a leader, have a GPA of at least 3.20, and be selected after an interview process. We hope to use this program as an example that can eventually be applied across all College of Business majors.

Professional Tours Another vital part of our professional development efforts were company tours. As part of this initiative, we toured the facilities of Caterpillar, Golin, a renowned international PR firm based out of Chicago and Progressive Impressions International, a direct marketing agency in Bloomington, IL. We also have a trip planned to Milwaukee, where we will be getting a tour of the Milwaukee Bucks facilities as well as meeting their marketing team, and the MillerCoors Brewery. These experiences are important in the professional development of our chapter, as it gives our members an idea of what they are working towards as students and AMA members.

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Community & Social Impact In the midst of all the events we host, it would be easy to lose sight of the impact on our community. We made sure to fit in plenty of events to benefit our surrounding community.

Midwest Food Bank The ISU-AMA volunteered at the Midwest Food Bank in Bloomington. The food bank needed help packing food to distribute to not-for-profits and disaster sites. We had 14 members participate which helped the Midwest Food Bank successfully fill over 30 boxes of food to be shipped out to the community.

Internship Fair Volunteering The annual internship fair hosted by the ISU Career Center reached out to the AMA to assist the Career Center with advertising efforts for the fair. They needed help with guerrilla marketing tactics such as distributing flyers, chalking the quad, and posting on social media websites about the upcoming fair. The AMA also helped the career center and employers set up their booths and clean up the leftover mess from the event. This event gave AMA members volunteer time as well as professional experience as they were able to network with the employers while they assisted them.

Red Cross Blood Drives After many successful blood drives with the American Red Cross, the AMA was eager to assist with the first one they hosted of the semester. ISU-AMA’s Community Service Directors and committee stepped in and planned the event.

We distributed promotional materials around campus and got Olive Garden to donate salad, pasta, and bread sticks to be given away to donors. We also staffed the blood drive with our members. Red Cross set a donation goal of 40 pints of blood. At the end of the day, 62 pints were collected exceeding our goal.

The American Red Cross again approached the AMA to co host a blood drive with an organization who was inexperienced in planning a such events. The challenge was the blood drive was going to be held during the following week.

The Red Cross set a donation goal of 50 pints of blood. At the conclusion of the blood drive 73 pints of blood were collected, exceeding the goal for the event.

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5K Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis The Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis reached out to the ISU-AMA for volunteers in their annual 5K. Our members assisted on the day of the run by providing food to runners, placed signs to map the route, kept time for runners and assisted in the clean up. The annual event raised $30,799 in Bloomington Il and the event gave the AMA members experience participating with a 5K, this helped with the planning of our chapter’s first annual 5K.

Strike Out Hunger The AMA participated in the Illinois State University sponsored event Strike Out For Hunger. The goal of the event was to collect nonperishable food for Home Sweet Home ministries of Bloomington IL. Students were urged to bring 2 nonperishable goods in order to participate in the bowling event. The AMA challenged our members to bring in 3 nonperishable food items in order to help out the non profit organization. Sixteen AMA members participated in this event and we exceeded our goal and donated 82 items to Home Sweet Homes Ministries.With all of our events that our members participate in, we are careful not to overlook the surrounding community, and have made great impact this year.

Baby Fold 5K and 1 Mile Walk Our biggest and most public community service event of the year is sure to be a hit. We will be hosting a 5k run and one-mile walk on April 11th. Half of the proceeds from this event will go to the Baby Fold, a non-profit organization that provides adoption services for children in need. This event is open to the general public, and we expect to bring in about $500 in revenues from this event.

Marketing Week Declaration To commemorate Marketing Week 2014, we contacted the mayor of Normal, and had him make a formal declaration of Marketing Week 2014 in Normal, Illinois.

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Fundraising Goal: Continue to grow profits by implementing more small fundraisers and improve strategy on our big, annual fundraising events.

Quick Facts Increased Revenues

Throughout the year, we were able to raise over $3,000 by way of fundraising events.

5K Run and 1 Mile Walk

As previously mentioned, we are planning a 5k run in April marketed to the student body and the surrounding community.

Keeping Pace

We set our a goal of hosting at least one fundraising event per month throughout the Academic Year. We met and exceeded that goal.

