Welcome everyone to the HIA Website. What a great year we have been having. I want to thank Danielle Machi and Mort Landsberg for their help in getting this site launched, Don Howard for another amazing year of programs, Jean and Al Covarelli and Dave Marten for their administrative skills and gracious hosting at our meetings. There are many more of you who have done work such as phone tree, providing locations for meetings, etc.
I believe 2007 will hold even more energy and excitement at HIA. My goals for 2007 are to increase membership by 33%, especially by increasing the numbers of architect/design members as well as reaching out to those we all serve, the restaurant and hotel owners. We will designate two of our meetings during the year to invite members from these areas especially. For those of you reading this now who are not members, I encourage you to go to the membership section of the website and join.
There are three areas in which we can use some help to further strengthen this organization. Please consider carefully the requests below and decide to do your part to be an active member.
The first area is what makes HIA “head and shoulders” above other associations, our programs. As mentioned above, Don Howard has done an excellent job in providing good programs. However, providing programs continuously takes time. What I am asking each of you to do is to take the time to think about a program you would like to see or a facility you would like to visit. That’s easy. Now write it down on your “to do list”. That’s easy too. Now call around to find the appropriate contact at the location and determine if a visit is possible. Oh, that’s tougher, it might take 30 minutes to 1 hour. If you get a positive response, contact Don and he will work with you to let you know what the parameters would be for us and how to coordinate between HIA and the potential location to visit. He can also let you know about available dates. This is even harder. It might take three – half hour calls between Don and your location to get the details down. Next, I would like to see two individuals to come forward and work with Don to follow up on the details to put on the programs.
The second area is the phone tree. I would like to secure twenty-members to give up 30 minutes each month to call about 15 people each to remind them of the meeting. This is also a great way to network.
The third area is to take over a position I currently hold along with the president’s position. That is the membership chair. It will take about 5 hours per month. Two hours would be spent at the monthly board meeting and the other three hours would be sending out information to prospective members and answering questions they may have.
Again, if you are not a member, I want to encourage you to join. I joined just three years ago and have made many good friends. The networking opportunities have been invaluable. I find HIA an excellent resource to get information as well as a chance for me to get the satisfaction of helping others to succeed. Look forward to seeing you at the November program.
Rich Buchner
