Linné Diiorio, CMP, says much for the MPI Virginia Chapter’s success can be attributed to taking a personal-touch approach to members, closely managing expenses and offering quality educational programs. The chapter was honored for Overall Excellence as part of the 2019 MPI Chapter Awards.

“Our membership team was committed to making personal touches to encourage planner attendance at our biggest events,” Diiorio says. “They also made each new member feel welcome with phone calls and onsite greetings at their first event. Encouraging new members to engage at the outset is key to our retention efforts, too.”

An Overall Excellence Award is bestowed upon a chapter that exceeded performance in all key metrics—education satisfaction, financial management, member satisfaction, net member growth and volunteer ratio—consistently and demonstrated a measurable positive impact on its membership. The Virginia Chapter was founded in 1986 and has about 160 members.

“We are always mindful of expenses and do our very best to seek out in-kind sponsorship wherever possible. We were also able to deposit $10,000 into our reserve account this year,” Diiorio says. “We take the quality of our educational offerings very seriously and committed to aligning all of our topics and speakers with Events Industry Council domains. As a preferred provider of CMP preparedness education, that has added tremendous value for our members. Having a knowledgeable and approved chapter admin through Paragon has been a solid investment, and we know we are blessed to be in the financial position to afford professional assistance with running the operational side of our chapter.”

“Encouraging new members to engage at the outset is key to our retention efforts.”

She says project management tool Basecamp heled the chapter meet or exceed all of its metric goals.

“Basecamp to kept us on track and organized,” Diiorio says. “In recent years, our chapter leadership has attended the Chapter Business Summit, and we’ve heard from so many chapters who are struggling with their CRM software, or lack thereof. As a smaller chapter, we know how that feels and are fortunate to now be in a financial position to adopt technology tools that work for us. We also created a committee chair position for Basecamp management and that member keeps our board trained and on target with our to-do list.”   

She says two the chapter’s particularly successful recent initiatives were adding a committee chair onboarding session to its Global Meetings Industry Day and a new monthly segment called “Shout Outs.”

“We carve out time before each educational session for members to stand and introduce themselves, share an update on a property renovation project or announce that they are hiring or are looking for their next career move,” Diiorio says. “It’s a great conversation starter and allows planners and suppliers to put faces to names, which helps them to continue the conversation and offer their support.”

In addition to having engaged chapter leaders who celebrate successes and have fun along the way, she says the chapter is noteworthy because of charter member Howard Feiertag, CHA, CMP, CHME.

“He is an industry icon!” Diiorio says. “It’s powerful to have such a legacy to carry forward, and he motivates us to do our very best for the chapter.”