Level Up Your LinkedIn

As one of our fundraising events, we added a highly successful LinkedIn Photo shoot fundraiser to our event roster; a fundraiser we will repeat in the spring semester and continue on next year.

Diversified Experience

Designed a new website for the Intelligent Communications Alliance, an international conglomerate of firms, which drove in $1,200 of direct profit to the chapter.

Valuable Partnerships

Partnered with The Flats, a local apartment complex, where we helped drive in prospect traffic to the leasing office by selling pumpkins outside

3rd Annual ISU’s Got Talent The Rundown

Our biggest event of the year was ISU’s Got Talent. This was the 3rd year we have hosted this event and it was a huge success. The organization really came together in order to put on this event and we cannot praise our directors and members for their contributions enough. The winners of the event were even given the opportunity to donate 10% of our proceeds to the charity of their choice. Ticket sales were a huge success this year and we were also able to implement a raffle drawing in which we were able to obtain a wide variety of prizes to appeal to the audience members. The raffle donations, coupled with last year’s success, allowed us to raise attendance and give back to the supporters of AMA here at Illinois State and we look forward to its continued success.

Financial Highlights Website for the Intelligent Communications Alliance.

ISU’s Got Talent brought in $1,100+ revenue from ticket sales that filled out a venue of 500 seats. We were also able 11

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Fundraising

to bring in an added value of $370 through our sponsors’ donations, including two tickets to B96’s “Jingle Bash” awarded to a lucky member of the audience. We also cut facility costs by nearly 25% by providing our own stage crew and music operation.

Sponsorships & Donations Win-Win Situations

We have been able to successfully partner with local organizations to help us put on our events. We have received over $1000 in donations of various kinds from companies providing food products or gifts that have taken our events to the next level and really improve the events success.

Created a unique corporate sponsorship offering having sponsor companies’ name and logo appear on all of our promotional materials such as on the pamphlet that we distributed at ISU’s Got Talent, and the 8000 planners that we received and distributed across campus.

Compiled list of over 30 local organizations that have partnered with us to not only promote their organization, but to help us put on successful events. We also formed a partnership with the Snyder Company to provide them with a street team of our members to do guerilla marketing for their on-campus apartment properties.

Sustainable Events Fundraising for the Future

In October, we held a fundraising event where students paid a nominal fee to get a professional picture taken of them. We marketed the event to College of Business students and it was a huge success, not only financially but for the professional development of our fellow peers in the State Farm Hall of Business. We see great potential in the replication of the event for semesters to come which earns it the title of a sustainable event. We understand that we can continue to grow the idea by marketing it to different departments at ISU, and tie in the importance of the pictures to a successful LinkedIn profile. This type of picture is in extremely high demand at ISU. The organization has decided to host a 5k fundraiser in early April as a major spring fundraising event. We believe that the timing of the event will draw local runners from our campus and beyond on account of the training that is required for larger marathons in Chicago and Urbana –Champaign. This event will constitute as our annual spring fundraiser if it is a success.

Planner Distribution

We distributed 8,000 planners around the entire campus.

This is a program that we have participated in for a number of years now. We would have generated $1,400 in revenue, however; the company was unable to provide us with these funds. Because of this setback, we had to find other sources of revenue.

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Director Nick Russo distributes planners.

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Membership We found that strong membership results in strong organization. That is why we put great effort into retaining and recruiting members.

Total Membership

Member Retention

We held two-day membership drives at the start of each semester in the State Farm Hall of Business. These drives allowed our members to personally sell the organization to interested prospects. To prospects that we recruited at the drives, we kept them up to date with upcoming events and reasons to join if they had not already. Our membership committee personalized the recruiting process by splitting up the prospects into small groups and then contacting each through a phone call or text message. We implemented a director requirement to have each of them recruit at least one new member. Although we have not reached our intended goal of 90 members, we have acquired 60+ members that are highly more engaged than ever before.

Member retention was one of our biggest successes this semester. We had a fantastic 65% of our organization interview for leadership roles in ISU-AMA. Reiterating, we also had more underclassmen participants to help lead the organization into future years. We improved internal communication through a group messaging application called GroupMe, which allowed members to better interact with one another. Finally, analyzing our monthly sign in sheet at each meeting lead us to learn that there was no more than a 10% dip into our attendance from the start of the semester until February.

