By Calvin Williams, President, Boston Chapter
It is significant that Boston is at the forefront of this nation’s Bicentennial Year celebration, because the S.A.M. Boston chapter has made 1976 a year in which we have attained both a notable increase in membership and equally important-an increase in meeting attendance as well.
Many professional organizations have had problems in recent years maintaining membership levels and meeting attendance figures. As marketing people would say, we are competing for people’s discretionary free time. Besides our S.A.M. organization, there are a host of alternative activities that professional people can become involved with: TV programs, PTA meetings, other professional meetings, and just plain spending time with the family!
How did we successfully vie for these people’s limited time? Our local research suggested that attracting professional managers and maintaining their attendance at our programs are directly related to the timeliness and quality of the program we present and the expertise of the featured speakers. So we decided to take a long, hard look at our programs and make sure we were presenting information and experiences that would concretely help our members in their day-to-day activities.
Two of our programs this year illustrated these efforts to update our presentations. Our November 1975 program “Getting Ahead in a Man’s World” presented a panel of Boston women executives, who discussed their problems in moving into executive positions in the male-dominated business environment. This program was very successful and played to a “full house.” The panel included Elizabeth Williams (moderator) associate professor of psychology at Suffolk University; Rosalind Matthews vice-president of KGA Personnel Services; Kathy Nicholson, manager of personnel policy and planning for the Star Market Company; and Cicely Stetson assistant vice-president of the First National Bank of Boston.
Similarly, in March of this year, we offered a panel of management development and career planning executives who discussed the subject, “Career Planning for the Mid-Life Executive.” The panel members stimulated the large audience to such an extent that a backlog of questions remained unanswered when we adjourned at 10 o’clock. The panel was composed of Dr. Alan Burnes (moderator), director of human resources at Textron, Inc.; Dr. Edgar Schein, chairman of organizational studies at MIT; Dr. Stephen Fischer chief counselor for Bernard Haldan Associates; and Fred Stevens, senior vice-president for Welsh Manufacturing Company. Each panel member discussed an important facet of career planning, based on his own experiences. In summary, our experience has shown that program quality and relevance are the primary keys to membership growth and increased meeting attendance. 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.