“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there.”
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)

I would like to start off my nine month tenure as President by first recognizing a few of the many LAMA Members that Indira Gandhi would have considered being in the first group of people. Over my tenure, I pledge to share with you information on the volunteer work performed by many of our members for whom they live their lives in the first group.

At the 2005 Nashville Annual Meeting, Leo Yanas, Regina Correa-Murphy and I made a pledge that we would work together each year to improve LAMA and address outstanding issues. We recognized that a lot of the organization’s issues could not be addressed quickly and that we needed to work together in order to achieve success. I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Leo, Gina and Howard Mosher for their leadership and thank them for all the hours that they give towards improving LAMA.

The 2007 Puerto Rico Annual Meeting was a huge success thanks to the hard work and strong dedication of Steve Benigni’s leadership of the Program Committee. Their efforts resulted in a professional array of speakers, moderators and facilitators. Steve has served on the Program Committee for a number of years and each year he has made improvements to the Program based on the feedback from our meeting attendees and his strong loyalty towards LAMA.

This spring marked the long overdue return of the LAMA Membership Directory thanks to the work of John Occaso, Membership Committee Vice-Chair and the wonderful generosity of Harlan to cover all of the production and postage costs for the directory. We fully recognize that several problems exist with the membership directory and it is our goal to address each and every problem. I encourage each member to take the time to work with Keith Knapp, ASI (kknapp@AssociationSolutionsInc.com, #(952-253-6243)) on getting all of your contact information correct in the database. If you have ideas on the types of information that you would like included in the Membership Directory, please contact the Membership Committee Members: Joe McKenna, Chair, John Occaso, Vice Chair and Joe Krajicek, Board of Director Liaison.

This past May, an impressive 358 LAMA Members took the time to complete our first on-line membership survey prepared by Steve Baker. Over the next year, we will be making changes to LAMA and working on our next Strategic Plan based on your survey responses. On April 3, 2008 during our Portland Annual Meeting, the LAMA Board will host a focus group luncheon to solicit additional feedback on our Strategic Plan.

Hope you have a wonderful summer.

Kim
KimberlyEdgar@aol.com or Kimberly.Edgar@Dartmouth.edu
#603-646-1351