What a great time at Bid and Proposal Con in San Diego! I love this event because it really does have something for everyone. If you are looking to learn skills, get information, become involved in the APMP community, or grow your network, this conference is the place to be. I love seeing people from around the world and making those connections. Our chapter had many award recipients and received an award ourselves for all of the offerings and support we give our members. APMP International announced a new scholarship that they will be awarding – the Charlie Devine Scholarship which will pay for a member to get their next level of certification. Within our chapter, an exciting new member benefit that we will be adding in the month of July is our “Coffee Talks”. This will be a monthly phone call for any member to attend and we will discuss a different topic each call. It is unscripted, free-form conversation so we are asking people bring their opinions, advice, questions, and insights to share with others! The list of monthly topics will be shared on our website and 5-Fact Friday emails so stay tuned!

This week is our Women in the Workforce Dinner event. This event is shaping up to be one of the most exciting evenings for our chapter this year as we explore the unique challenges that women face in the workplace and how we can empower ourselves and one another to succeed. Dreamed up based on the current climate of our society, we are proud to offer such a forward-thinking event to support our strong women in the industry and beyond. Each speaker will deliver information and tips for success and all of the vendors will be offering goods and services specifically for women. The raffle prizes will be exciting and the dinner delicious. We truly hope you will join us for this unprecedented event.

Whether you have noticed or not, our website has undergone A LOT of transition and change this year. I wrote about it in my blog last quarter but wanted to follow up and give everyone an update. We have finally worked out all the kinks and believe we are almost “show ready”! The last item is renaming all 300+ files that have been stored in our Body of Knowledge to give them all the same naming convention which should help for search purposes. This is taking quite a bit of time as you can imagine! We will get there, and you will begin to see all of the events and everything else back on the site in the near future. None of this would have been possible without our superhero Logistic Chair, Neal Levene, stepping in to handle the nitty gritty tasks of managing this new hosting platform. With the changes we have made, you can expect to see more invested back in to you, the member.

Lastly, we are ramping up our efforts for the Mid-Atlantic Conference and Expo (MAC). Kevin Switaj and Nicole Tripodi have been busy collecting abstracts from people who are interested in presenting and are now combing through 41 responses with their team! We always look forward to this event and try to make it bigger and better each year. Your feedback is always greatly appreciated and we sincerely hope to see you at this years’ event.

A few other things to look out for: a webinar in July, a Happy Hour in August, and the Capture Breakfast in September.

You are always welcome to attend our board meetings by phone – we value your feedback!

Respectfully,
Rebecca Link, President APMP-NCA