Happy New Year! 

In this our reformatted Region e-Newsletter we introduce the Region Website, unveil the Region Logo, announce the 2008 Region Educational and Leadership Development Conference, Chapter Speaker Grant Award and re-introduce the Region Team.  

Region Website
It is my pleasure to “Welcome” you to our first ever Northeast Region website.  This site offers you information and news regarding the Northeast Region.  Here you can find a calendar of region chapter events as well as links to chapter websites and region/chapter contact information.  We are extremely excited to share the happenings in the Northeast Region with our chapter members and visitors to our region website.  Thank you to David Pita, Maria Richardson and Steven Lastres for their efforts in putting together this website.  Phenomenal Job!

Region Logo
For the first time ever we have an official Northeast Region logo.  It looks great!  Thank you to David Pita, Steven Lastres and David Langevin!

2008 Region Educational and Leadership Development Conference
Save the date June 7 – 10, 2008!  The region team is so excited about this event.  Although we held our annual Region Leadership Development in June 2007, our last Region Educational Conference was held in 2005.  The 2008 Region Educational and Leadership Development Conference will be held in beautiful upstate New York, Saratoga Springs.  Sixteen exciting and cutting edge RIM education programs will be offered as well as basic RIM courses that have been mapped to ARMA International’s RIM Competencies.   Thank you to Frank LaSorsa, Lauren Barnes and Steven Lastres for their efforts in putting together an excellent education program

Chapter Speaker Grant Award
The Chapter Speaker Grant Program began at the beginning of the 2007 calendar year and to date HQ has awarded thirty-six $500 grants.  Congratulations to the Central New York chapter!  The Central New York chapter was awarded the $500 speaker grant to assist with their February 7th 2008 educational meeting with speaker Gregory Hunter in Syracuse New York.  Any chapter wishing to apply for the next speaker grant should have the completed application to me (Region Manager) no later than March 15.

Region Team
As your Region Manager I am thrilled to re-introduce our region team which consists of one region manager, two region coordinators and one region treasurer.  As Region Coordinators we have Steven Lastres (Metro New York City) and David Pita (Boston) and as Region Treasurer, Cindi LeMay (Connecticut).  Duties of the Region Team include providing assistance and direction to assigned chapters within the region.  Steven has been assigned the Central New Jersey, Northern New Jersey and Metro New York City chapters.  David has been assigned the Boston, Connecticut and Rhode Island Chapters.  As Region Manager I have been assigned the Buffalo-Niagara, Central New York, Greater Rochester and Long Island Chapters.  Each member of your region team is a RIM professional that brings strong leadership skills, enthusiasm, commitment and professionalism to their positions.  

Chapter By-Laws Update:
ARMA HQ has made Chapter By-Laws a priority.  This includes complete review, update as needed, approval by HQ and then approval by the chapter.  To date only two chapters in our region have completed this process with several others in first draft.  If your chapter has not already submitted your Chapter By-Laws to Trevor Mitchell (tmitchell@arma.org) for review and approval, please do so as soon as possible. 

Member Recruitment Spring Campaign and Incentive:
Once again this spring ARMA HQ is launching a nationwide member recruitment campaign.  The goal of the campaign is to increase membership and to help recruit new members at the chapter level.  As an incentive, HQ will award $1,000 to one chapter in each of four categories for the greatest number of new members between April 1 2008 and July 1, 2008.  The categories are by chapter size:  Small chapter (1-35 members); Medium (36-80 members); Large (81-150 members); and Very Large (151 or more members).  Last year’s campaign netted 584 new chapter members during the same time period.  Chapter Presidents and Membership Directors lets submit our membership prospects to Tom Killam (tkillam@arma.org) by March 7.  Let’s go Northeast Region!

ARMA Calendar:
When visiting the ARMA website (www.arma.org) look for “Calendar of Events” at the bottom left of the navigation pane.  Please submit your chapter’s events for posting on the ARMA HQ calendar so that others are informed of your chapter’s upcoming events. 

Upcoming Events:
February 7, 2008:  Central New York Chapter meeting
February 7, 2008:  Northern New Jersey Chapter meeting
February 19, 2008:  Connecticut Chapter meeting
February 21, 2008:  Boston Chapter meeting
February 25, 2008:  Metro New York City Chapter; All Day Educational Workshop
February 28, 2008:  Long Island Chapter meeting
March 12, 2008:  Northern New Jersey Chapter meeting
March 20, 2008:  Boston Chapter meeting
March 21, 2008:  Completed Speaker Grant Application to Region Manager
March 21, 2008:  Completed Leadership Training Grant Application to Region Manager
April 7, 2008:  Central New York Chapter meeting

If you are an ARMA member or a chapter leader, “Thank You” for all that you do.  If you are not a member of ARMA, we invite you to attend any of the monthly chapter events happening in our region.  Come out and experience the benefits of ARMA participation.  It will change your life!

Warm regards
Lorraine

Lorraine Anderson
Northeast Region Manager
ARMA International