When I think back to all that has been accomplished over the past twelve months I am struck by some of the numbers that are attached…
200,000+ Miles flown by McKinley consultants to attend board meetings, annual conventions, focus groups and all kinds of other events. Okay, I don’t track this exactly (it would be too depressing!) but I am pretty confident that this is a conservative estimate. I know Shelley Sanner alone logged a half dozen trips to the west coast, evidence of her unyielding commitment to our team and her clients. With lots of travel already on the books in 2012, we would all probably wish for more humanity in air travel. Although we’re not too optimistic, we promise not to pull an Alec Baldwin.
38 Focus groups we facilitated in the first quarter of 2011. Special thanks to Jesus Villeda, our rock star marketing and operations associate who helped these come off without a hitch.
598,565 Members represented by McKinley’s RoundTables participants. The RoundTables group brings together senior membership professionals from some of our nation’s leading professional societies who share their challenges, opportunities and plans for the year ahead. Our discussion this year was particularly enjoyable given that we convened everyone here in our offices and had a chance to connect in person.
20.5 Average percent growth seen in student memberships over the past year for our RoundTables’ associations. With all of the talk circulating in our community about how ill prepared associations are for an uncertain future, I prefer to look at the opportunity we have to be HIGHLY RELEVANT for our future professionals.
6 Years that we’ve wanted to rebrand McKinley, before Rachel Friedmann led a collaborative effort to push us over the hump. I know I can speak for our whole team in saying that I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcomes.
15 Years of tenure that we lost as two key staff departed McKinley this year to embrace new career opportunities. John Grifferty, our long-time Director of Operations is now the Director of Membership and Marketing at the New York Academy of Sciences and Beth McNamee, our Research Manager is midway through her first year at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. All of us who remain at McKinley miss our colleagues tremendously, but are equally proud of their continued growth and success.
3 New full-time staff that we welcomed to our team this year. Karli Kasonik Susi, Jessica Marko Brandt and Patrick Glaser stepped into our office this summer and have literally transformed the company with their skills and abilities. We are all grateful that this trio has decided to join us on our journey, and I’m particularly grateful to our office manager extraordinaire Kari Oblon for helping ensure smooth transitions this year.
5 Days a week we are looking forward to seeing Tania Galarza, Tracy Talbot and Liz Williamson in our offices in 2012 now that each has wrapped up long-term on-site engagements during 2011. Having our full crew back in our offices (at least for a little while) will be a wonderful way to start the new year.
9 Parties I attended to celebrate Jodie’s Academy of Leaders Award. OK, nine may be a bit of an exaggeration…but not by much. This is one of those honors that will stay with her, and by extension our team, well beyond 2012.
18 Times that I’ve watched our holiday video. Still laughing…still marveling at the creativity of our production team who pulled this off…and still wondering where Mike Norbut got that sweater.
77 Client relationships that McKinley has managed this year. It strikes me that having a double “lucky seven” here is fitting given how fortunate we all feel for the ongoing collaboration and support of our clients, without whom none of this would be possible.
0 companies, jobs or industries I can think of that would be more rewarding, meaningful or gratifying than working at McKinley and for our association clients. After a bit of a break to celebrate the season, we will all be back at it in 2012. Until then, we all wish you the best during this joyful time of year…
