April is here! I love the longer days and hope it gives you energy as we go through a very challenging time.
As we settle into our new reality whatever it may be as there are so many stories…newly working from home, being furloughed/laid off, kids being schooled at home, filing for unemployment for the first time, being asked to plan something you have never done before, major life events being canceled like graduations, much-needed vacations postponed/canceled, whatever your story, life is operating in a very different way.
I hope first and foremost you and your family are healthy. That is what matters most. All of what everyone is experiencing is so difficult and my prayers are with you and your family as we venture through this trying time. Last week, I was on a Chapter President’s call with Sherrif and his team to get the latest on PCMA’s progress as we move through COVID 19. Sherrif said it best…our first priority is everyone’s health and wellbeing especially our frontline medical and first responders. We need to do our part, so they can do their jobs, so we must take these drastic measures. It is important that we all do our part here to protect everyone. We need to do our part to make sure we flatten the “curve” and adjust our lifestyles. Yes, it is hard and coping with all the changes can be very stressful and that is where I hope GMC PCMA can support you.
As a chapter, our first priority right now is connection. We want to be there for you. We are providing several avenues to connect and would love for you to join us.
These include:
GMC PCMA Virtual Happy Hour – Join us Fridays at 4pm for a GMC’s Virtual Happy Hour. An open forum to share stories and relax. This past week we had some helpful insights shared by a few planners. It was beneficial and insightful on both sides of the industry. Suppliers also updated us on how they are doing and how we can help them. It is okay to send RFPs is what we concluded, and many planners are! That was exciting for me to hear. On this Happy Hour, there is no judgement and it is very casual. Bring up topics that you need to talk about we are here for you. Details can be found here. Here is a photo of the first PCMA GMC Virtual Happy Hour.
Catalyst Chat Room –PCMA HQ has provided us a private forum on the Catalyst page so we can talk as an industry and not on social media. GMC has its own Forum.
To do this…
- Log into PCMA with your membership information
- Go to pcma.org – membership
- Under that drop down there is a Catalyst page
- Under communities – each GMC member will be prep populated with GMC.
- There you go…start discussing. I watch it daily.
April 14 – GMID Goes Virtual – as you are aware, we had to cancel our in-person GMID event with all of the other Chicago-based industry associations. But that did not stop PCMA, several PCMA chapter presidents got together and are building an event that will demonstrate the power of our industry. We are going to attempt to break a Guinness World record and we need your help!!! We want to show the power of our industry by hosting the largest virtual conference call. We need 15,000 people for 30 minutes to do this. We are putting an amazing program together for those 30 minutes on industry topics as well. Personally, I cannot wait to break the record. Please sign up and make it a point to demonstrate to the world the power of meetings. Here is the event website: gmidgoesvirtual.com Please sign up so we can keep count of how many more people we need.
June 4th Quarterly Education Meeting – We have decided that our June Quarterly Meeting will be a virtual meeting. We want to make sure everyone is safe and are anxious to get moving on the planning. PLUS, good news because we are doing this the entire event FREE to everyone! We feel that it is the least we can do for everyone.
We will do this by Zoom…thanks to PCMA HQ. We will have an amazing panel lead by PCMA HQ’s Tonya Almond and including members from all aspects of our industry discussing how we move forward. Submit your questions through the registration portal.
Finally, I believe that we will come out of this stronger people and a stronger industry. We are a resilient bunch. That is how we roll. One request, please show up to the opportunities outlined above, your presence will make a difference.
Thank you!
