by Focus – Marketing
Traditionally each board member picks an area of focus. I would focus on marketing. I would take my experience with Cascadia IT Conference and work on awareness campaigns to reach people that have never heard of LOPSA. Much of this can be done with little or no budget.
A focus on marketing can work together with other areas of concern for the board. Some examples include:
* Internal communications such as the monthly LOPSAgram are an important form of marketing to existing membership
* Finances and information about the financial health of the organization and conferences are a form of marketing both to current members and potential members
* Education is a key way of reaching new members and providing value for current members
I believe that LOPSA to date has not fully explored the options for marketing. Some ideas I'd like to see are:
* A LOPSA YouTube channel with recorded talks from the chapters and conferences.
* More banner ad exchanges
* Press releases, particularly about awards & survey data
* Media interviews with members on current topics
While focus is important, as a Board candidate, I'll also work in other areas.
Membership
I suspect all current members can agree that we'd like to see our membership grow. I would like to see LOPSA membership occur for anyone in the field much in the same way as AAA membership occurs for anyone who owns a car in the United States. Not everyone who owns a car has an AAA membership, every car owner knows that AAA exists, and has at least strongly considered being a member. I believe that other professional organizations such as ACM and IEEE occur this way for professionals in their fields, and I believe LOPSA can be the same.
I think membership growth can be achieved through a variety of strategies:
* continued organic growth and "doing what we are already doing."
* working with members who don't renew to see if we can serve them better and convince them to renew
* applied conventional marketing
* market research, such as asking our membership "where are you looking now that LOPSA presence (ads, interviews etc) would be appropriate but you aren't seeing them?"
Finances
I know next to nothing about the finances of LOPSA as a whole. I'd like to know more, and I don't know where to look. So as a member that is a concern I'd like to see addressed, and as a Board member I think it would be worth the time it would take to do so.
* Where are we getting money?
* How much from memberships?
* How much from donations? (including memberships above the basic level)
* How much from sponsorships?
* Where are we spending money?
For many non-profits this information is incorporated into an overall annual report, which I also think would be worth the time and effort.
Education
I have been involved with the efforts of Bellevue College to create a four-year IT degree which is very exciting. My experience has been that educators are eager to work with professional organization representatives in order to better understand the needs of the job market. They want their students to be highly employable!
I believe that relatively little time from the Board is needed to strongly support high school and secondary institutions such as Bellevue College and connect them with LOPSA volunteers who are happy to work with them.
I'm also a strong proponent of mentoring and the LOPSA mentorship program. The LOPSA mentor program can be expanded by establishing stronger connections with higher education.
Introduction
LOPSA members outside the Seattle area may not be familiar with me, so here's a brief introduction.
I'm the IT Director at 3TIER where I've worked for ten years. In that position I've been the sole IT staff, managed a growing team up to five direct reports and I currently manage three direct reports. For the duration I've also done normal sysadmin duties and been in the on-call rotation. Prior to my work at 3TIER I was a Sr. Computer Specialist at University of Washington, worked at The Mathworks Inc, and Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories.
I feel my sysadmin career has prepared me well to:
* understand the needs & wants of LOPSA members and prospective members at many levels of seniority
* work in a leadership and management role in LOPSA
I am a Charter member of LOPSA, and I attend the Seattle chapter meetings.
Outside of work, I've participated in non-sysadmin community activities since high school, both as a volunteer and in leadership positions. My volunteer and leadership activity within LOPSA have been more recent.
* I volunteered with the Cascadia IT Conference (CASIT) in it's first year 2011, primarily focusing on marketing.
* I co-Chaired with Ski Kacoroski CASIT 2012.
* I volunteered again for CASIT 2013, focusing on marketing and sponsorship.
I have a record of getting things done. Most notably I've been involved with CASIT. When it started in 2011 I focused on marketing. In 2012 I was co-chair. In 2013 I again I focused on marketing and sponsorship. For each year, attendance at CASIT has grown substantially.