Leadership and Legacy: Reflections from Immediate Past President, Lauren Norris
The past four years on the AMA Board of Directors have flown by and as I close out my term as president, it’s cathartic having the chance to step back, collect and reflect on everything we’ve done together to push our chapter forward.
While AMA Pittsburgh has been in operation for over seven decades, upon my joining the board, the time was ripe for change. With that said, we’ve gone through a restructuring and rebuilding of the board and the way our organization operates, and I couldn’t be more pleased with where we’re headed as we embark on our next chapter.
In the last few years, we have reignited our chapter with new events and brought back signature events, implemented new processes and procedures, created new opportunities for continuing education, held regional collegiate case competitions, and everything in between. Even COVID-19 couldn’t stop our chapter from launching a new virtual event series, Marketing Mondays, to keep our community connected and motivated to propel forward during this time. We’ve learned how to pivot, adapt, and be agile around obstacles big and small.
My vision when I became president for the chapter was to re-establish the foundational elements of our organization to set us up for future success. I felt we could achieve that through re-engaging with our local marketing network, growing chapter membership, creating better partnerships, and reconnecting with our national AMA office by being a host city for the 2018 leadership regional retreat. I am proud that together with my fellow board colleagues, we have successfully achieved those foundational goals. I am confident that our chapter will continue to build on this solidified foundation to further sophisticate what we offer and how to the Pittsburgh marketing community.
2020 is our chapter’s 75th anniversary of being chartered; August 13, 1945 to be exact. And while our plans of live celebration in August have been canceled, our virtual spirit is at an all-time high. With our board of directors in place to start our new fiscal year July 1st, we already have a future line of leadership legacy identified to ensure the health and longevity of our chapter is here for another 75 years and beyond. The hours our team has put in – whether a three-week series of Saturday morning Zoom meetings to keep our strategic planning moving, or the countless meetings with their committee members, emails and texts and everything in-between – has all been to ensure we are moving forward to help propel both today’s leaders and the next generation of marketers.
I am better not only professionally, but also personally for working alongside each and every person who’s been part of making AMA Pittsburgh what it is today. It has been my pleasure leading our chapter over the last two years as president, and I look forward to finding new and creative ways to contribute to the future success of AMA Pittsburgh in the spirit of strengthening our community.
All my best,
Lauren Norris