Greetings All!
2016 is well underway and while I am not exactly sure where January has gone, I am sure that the College is off to a rockin’ start.
Our early April 2016 Spring Forum will feature Kirk Orr of AIG Investments and Brad Crawford of Vedder Price P.C. spinning the hits for our own American college of investment counsel Bandstand program. Featuring sessions sure to scintillate senses and, to appeal to that straight-laced side of you, a double down in ethics credit – this ain’t no jive – so come on down and check it out. We will be at our traditional Four Seasons Hotel location, but note that the conference will be held on April 7th and 8th, a few weeks earlier than our traditional schedule.
Looking back at 2015, the Annual Meeting in New York was a great success. Based on feedback received to date, our new venue at the Grand Hyatt was very well received and the convenience of the location is hard to beat. Many thanks to Maureen Cronin of New York Life and Chris Lawrence of Morgan Lewis; they, as well as the many moderators and panelists, put a fantastic program together to help keep all of us ahead of our game. I don’t think any of us will sit in a credit committee meeting again without thinking of Steve Katz.
As noted in Ed Holmes’ article about Committees, one of our 2016 initiatives is to focus on the purpose and functionality of our committees. In addition to service on panels for our two annual conferences, this is a great way to get involved and drive the direction of the College. If you haven’t had a chance to see the article, take a look at the right hand side of the website home page and it is listed as a recent article. I use such specificity for the purpose of introducing another of our 2016 initiatives, which is to leverage the tremendous resource that is the ACIC website. As you know we have a “super-committee” (a committee comprised of members of each of the other committees – because really all of the committees are super!) devoted to the College’s Website and Social Media efforts. The Trustees will be working with the WSMC to assure dynamic content management and plan to roll out usage tips throughout the year.
One major initiative the Board has undertaken to encourage traffic to the website and save several thousand dollars each year, is to no longer publish the annual membership directory, affectionately known to many as simply, “the book.” The online membership directory is a dynamic resource, available for update at any time by each member and anywhere you can reach the web. Because we know that many keep “the book” on their desks for ready reference, to ease the transition, the WSMC is working to enable printing of the directory in a booklet format, so be on the look-out over the next couple of months for simple instructions on how to do that. To bring it back to the music theme that will entertain and educate us in April, we are moving on from the days of 45’s and vinyl albums and coming into the era of music downloads!
Our immediate Past President, Nicole Rives, ended her July 2015 address to the College with the phrase, “Change is good!” She was prophetic and as Ed’s article captured some of the many recent changes the College has made, none of them would have been possible without the tremendously dedicated leadership of the officers, trustees and fellows of the ACIC. I am humbled and fortunate to be among such a team of passionate professionals and wonderful friends.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in Chicago! Brenda
