Chapter Focus: Washington State.

• Position: Brief Article

Area Covered: Washington State

Year Founded: 1943 as Seattle Chapter; renamed Puget Sound Chapter in 1997

No. Members: 307 (as of Dec. 1, 2001)

Companies: A mix of public and private companies, including: Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp., Cutter and Buck, Amazon.com Inc., Airborne Express, Alaska Air Group, SAFECO Corp., Seattle Times Co., Washington Mutual Bank, Starbucks Coffee Co., Costco Whosesale Corp.

Annual Dues: $275 - includes 7 dinner meetings, 2 socials, 8 professional development sessions.

Meeting Schedule: Usually the third Thursday of each month, September through Aporil, with professional development from 4:30pm to 5:30pm; networking, then dinner and speaker with meeting ending no later than 8:30pm. Meetings are held at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.

Special Events: Ernst and Young Year-End Financial Reporting Update lunch each December, and a Spring Social each May.

Sponsorships: Four sponsors at $3,000 each include: Marsh Inc.; RHI Management Resources; Kibble & Prentice, a prominent regional insurance firm; Perkins Coie, the largest Washington law firm.

President: Richard Denmark, Chief Financial Officer, PlayNetwork Inc., 425.629.2749, rdenmark@playnetwork.com

Regional Challenges: "There are two major business centers - Bellevue/Redmond, with Microsoft, on the east side of Lake Washington, and Seattle on the west side, bounded by Puget Sound. Seattle has some of the heaviest traffic in the nation on both the north/south roadways and east/west over the bridges. The local economy has been hard hit with the tech meltdown, the Boeing move and retrenchment and the dot-bomb layoffs," said Richard Denmark chapter president, who provided the information for this feature in an interview.

Recent Highlights: A sample of the 2001-2002 lineup: Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks Coffee and the Seattle Supersonics; Taylor Hawes Microsoft; Mike Cave, CFO Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Robert Parry, CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Jon Stanton, CEO, Voicestream. A holiday social al was held at the Seattle Art Museum.

Immediate Goals:

1. Build local paid membership by 50 new members.

2. Obtain two new (appropriate) sponsors at the $3,000 level

3. Make the leadership/volunteer process more time-efficient and convenient.

4. Increase board and committee participation.

5. Encourage board to meet and greet members monthly.

   Longer-term Goals:

1. Increase the value of FEI to chapter members.

2. Increase member connectivity.

3. Make...