| |
Chicagoland
ERA
Executive Committee Meeting - May 23, 2008
Elk Grove Village, IL
Attendees: Kingsland Coombs, Jack Devine, Bob Evans, Jim Hartranft, Rich Hobby, Tom McGuire, Todd Somers, Randy Temple, and Tess Hill
Opening Business - The meeting was called to order by Kingsland Coombs at 9:25 a.m. The summary of the April 4, 2008, Executive Committee meeting was approved as written. The April 30, 2008, financial reports were also approved as submitted. It was noted that total dues income for this fiscal year is now $7,785. It was agreed that the member fee to attend the round table breakfasts would be raised from $15 to $20.
National Delegate's Report - Rich Hobby reported that the 2009 ERA Conference will be held Oct. 6-8 in the Chicago area at the Oak Brook Hill Marriott Resort. He suggested the board consider ways Chicagoland can be involved as the host chapter.
Programming -Jim Hartranft reported that he had contacted officers of Wisconsin ERA re: co-hosting a program focusing on contract manufacturing. A date in September will be selected, and a location in Gurnee or Kenosha will be contracted. The Brat Stop banquet facility was recommended as a better Kenosha site than the Birchwood Grill (which was the site of the last Chicagoland-Wisconsin event in early 2006). After discussing possible
program participants among contract manufacturers of varying sizes, it was agreed the following would be asked to participate: Sanmina; Creation Tech or Universal Electronics; Milwaukee Electronics (MEC); Arctronics; Andrew Technologies or Applied Control. Jim also recommended Bob Terwall be asked to serve as moderator, and all agreed. The target attendees for this program will be reps, distributors, manufacturers and customers.
Future breakfast round tables were also discussed, and it was agreed that the discussion in this day’s round table should be continued with a second installment later in the summer. July 25 was selected as the date. In addition to following up on the planning topics covered on May 23, additional subjects on July 25 will include how reps are handling auto expense compensation for employees.
Tess Hill noted that she had been contacted by a former corporate sales trainer, Bill Heyden, re: possibly presenting a program for the chapter. Bob Evans has also been in touch with Heyden, so he offered to follow up with him about program prospects.
Membership - In the absence of Ron Rutkowski, there was no report. However, Todd Somers inquired about efforts to attract “younger reps” (i.e., newer to the business). He suggested that MANA members in the electronics industry should be recruited because they are probably newer to the business. It was noted that the CSP (Certified Sales Professional) program may eventually bring an influx of younger owners into the rep business. The question was raised as to whether ERA had ever conducted a demographics survey of its members, i.e., re: age ranges of owners, salespeople, years of experience, size of firms, number of years firm has been in business , etc. Tess was to follow up on this idea with Tom Shanahan and the ERA Executive Committee.
Next Meeting - The next XCOM meeting was tentatively scheduled (and later confirmed) on July 25, immediately following the breakfast round table event. (Since the July 25 breakfast program had to be postponed, the XCOM meeting was rescheduled to a teleconference on Aug .15.)
###
top |
