It's finally happened. I'm president of something for the first time in my life. Now what do I do?
My old friend Natalie (the former president) convinced me to run for Vice President/President Elect of the New York Chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) in June. I won. Then, in mid-September, she stepped down as president to pursue a career outside the design/construction industry as a personal trainer. So I'm left holding the bag. In fact, when I last saw Natalie, she gave me two large bags filled with stuff that I'm responsible for as president--boards and and easel and a big binder of rules and regulations.
Now I keep asking myself, "What am I supposed to be doing?" I promised at the last board meeting (when Natalie officially resigned) that I would do some kind of mission statement or something, giving some indication what my presidency is going to be about, what this year is going to mean for the SMPS. I've got some ideas... but I haven't done it yet. This is something that seemed like it was going to be a fun thing to do when I first had the idea to do it, but I've been procrastinating. This has become that one thing on the list that I don't want to do. I'll do everything else on the list, dancing a merry dance around this one, putting it off, putting it off...
I was supposed to have a year of being vice president before being president, a year to figure out what the heck the organization is about and where I want to take it. Now I've got to dive right in, set some priorities, and start being presidential, dammit. At my first event as president, a networking event, I nearly wore myself out shaking hands, talking up the organization, advertising future events, and selling raffle tickets.
It's not that I don't believe in the organization. I do, very much. It's just that I feel blindsided by this new responsibility, and I'm not quite sure what I want to do now. I'm sure I'll work it out. I'm sure I'll come up with some kind of compelling vision to lead the organization forward.
The SMPS is a professional organization for people who do marketing for the built environment--in other words, architects, engineers, construction folks, and other consultants. Marketing in this industry is still a relatively new thing (architects, for example, didn't compete with each other on fee until 1970) and marketers in the industry have a lot of special challenges. Very often, they're working in isolation inside a firm of people with a totally different career track, working for somebody who generally has no idea what they do or how they do it. Marketers in this industry are also an eclectic bunch, generally having degrees in areas related to English and communications, the arts, politics, or art/architectural history. What makes a marketer good at what he or she does (it's generally a she, by the way) is our ability to communicate and collaborate with the other individuals in our firms.
I think my year as president needs to be about igniting the passions of SMPS members... about inspiring the members of the organization to take charge of their careers, step up within their firms, get active in the SMPS, and do what they want to with their lives. That sounds like a good thing, right?
More on this as it develops...
Comments