Underclassmen Involvement This year the ISU-AMA focused on getting more underclassman involved in the organization. We increased our freshman membership by %15 percent since the fall; a nice addition to an organization that has previously been dominated my upperclassmen. We promoted our organization to freshman business classes and freshman dormitories to engage the right audience. We were able to get more underclassmen engaged by encouraging them to interview for director positions within the group.

Unique Recruitment We found that recruiting through social media was not the most effective method because we had little exposure to our audience via Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

Instead, we focused on network recruiting to other social organization’s our members were involved in. I.E greek life, business fraternities, sports marketing club, and other business organizations on campus.

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Internal & External Communication We know that communication is vital to maintain progress towards our goals. That is why we put a great emphasis on internal and external communication.

Website Development This year our Director position of Webmaster was challenged to continuously update the ISU-AMA Website weekly to guarantee members with the most up-to-date information concerning events and meetings.The American Marketing Association application and Member Interest Form were made readily available for prospective members to access online through the ISU-AMA website. The contact information of all officers was updated regularly, ensuring the ease of communication efforts between all members.

Officer biographies and pictures were uploaded to the website in efforts of personalizing and differentiating our website from other registered student organizations. The ISU-AMA website was constructed completely in-house by our Webmaster.

Advertising & Promotional Materials As is the case with many organizations, our advertising and promotion efforts are vital to our success. We effectively advertised upcoming meetings, social events, speakers, community service events, and special events by utilizing the expertise of our Advertising and Promotions director and committee. We used various promotional materials to attract the interest of members and non-members. These materials included: electronic screens, flyers, posters, social media, video, and email. We placed advertisements in high traffic areas both on and off-campus. These places could include: sidewalk chalking, flyers and electronic screens in the College of Business, passing out flyers on the quad, passing out flyers while speaking in classes, and promotion tables at high traffic campus buildings.

accounts in order to sustain excellent external communication. Kept all sites updated with latest events and news.

We found Facebook particularly useful, as we were able to create “events” and quickly expose them to a wide audience. Another useful aspect of Facebook, we found was that we could track reach and interactions using online analytic tools. We made sure to update at least one of our social media accounts every day, so we made sure to keep ourselves relevant in the minds of our followers.

AMA Advantage E-Newsletter We created an informational, and creative monthly ISU-AMA E-Newsletter that was sent to AMA members, and ISU students and faculty. It included the month’s upcoming events, details for involvement in events and professional development articles. It also included pictures of ISU-AMA events and member spotlights to celebrate members achievement. The Directors of Internal Communication used creativity when formatting articles in the newsletter and generating article topics. We also used information generated by the Research and Development Directors to get accurate and relevant information of events and statistics and report the results in the newsletter.

Social Media Though our social media strategy was markedly undeveloped in previous years, we made it a centerpiece of our marketing strategy this year. We creatively informed members of upcoming ISU-AMA events, news within the chapter, and captured the previous months’ events visually through pictures and stories via our online communities.

We were able to completely restructure our social media efforts by adding two Directors of Social Media to better manage the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram 14

Poster for our CEO Speaker Panel

ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Chapter Operations Our organization has found great success over the years with the same basic structure.

However, we still found ways to build and improve our chapter operations.

Leadership Abilities

Continual Communication

Developing Leadership

Emphasizing Collaboration

As part of our initiative to devlop leadership, we held “Leadership, Motivation, and Delegation� seminar at the beginning of the year for all directors and officers to participate in. This session was led by our faculty advisor and discussed in detail the importance of each position and how everyone can do their part by motivating themselves and members within their committees. Throughout the year, we encouraged directors to be creative and resourceful while planning and coordinating events throughout the year. Each director was provided with a binder that included all director and officer contact information, responsibilities, chapter policies and procedures, and forms. These binders allowed our directors to maintain organization throughout the year and enabled them to complete and file proper documentation of each event for future reference.

Additionally, we required each director and officer to be evaluated once each semester by his or her committee along with other members, to encourage ongoing feedback and improvement. This helped encourage directors to keep their committee members motivated and constantly keep them involved.

Enjoyable Atmosphere Building Lasting Relationships

Throughout the year, we hosted fun and exciting entertainment events to attract a diverse group of students.

This promoted a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere at all-member meetings and socials.

We also conducted in-depth interviews of the directors with all officers present to insure that directors selected have the same goals and vision for ISU-AMA as the officers.

