2023-10-25-Education Meeting notes

   CIECA 500 Westover Dr  #11617; Sanford,  NC  27330 

Date

Oct 25, 2023

Chair: Don Porter

Agenda

Antitrust Statement

• This meeting is subject to the terms of our anti-trust statement shown above. In addition, this meeting may be recorded. 

• Review and approval of minutes

• Rebranding of Education and Marketing Committee meetings

• Cadence of meetings

Meeting Minutes

• The antitrust was read and the minutes were approved.

• Rebranding of Education/Marketing Committees

  • During a previous Education Committee meeting, we discussed combining the Education and Marketing Committees.

  • The committee discussed merging the two committees and the focus of both the Marketing and Education Committees in the past. He said that most of the marketing and education that CIECA does tends to be a general benefit to the industry as a way to build awareness of CIECA. For example, the CIECA video we produced a couple of years ago was targeted toward educating membership about CIECA and its focus. He said the greatest engagement by the industry is when it relates to something tangible, which are the CIECA webinars and the CONNEX Conference.

  • We asked the committee about coming up a name for the merged committee.

  • Rav said that as a new committee member, he feels that educational content and marketing activities/strategy are mutually exclusive. For example, if somebody is focused on education, they might do a member survey and come up with three topics for webinars. Then, a marketer can can promote that content. He said they eseentally have to put a different hat on. He liked the idea of having the first part of the meeting dedicated to education and then the second part focused on marketing. Those who want to drop out can. He said if both subjects are being discussed, one might take over the majority of the mindshare and it’s not easy to switch hands.

  • Paul said that’s a good point and why there were separate committees in the past. Although the thought was that they are very different, at the same time the slides were the same when we prepared for meetings and had a lot of the same people in both so there was a lot of redundancy. He agreed that we should tackle the education component first and then focus on marketing during the second half of the meeting. This allows us to be more efficient and respectful of committee members time, but it also ensures that we have a focus on each topic.

  • Rav said if we are inviting new people to join the committee, it would be worthwhile to let them know they don’t need to be an expert in both to be part of the committee and we welcome people with different expertise.

  • When asked about the name for the committee, Rav suggested staying with Education Marketing Committee because it’s easy to understand the focus. He asked if we invite new members throughout the year.

  • In the past, people could join at any time throughout the year. Now that we have new standards and there are new committee members, there’s a lot of activity and we want to gear up for next year and really communicate about all the committees available to join.

  • Don suggested putting together a word track that explains what both committees have been doing, why we’re joining them and we expertise on both sides to participate.

  • Kelly said at the risk of making a committee name super long, she suggested adding the word communications to help bridge the gap. As someone who has attended both committees, she feels the overlap is so huge that she felt like she was going to the same meeting twice, especially because so much of CIECA marketing is content marketing (newsletters, events, webinars). A lot of times she says we market ourselves more through the good education we provide than anything else. She suggested calling the committee Education, Marketing and Communications.

  • Jeff asked if we should call the committee, “Industry Outreach Committee” and focusing on educating the industry about what CIECA does. Paul said that we had talked about using the word “Outreach” in the name. Kelly really liked that name.

  • Rav said Outreach Committee sounds like it is focused on business development and growing membership, education is engaging current members and adding value and marketing is related to growing membership but not sales or business development.

  •  Jeff said that’s why you need the piece that says the committee is focused on educating the industry.

  • We could add the word “communications” so it would be the Outreach and Communications Committee or Communications and Outreach Committee.

  • Don said that could be pat of the word track what we’re trying to get to and Jeff said the word track is really important.

  • Kelly said that instead of using the word “outreach” we could use “engagement,” so it would be the Industry Engagement Committee.

  • We decided to note the suggested names and discuss the name, goals and word track during a later meeting.  

• Cadence of Meeting

  • Don suggested meeting once or twice a month, at least in the beginning when we’re developing the focus and ensure we’re on track

  •  We can even meet 30 minutes if we don’t have a lot of agenda items. Certain times of the year, such as CONNEX, we meet more often to discuss presenters and logistics.

  • Phil said he is supportive of what the group decides. Jeff said that Wednesdays seem to be good days and has been meeting a lot on that day.

  • Don asked how many industry committee meetings are on the same day.

  • Paulette said that most of CIECA’s committee meetings are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

  • We decided to move forward with Wednesdays.

Great meeting everyone. Thank you for your participation. Have a great week!

Up Next

• Antitrust Agreement and Meeting minutes acceptance

Action items

Decisions

Participants

• @Stacey Phillips - Facilitator

• @Paul Barry

• @Paulette Reed

• Chair Don Porter

• Ginny Whelan

• Sandy Blalock

• Phil Martinez

• Kelly Lawlor

• Rav Mendiratta

• Jeff Wildman

• Participants in the meetings are noted for your information.  If you have questions on the committee’s activities, please contact a recent attendee. Education Committee