President's podium.

• Author: Slavin, Nat
• Position: Legal Marketing Association

In a recent conversation just before the Fourth of July holiday, one of our association's chapter presidents commented that it felt like the year was already over. I must say, it caused a rush of adrenaline as I protested, "But wait! Look at how much we have happening in the second half of the year--or at least the last five months of the year."

While I feel like I live and breathe LMA on a day-to-day basis, much of what the board of directors, committee chairs and staff work on each and every day is invisible to the membership; so now I thought would be an appropriate time to update all of you on our progress.

By now I hope that you have heard that LMA has worked with our management company, The Center for Association Growth (TCAG), to better serve the membership by hiring a full-time executive director dedicated to LMA. Betsi Roach joined us from the ABA and spent time in-house as a marketer before getting into the association management business. Betsi has already had a significant impact on the association!

In June, we coordinated and facilitated a half-dozen phone calls of chapter leaders and committee chairs with the explicit goal of sharing best practices across chapter functions. The chairs of the chapters' finance, marketing, PR, sponsorship, technology and programming committees, as well as many chapter presidents and president-select, were in attendance. As the association grows, we want to make sure the best ideas within the association are shared across the membership as a whole. The enthusiasm amongst the chapter leadership was both contagious and overwhelming. I am sure that you will see the benefits of this knowledge sharing in the coming...