'18 Strategic Planning Meeting Highlights

On December 13th, 2017, the new Board of Directors for the FPA of Miami met at AB Bernstein in Brickell to layout the vision for the chapter for 2018. The meeting was extraordinarily productive as the new board members crafted our strategic plan to get where we want to go. Below are the highlights from the meeting:

AGENDA

• 2:00 – 2:20 Call to Order, Welcome & Introductions, Approval of Nov. 30th Board Meeting Minutes & Treasurer’s Report, Symposium Review

• 2:20 – 2:30 2017 Recap/ Remarks & Recognition

• 2:30 – 2:50 VTC with Evelyn Zohlen, President of FPA: Discuss Strategic Directive, OneFPA initiative, etc.

• 2:50 – 3:10 Board Member Training with Joe Grimes

• 3:15 – 3:45 Creating the 2018 Vision & Goals with John Lenahan

• 3:45 – 4:15 Role Review: What have you accomplished? What keeps you engaged? What would you like to do?

• 4:15 – 4:30 Election of 2018 Board of Directors

• 4:30 – 4:50 Discussion of 2018 Calendar of Events

• 4:50 – 5:00 Wrap Up & Adjourn

• 6:00 – 8:00 Year-End Social @ Delores- But You Can Call Me Lolita

We first started by calling the meeting to order and going around the room for everyone to introduce themselves - as we were welcoming seven new board members and our fabulous new Chapter Executive Beverley Todd. We then moved on to a quick review of previous minutes, treasurer's report and the symposium review.

Following the early items, Miguel Horvath shared some remarks as outgoing President of the group and he was recognized for his service and leadership. We were also able to highlight the service of resigning board members Ana Harris and Carol Harlow - both involved for the last ten years or so. Not to mention, we again applauded Amy Miller as resigning Chapter Executive after 15 years of incredible service.

In the middle of the meeting, we welcomed Evelyn Zohlen, MBA, MS, CFP®, President of FPA - the National Board via a Video Teleconference to share her thoughts on what's going on nationally, along with the OneFPA Initiative & the Refined Strategic Initiative. Evelyn graciously gave her time to which was awesome to hear her thoughts on our broader organization.

Following Evelyn, the board members were treated to some training from new FPA of Florida Chapter Executive Joe Grimes, CAE. Joe went into basics about who FPA is, where to find resources, what is the OneFPA Strategic Framework (Community, Education, Business Support & Advocacy. It was great to have Joe in the house as he will be working to better align and integrate the eight Florida FPA chapters.

It was then time to have the very talented board member Angela Moore share her presentation on how to improve our chapter's branding, website, social media, and e-marketing platforms. It is a testament to Angela's creativity and vision that I am now typing this entry on our new blog on the new chapter website, three weeks after presenting it for the first time. Angela, you are awesome!

Regarding the 2018 Vision & Goals, we had a lengthy discussion on what we could achieve in 2018 highlighted by our branding of the year as our chapter "Re-Launch". Here are the focus items on what we are hoping to accomplish:

• RE-LAUNCH!!!!

• New Executive Director Beverley!

• 7 New Board Members

• Provide More Value to our Members

• New Chapter Meeting Dinner Venues Focused on Brickell

• Grow our Membership to New Channels

• More Allied Professionals

• More Engaging & Interactive Meetings

• More Networking Opportunities

• More Practice Management Breakfasts & Firm Tours

• Better Communication, More Social Media & Modern Website

• A HUGE SYMPOSIUM!

To do this, we discussed new ideas. Some of the new ideas we discussed included:

Hold Joint Chapter Events with other financial organizations.

• Increase networking opportunities.

• CFA Society (Spring ‘18), Estate Planning Council of Greater Miami (Fall ‘18)

Have other tax & legal firms sponsor & host FPA meetings:

• Save costs, showcases potential allied professional firms.

• Focus on Brickell/Downtown Area

• Early candidates: Bilzin Sumberg, Holland & Knight, among others

Re-think Symposium

• Hold in June vs. late August vs. late November

• New Host Sites to Consider

• ½ Day Event with Concurrent Sessions or Full-Day Event?

• Big Draw from FPA of South Florida not hosting a 2018 Symposium

Practice Management Monthly Breakfast Meetings

• Monthly meetings based on Journal of Financial Planning Editorial Calendar (available now)

• Each board member takes ownership of one of the breakfasts

• Board member free to run breakfast how they see fit

• Free for members, CE Credit available through JOFP

Monthly E-Newsletter

• Highlight New Members, Milestones, Published Articles

• Show Blog Entries

• Encourage Membership to Submit articles/ posts

• Have upcoming event calendar and registration links

Reach New Members

• CFP Certificant Lists to Target

• Series 7 Licensee Lists

E-Marketing Refresh

• Updated website look/feel (more modern) & add a Blog

• New E-marketing content distribution templates/services

• Increase & Enhance Social Media Posting and solicit members to join

More Networking Opportunities & Active Groups

• 7 Chapter Dinners

• 1 Ridiculously Huge Symposium

• 12 Practice Management Breakfasts

• 2 New Member Breakfasts

• 1 Day of Service

• 3-4 Firm Tours

• 2 Women’s Council Events

• 2 NexGen Events

• Pro-Bono Speaking Events

We moved on to defining the different committees and determined where each board member wanted to participate and contribute most too as a volunteer leader. We assigned new Director positions and voted on the new Chapter Roles & Responsibilities and signed our pledges.

Next, we laid our our proposed Calendar of Events which included 5 chapter dinners to start the year in the first five months, with a break over the summer, and then 3 more events to finish the year including the Symposium (which was primarily agreed was held at an optimal time in late November following Hurricane Irma).

Last, we briefly laid out our New Years Resolution for acting on the new proposals and getting the new year off to a fast start. At that point, it was time to go have some fun and meet other member at the Year-End Net-worker & Celebration at Delores But You Can Call Me Lolita.