Ideas from FEI's New Jersey Chapter.

• Position: Financial Executives International

FEI's New Jersey Chapter has two good ideas to attract members to chapter meetings and professional development programs:

Multi-topic morning professional development (PD) programs, and joint programs with other associations.

Chartered in 1948-with 29 members--the FEI New Jersey Chapter celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. Today, the chapter has approximately 450 members who represent a broad spectrum of more than 300 New Jersey companies and institutions.

"Like other FEI chapters, New Jersey has offered professional development programs for years," says current Chapter President Ken Drossman, of Lakeview Business Consulting LLC.

"In the past, we scheduled the PD sessions for late afternoon prior to chapter dinner meetings. A lot of members registered, but many just could not get away from the office early enough, and the turnouts [were] less than hoped."

Last April, he continues, the chapter experimented with a new format: three consecutive one-hour PD sessions--delivered by chapter sponsors--offered at no additional cost to members, and running between 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

"If you came to these sessions, you got three CPE credits at no cost, which was a great value," Drossman explains. "The number of registrations increased because members appreciated the consolidation of sessions into one morning, and because the sessions did not start in the middle of the workday, we experienced fewer no-shows."

Another idea that is working well is holding joint programs with other associations. For example, the October meeting was jointly sponsored with the Association for Corporate Growth. The breakfast speaker, Matthew Farrell, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Church & Dwight Co. Inc., spoke about his firm's recent merger and acquisition activities

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