SIM Vision: To be recognized as the community that is most preferred by IT leaders for delivering
vital knowledge that creates business value and enables personal development.
SIM Mission: SIM is an association of senior IT executives, prominent academicians, selected
consultants, and other IT thought leaders built on the foundation of local chapters, who come
together to share and enhance their rich intellectual capital for the benefit of its members and their
organizations.
SIM AZ Marketing Committee Meeting Minutes
March 18, 2011 9:00 AM at IT Partners office
1. Introductions – Attendees were Deborah D, John Hurley, Bob Lindquist and Joe Larntz
2. Marketing Committee Primary Duties – Reviewed with committee
a. Public Relations and Marketing - Coordinate and distribute content to support
public relations and marketing of the organization through chapter meeting
notifications, newsletters and press releases.
b. Event Promotion - Promote events to our members and the technology
community
c. Alliances - Forge and manage alliances with other professional, corporate and
media organizations
d. Sponsorship - Obtain corporate sponsorships for chapter meetings and events
e. SIMI Marketing Support - Interface with the SIM International Marketing
Committee to support marketing initiatives and programs
f. Budget - Establish and manage budget needed to support marketing efforts
including community outreach e.g. ASU scholarships, volunteer efforts
3. Objectives for 2011
a. Increase membership
b. Improve newsletter
c. Create on-boarding process for new members
d. Increase Guest / Partnership meetings with other organizations
Discussion on objectives:
 add increase of member participation
 discussed possibility of golf outing
With the amount of things already on our plate, the outing may not be
possible this year. I will ask for a volunteer from SIM who has experience
in this area to join the committee and run with it. If there is no volunteer,
we will hold on this until 2012 and re-evaluate.
4. Develop 2011 Marketing Plan
We reviewed the marketing plan to date and additional suggestions were made on goals
for 2011. Regarding community outreach, a partnership with the local Young IT
Professionals organization was suggested where we could include some of their members
(20-30 on rotating basis), sponsored by a local business, as guests and provide mentoring
by 5-6 SIM AZ members to them 30 minutes prior to the chapter meetings. Also
suggested reaching out to Harvey Shrednick and Dustin Fennell for information on other
student or young professional organizations we could partner with. IT Partners would be
interested in sponsoring Young IT Professionals guests at the SIM meetings.
An increase in partnering with other professional organizations is a main focus for 2011
to provide mutually beneficial relationships between SIM AZ members and other
technology organizations. We want to evaluate quality vs. quantity when reviewing
organizations for approval. The itSMF (Service Management Forum) has expressed an
interest in partnering with them at their October meeting (Al Lucas).
Add a goal of increasing member participation to the marketing plan. How can we find
out why members are not attending monthly meetings? We survey those who attend but
how can we reach others? See action items below for the use of LinkedIn as a survey
tool.
5. Action items
Bob Lindquist will evaluate electronic options in LinkedIn for an interactive newsletter
and provide a review with the marketing committee either by email or at the next
committee meeting. The use of discussion groups to drive input while managing the
content through qualifications may be of more interest than the traditional newsletter
being pushed to members. Multiple questions could be sent to CIOs and SIM AZ
members for response. The chapter and LinkedIn group would be provided with a primer
on how the new communication format will work and what we will be asking participants
to provide.
If a decision is made to move in this direction, a review of the functionality and
capabilities will be provided to the SIM members. Deborah will provide the board with
an overview at the April BOD meeting.
Deborah will work with Brian Knapp and Michael Sperling to understand any existing
on-boarding process for new members and communicate to the marketing committee for
modification and formalization.
The LinkedIn format could also be used by members to post questions to speakers after
their meeting presentations. The speaker would be responsible to check the site for
a period of time after the presentation to respond.
Deborah will speak with Brian about the method currently used to track members. Joe
and John will take any existing member lists and add the necessary segment information
to provide the board with membership stats for a decision on a target audience.
Information to consider - job title, industry, disciplines, gender, technology
Deborah will document discussed changes to the 2011 Marketing Plan and redistribute.
Is it possible to have all marketing committee members added to marketing group on
SIMnet? Check with Kevin.
Thanks, everyone, for your ideas and great discussion!
6. Next marketing committee meeting
Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 9:00 AM at IT Partners office