They must also show that they are committed to having a successful and enjoyable year.

We held All-Member meetings the first Wednesday of every month to insure that all members are available to come together and receive information on past and future chapter events. We also held a mandatory Director meeting directly after the All-Member meeting, and one additional day a month to address chapter issues, and to allow directors to voice opinions and concerns about upcoming events. In addition to these meetings, the executive board met once a week to ensure that we were all on the same page, and to evaluate where we were with accomplishing our goals. In an effort to keep everyone on track and informed, we also required officers and directors to communicate via email, group text, Facebook, or by phone every week.

Beneficial Meetings Effective Planning

In order to ensure quality preparation for the year, the executive board held two summer planning sessions. In these sessions, the officers went over policies, responsibilities, goals and planned the calendar of events for the entire year. This allowed time for us to reserve rooms in advance and give directors more time to plan their events. Each officer was also required to report a weekly summary of their respective directors’ activities or goals to all members of the executive board, including the faculty advisor at the weekly meeting. This allowed officers to be up to speed on current events before the meeting and saves time during the meeting that can be used for more in-depth discussions.

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Organizational Hierarchy

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ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

Income Statement REVENUES Fundraising

$3,455.06

ISU’s Got Talent

1,560.00

ICA Website

1,200.00

Linked In Photos

265.00

Pumpkins

140.00

Noodles

170.00

D.P. Dough

120.06

Dues

$6,016.83

Total Revenue

$9,471.89

EXPENSES Socials

$224.00

Conferences

$1,087.00

Fall National Dues

$1,880.00

Spring National Dues

$940.00

Transportation

$1,250.00

Advertisement

$60.00

Total Expenses

$5,441.00

NET INCOME Total Revenue

$9,471.89

Total Expenses

$5,441.00

Net Income

$4,030.89 17

I L L I N O I S S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

Calendar of Events Partial Listing of Events

August 2014

December 2014

15 Freshman Orientation 15-30 Student Planner Distribution 21 Social at Cornbelter’s baseball game 22 Junior Experience 26 RSO Night: Membership Drive 27 Director Meeting 28 Festival ISU: Membership Drive

3 Awards Night 5 Faculty Luncheon

September 2014 2-4 Membership Drive 3 First All-Member Meeting/Speaker/Pizza Social 6 Social 8-9 Membership Drive 17 Director Meeting/Leadership Seminar 19 AMA Webcast 22-3 RSO Spotlight in College of Business 26 Community Service: Midwest Food Bank 29-30 Membership Drive

October 2014 1 All-Member Meeting/Speaker 4 Parade 6-10 Marketing Week 7 Fundraiser: Noodles and Company 8 Fundraiser: Professional LinkedIn Photos 10 Tour: GolinHarris/American Girl store 15 Get Hired Workshop/Director Meeting 16 Community Service/Professional Development: Career Fair Volunteers 17 Aurora University Conference 20-21 ISU’s Got Talent Auditions 23 Fundraiser: Pumpkin Sales 24 Community Service: Blood Drive 27-28 Additional ISU’s Got Talent Auditions

November 2014 5 All-Member Meeting/Speaker 14 Tour: Caterpillar 17 Social 18 Special Event: ISU’s Got Talent 19 Director Meeting 18

January 2015 12-13 Membership Drive 14 All-Member Meeting/Speaker 21 Director Meeting 23 Tour: Progressive Impressions International 28 Winter Fest 29 Community Service: Blood Drive 30 Fundraiser: DP Dough

February 2015 4 All-Member Meeting: Elections/Elite 8 Interviews 10 Community Service: Strike Out Hunger 18 Director Meeting 19 Social 19-20 St. Louis AMA Conference 25 Fundraiser

March 2015 2 Fundraiser 3 Speaker Panel 4 All-Member Meeting/Speaker 18-21 New Orleans AMA International Collegiate Conference 20 Community Service 25 Director Meeting 28 Tour: Milwaukee Bucks/Miller Brewing Company

April 2015 1 All-Member Meeting/Speaker 3 Faculty Luncheon 11 Special Event: 5k for The Baby Fold 15 Director Meeting 20 Fundraiser 23 Social: College Station Bonfire 25 Community Service 29 Awards Dinner

I L L I N O I S S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y