By Dan L. Ashe, President Knoxville Chapter
In 1973 the Knoxville chapter of S.A.M. hit an all-time low in attendance at meetings and in membership.
The board of directors of the local chapter, some of whom had been members of S.A. M. from the beginning, felt that for the chapter to survive it had to attract the top business leaders and executives in the community to chapter meetings and membership. Then, once junior executives saw that their bosses were involved in S.A.M., they would follow that leadership.
The first step in this rebuilding effort was to survey the business leaders in the community to find out what they felt was wrong with our chapter. The overwhelming response was poor programs.
Our members therefore decided to work out a programming scheme that would feature special programs for top executives and other programs for junior and senior executives. They came up with a plan that involved holding four “super meetings” a year geared to attract top managers and upgrading the remaining meetings by featuring plant tours and other activities to appeal to middle managers.
The quickest way to draw business leaders to super meetings was to schedule well-known speakers, then send out personal invitations to the community’s businessmen. To illustrate the caliber of programs the Knoxville chapter has arranged for this year, a meeting on October 6, 1977 featured former Congressman Wilbur Mills who spoke on “Alcoholism: Its Impact on Business and Industry.” Attendance at this meeting was limited to 250.
Clearly, our new programming format has proved successful. Typical attendance at meetings rose from a low of 20 in 1973 to 250 at the October 1977 super meeting. And during the last chapter year, attendance averaged 68, a 300 percent increase over 1973.
Once our chapter had been revitalized through good programming, the senior S.A.M. chapter dedicated more of its time and effort to developing the junior S.A.M. chapter on the University of Tennessee campus at Knoxville. This campus chapter is now alive and well because of these efforts. On October 26, 1977 the Knoxville campus chapter kicked off the year with an exciting program featuring Dr. S. C. Vance who spoke about his first-hand survey of “Management Practices in Russia.”
This proves what a chapter can do when its members are dedicated to drawing new people into that chapter by offering the business community real programs for self-improvement. SAM-NI
This SAM News International article is from our historical archive, information provided is for reference and archival research about the activities and developments of the Society.