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Mary Cruz, Director of Chapter Services from SMPS National facilitated the SMPS Volunteer Leadership Roundtable. I thought it was going to be a group of board members from various chapters discussing what was working/not working for them as board members. I had my own concerns about membership retention, recruiting committee members and staying engaged. The board meetings seem to be focused on day-to-day operations issues and less on policy and future growth.

What really happened was a 30,000-foot overview of the resources available to SMPS members at all volunteer levels. Apparently there is information about board management, planning and producing relevant programs and research on business development in the A/E/C industry. All this is available to members at the Web site. It includes best practices from other chapters with forms and templates for commonly-needed items.

I’ve been on the board five years, and had no idea. I have some homework to do.

We finished up the roundtable talking about how to make the case for SMPS membership in the face of dwindling financial resources at our companies. We even discussed how to advocate keeping marketing staff when times are lean.

At the risk of getting on a soapbox, here are some pretty compelling answers to those difficult scenarios:

For membership:

1. Frequent opportunities to engage with existing and potential clients in a non-threatening, and productive environment (through panels, on committees, as audience-members)
2. Access to best marketing practices, current market research, trend information and tips/tricks for edging out the competition that is not available through any other source
3. Contacts to any firm, any discipline, anywhere there is an SMPS member. What would you like to know about that job in Cincinnati? I can call someone and have an answer today.

For maintaining marketing/business development staff. (This is anecdotal – we shared many similar stories):

1. Compare the cost of a marketer doing what they do best with the cost of a technical professional doing the same task(s). Then double the amount of time it takes that technical professional to do it. Then halve the probability that they will win the project. This is the price difference between having a dedicated marketer and not having one.
2. Take the typical technical professional to a conference. When they return, ask them what they learned that will help the firm earn money or who they spoke to who has projects we might be interested in. More than 70 percent of the technical professional’s retention of conference events will be focused on the technical content. Less than 5 percent will be on client contacts and future work. Put a marketer or business development person through the same scenario, and you will have five or more project and client leads for every day they attended.
3. Someone is talking to your clients about the services the client needs. If you want the business, it had better be someone from your company who is knowledgeable and trained in closing the deal.

Later, I found an interesting article on the Web: .Ìý