May / June

It is getting to the end of the year, which is a time to reflect on the year along with mentioning some thank you's. With the conclusion of our monthly events for this fiscal year, I would like to thank everyone who was able to attend and participate in any of our meetings. The benefits of connection and networking only happen when we have members that attend, engage, and participate in the meetings. So, thank you to everyone who attended our meetings and helped create that mutual benefit for all of us.

For those that could not attend this past year, I would encourage you to find time this fall to get to a meeting. We recognize that some speakers or professional development sessions may be more relevant than others, or it can be difficult to find the time to get out of the office. When the new schedule is released, I would ask that you review it, find a meeting or two that you think you would find value in or enjoy hearing, and block off your calendar. In addition to that, I would encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to invite a colleague if you think your HR Director, IT Director, President or someone else on your finance team would benefit from the event. There are a number of benefits FEI can bring to each of us with the list including professional development, networking, CPE and other areas, and we want our members to take advantage and gain value from those benefits.

Regarding membership, we were happy to see our membership grow this year. It has not grown significantly, but it has been increasingly difficult for organizations like ours to attract new members. We had some people resign or not renew their membership this year, but we also had around 35 new members join this past year. It is exciting to see new members wanting to be part of our chapter, and I am confident there are many, many more prospective members in the community that would benefit from being a part of our group. Please continue to think about introducing FEI to anyone you think would be a good fit and benefit from being a member of our chapter, and thank you to everyone that has invited prospective members to join our meetings to help grow our chapter this past year.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Joe Rossmeissl for his time, commitment, and the exceptional job he did leading the chapter as well as everyone who helped support the Membership Experience Committee this past year. That committee included Bob Nigh, Skyler Stecker, Ben Kleist, Holly Kostechka, Beth Heinen, Mike McNamara and a special thank you to Michelle Weiss.

Thank you and enjoy your summer!

Bob Faulds
FEI Member Experience Chair
Bob.Faulds@truitypartners.com