2001 Striving For Excellence Awards

The SMPS Striving for Excellence Program recognizes excellence in chapter educational programming and membership campaigns. The following chapter programs won Striving for Excellence awards for the 2000-01 programming year:

Grand-Prize Winner: Kansas City Chapter
"Rainmakers - Marketing Is the Future...Is Marketing in Your Future?"
Sue Dreckman, President
Patricia Cox, Education Committee Chair

The Kansas City Chapter Education Committee met the challenge of coordinating this innovative educational program with several local colleges and universities. The committee's goal was multi-tiered. It wanted to educate college-level students about SMPS as an organization and introduce those students to the professional possibilities offered through a student membership program. As marketers, the committee members saw a fantastic opportunity to educate students who could one day be business developers and marketers. Further, the committee saw this program as an opportunity to provide a great service to members of SMPS. By encouraging members and their respective firms to sponsor a student, the door was opened to begin relationships that could result in finding ideal future employees.

First-Prize Winner: Boston Chapter
"Building Leaders - A New Education Initiative"
Linda Koch, CPSM, President
Maria Tatarczuk, Board Liaison for Education

The Boston Chapter's goal was to reinvigorate the chapter's traditional Marketing Fundamentals Program. In keeping with the SMPS mission, the chapter developed a new series of educational programs that targeted a variety of specific audiences within the chapter and focused more on the six Domains of Practice for Professional Services Marketing presented by SMPS National and found to be critical for marketing success in our industry.

First-Prize Winner: Colorado Chapter
"Spring 2001 Marketing Education Series - The Six Domains of Professional Services Marketing"
Christine King, President
Julie Timmons, Education Chair

The Colorado Chapter's Spring Education Series featured sessions related to the Domains of Practice and appealed to marketers, people who want to be principals, and principals in the A/E/C industry, addressing basic and advanced marketing principles and practices. The Education Committee recruited national speakers to address each domain. Each speaker was a published author and had written chapters for the SMPS Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional. This educational program was also targeted to AGC, AIA, and ACEC members to increase their knowledge of upper-level professional services marketing.

Outstanding-Certificate Winner: Georgia Chapter
"Inspiration - Quarterly Newsletter"
Melissa McLaughlin, President
Kirsten Haas, CPSM, President-Elect & Newsletter Director
Amy Armstrong, Newsletter Director

Inspiration is the new quarterly newsletter of the Georgia Chapter. The goal of this project was to transform the newsletter from a self-promotional tool into a resource that adds value and benefits to SMPS Georgia membership. The objective was to "inspire" marketing professionals of various levels in their short- and long-term pursuits and to create a publication they would want to share with their colleagues, principals, and technical professionals. Through strategically planned upgrades to the newsletter, the aspiration was to increase the organization's exposure and credibility in the industry. The long-term vision is to fine tune the content and expand circulation to benefit members of other organizations such as AIA, ACEC, DBIA, and Georgia Institute of Technology Architecture and Engineering Programs.

Outstanding-Certificate Winner: Washington, DC Chapter
The Talking Shop Program
Michelle Monnett, President
Angel Pillow, Board Member
Lauren Myers, Board Member
Susan Boyd, Talking Shop Committee Liaison

The Talking Shop Program in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area was designed for marketing coordinators. The quarterly morning seminars provide an educational training forum, serving current members and attracting new participants and potential members.

The goals for the Talking Shop Program were to:
· promote the professional and educational advancement of persons engaged in marketing professional services
· provide junior-level marketing staff basic and intermediate marketing and technical skills
· provide a refresher course for senior-level marketers and marketing managers
· recruit highly qualified and well-known speakers whose credentials would lend credibility to the program and gain support from principals in our industry.

These award-winning chapters were recognized during the Awards Gala at the National Marketing Conference in Orlando in August.

The 2001 Striving for Excellence Awards were chaired by Karleen Belmont, CPSM, of KB Consultants. Also serving on the task force were Cynthia Jackson, CPSM, of BHDP Architecture and Peter Lyon, FSMPS, with Hanscomb Inc.