Happy Birthday NACE New Orleans,

It’s hard to believe our chapter is 25 years-old. In the coming months, we will be commemorating our chapter’s past fundraisers, NACE Awards and recognizing past chapter leaders and lifelong members.  If you have a part of our chapter’s history, fun photos or if you/your company have been the recipient of a NACE National Award, please email Caroline Hubbard (caroline.hubbard@arnauds.com), so we can the information and photos to the archive.  

A fundraiser that will go down in our chapter’s history will be this year’s Tasty Bites of the South.  Not only did it feature New Orleans’ best restaurants and caterers, but it also brought together NACE Members from across the US, including members from NACE National.  If you haven’t had a chance to see Kali Norton’s photos on NACE New Orleans’ Facebook page, make sure to check them out! Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!

This fundraiser would not have been possible without our dedicated commitment from our committee members:  Chris Burke, Christine Hayden, Amanda Lee, Tesa McKelroy, Patrick McMahon, Katie McNulty, Stacey Messina, Amanda Milano, Melanie Mims, Caitlin Miner, Jayna Morgan Decurers, Michael Raborn, Emily Riemer and Nathan Ruger.  

In these quarterly President’s Messages,  I’d like to recognize personal and chapter achievements, but I also want to use this opportunity to give members an up to date report on where the Board of Directors stand in reaching their goals. So here we go:

If you are not attending Conference, please save these dates, July 15-19. NACE New Orleans will be partnering with Event Pros Take Action (EPTA) for a day while they they are in New Orleans. More information, will be sent ASAP.  

July is going to be a busy month with Experience in Houston and EPTA in New Orleans.  Email Katie McNulty (katie_mcnulty@ldry.com), if you are planning to attend Experience!  We are currently compiling a list of members.  

Increase Member Engagement:  The Board and I are overjoyed that 7 chapter members (not including Board Members) volunteered to join the Tasty Bites Committee.  With this strong fundraising committee,we were able to additional vendors like the absinthe demonstration and the photo booth.  

Improve Membership Retention:  In efforts to create awareness to current Membership Benefits, we have created a “Ten Membership Benefits” brochure.  Make sure to pick one up at the May meeting.  

We’ve also made efforts to expand the Official Partner Program.  This program was created with the goal of recognizing our members and their companies. If you would like more details on this program, please email one of your board members or myself.

In March, we partnered with Kali Norton of Kali Norton Photography. Kali is multi-talented.  She not only owns her own photography company, but also specializes in digital marketing.  You can read more about Kali and her services at www.KaliNortonPhotography.com.  Thank you Kali for taking the amazing photos at Tasty Bites (click here to view).

For the last few months, I have been working on a partnership with SB Value (include a link).  SB Value is a group purchasing organization (GPO) that is the largest buyer of food in the country. As a GPO, they spent just over $5 BILLION last year and want to bring that buying leverage to our NACE New Orleans Members.  This will benefit small to mid-sized caterers, hotels, and restaurant groups.  If you are interested, please email me (michelledunnick@gmail.com) and I’ll make an introduction.  

Create Future Chapter Leaders:  The Board and I are excited to announce, we’ll be adding an additional Board of Director position, the Director of Membership Engagement. For a full description and list of responsibilities (click here).   In the next few weeks, we’ll be calling for nominations.  Each nominee will need to complete the nomination form (click here) and email it to Katie McNulty (katie_mcnulty@ldry.com) by Monday, May 15th at 6:00 PM CT.  The voting ballot will be emailed to current members on Thursday, May 18th .  Members will have 5 days to vote and we’ll make the announcement via email on Friday, May 26th and installed at our June 14th meeting at Dave’s & Buster’s.

In addition to the new Board position, Board members will be recruiting committee members at the May and August Meetings.  Listed below are the committee we’ll be recruiting for, so please plan to get involved! If you’d like to review each committee’s description, responsibilities and benefits (click here).

  • Membership Recruitment Committee (4 committee members)
  • Membership Engagement Committee (4 committee members)
  • Programs & Education Committee  (3 committee members)
  • Events Committee (3 committee members)
  • Fundraising & Committee Service Committee (5 committee members)
  • Marketing Committee:
    • Website Sub-Committee (3 committee members)
    • Digital Media Sub-Committee (3 committee members)
    • Monthly Communication Sub-Committee (3 committee members)

In closing, I want to remind members that we’ll be distributing a demographic survey at our August Meeting.  We’ll then take the results and break it down so we have a better idea of our chapter make up, which will allow us to serve the members better.  I’d also like to encourage members to LIKE us on Facebook, FOLLOW us on Instagram and CONNECT with us on LinkedIn.  We’ll be using these social networks, as well as our website (www.NewOrleansNACE.com) to distribute meeting information, promote job listings and recognize members’ accomplishments.  

Sincerely,

Michelle Dunnick

Mark Your Calendars:

  • Wednesday, June 14h @ 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM: Happy 25th Birthday NACE New Orleans @ Dave & Busters
  • Sunday, July 16th – Wednesday, July 19th:  Experience 2017 in Houston
  • Wednesday, August 2nd @ 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM:  Half Day Retreat (Location TBA).
  • Wednesday, September 13th @ 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM:  What’s New in New Orleans? Tricentennial Informational Meeting:  What’s New in New Orleans? with Mark Romig, President and CEO of NOTMC (Location TBA).
  • Wednesday, October 4th @ 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM:  Effective Communication Skills in the Workplace with Errin Clark, Complex Director of Employment Relations for HRI Properties (Location TBA)