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Check out photos I shot during ASAE & the Center’s Annual meeting last week. Read on to get my take on my volunteer activities on the Saturday prior to Annual.
ASAE Volunteer Breakfast
This will be my second year serving on ASAE & The Center’s Technology Section Council. I also finished a one-year term with the Young Professionals Committee. So although it was great to hear summaries from the various chairs about their group’s activities for the past year, it was particularly satisfying listening to Tech chair Bron Prokuski’s summary of the council’s successes such as the growing Technology Conference and the best practices initiative. I’ve devoted much time serving as a presenter for the last conference and excited to contribute in the upcoming conference in January presenting a session on Virtualization and sitting on a panel about Championing New Technologies with fellow young professionals.
The Young Professionals summary during breakfast was delivered in stereo! Bob Wolfe took the initiative to provide the report starting on my side (left of the stage). Then YP chair Jen Jones added to Bob’s summary on the other side of the room. The inside scoop is ASAE YP liaison Alyssa Thomas was unsure if Jen was in the room so she prodded Bob to take the mic. Regardless, both did a wonderful job sharing with other volunteers on how YP launched a new Web site and actively participated in sessions at both the Tech and Marketing conferences.
Technology Section Council Meeting
It seemed like everyone serving on the Council made it to the meeting this year since there were no empty chairs around the table. The large number of folks made for a cozy fit as I think the table was a bit on the small side for the group. With so many in attendance, I’m sure it contributed much to our largely frenetic discussion. Everyone had an opinion and definitely wanted to share it. However, Tech council liaison Reggie Henry did a remarkable job managing the discussion and made sure everyone had their opportunity to contribute.
The discussion focused mostly on how ASAE can perhaps rehaul how it delivers technology content to such a diverse membership. There was much talk on how ASAE can tweak or retask the TechnoScope eNewsletter but much of our efforts focused on how to deliver the content using ASAE’s new Web 2.0 tools such as the Associapedia wiki and the Acronym blog. The intent on delivering more content using these vehicles is to spark more discussion and interactivity among the membership and to keep content “fresh” as more readers continue the conversation by providing new ideas and posting new questions. So expect some changes in the coming months.
The council then broke up into its various subcommittees. We decided to create a couple of new subscommittees to focus on social networking initiatives and emerging technologies. Last year, I served on the publications subcommittee which resulted in me contributing as “guest editor” for the October TechnoScope. So if you check it out, you may notice it focuses on some new media tech such as Webinars, podcasting, downloadable content and social media. My intent was to draw contributors from the young professionals community and they certainly stepped up to the plate! Kudos to Garen Distelhorst, Robert Murphy and Katie Paffhouse. I’ve put my name to serve again as guest editor so expect more YP content same time next year. I'll keep you posted on Tech Council activities as we get closer to the Tech Conference.
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