Highlights from Our IOFM Chapters

For our first edition of The Chapter Pulse, IOFM Chapter Liaison Patti Keller reached out to two IOFM Chapters to gather some highlights to share and to represent both the AP and the AR perspectives. These chapter leaders shared their experiences, challenges, and successes in building strong, engaged chapters.

The Midwestern Region IOFM Chapter

First, we hear from Patti Pomerenke, one of the chapter leaders of the Midwestern Region IOFM Chapter. She shares how her chapter fosters engagement, facilitates meaningful discussions, and keeps members actively participating in meetings.

How many members do you have?
"100"

What is your average attendance at meetings?
"About 30 members regularly attend meetings."

What topics or discussions that have been valuable to your chapter members?
"We find that topics related to employee engagement, team building, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and automation are well-received. We recently discussed utilities payments, and with that topic, we had a more people participate than usual because utility payments affect everyone."

One of the biggest challenges for chapters is getting people to actively participate and engage in discussions during the meetings. What tips can you offer other leaders to encourage active participation?
"I would say about 8 to 10 members tend to be vocal and active at each meeting. We have used the following strategies to encourage participation:

• Allow a significant amount of time for people to respond to questions or jump in (approximately 20 seconds). Someone will usually speak up if we wait a longer time after opening a topic for discussion.
• We have one of our chapter leaders keep track of who participates and after the meeting, we send them a “thank you” email.
• We ask them to have cameras on."

What was your chapter’s most successful meeting so far?
"One of our most successful meetings was a discussion on the topic of Utilities payments, because it affects everyone. At that meeting, one of our chapter leaders had recently gone through the exercise of outsourcing utility payments. So she presented her organization’s project plan and information about the transition. We also opened the discussion to other effective ways to pay utilities that did not include outsourcing."

What are your chapter’s goals for the future? 
"Our goal is to present interesting topics for meetings and engage chapter members in robust discussions. For example, one of our chapter leaders is heading up an initiative to collect and share information about which ERP/Systems each chapter member uses. We hope our chapter members will use this information to facilitate discussions between chapter members."

What’s the single most important thing for keeping your members active and engaged?
"I think it’s most important to plan for good topics, so the chapter members feel like the meetings are worth their time."

The Accounts Receivable IOFM Chapter

Next, we hear from Cindy Clark, President of the Accounts Receivable Chapter. As a relatively new chapter, her team is focused on establishing a solid foundation, growing membership, and providing valuable discussions tailored to AR professionals.

How many members do you have? 
"We’re still in our first year, gathering members and getting a good foundation in place for our chapter. We currently have about 45 members."

What is your average attendance at meetings?
"We have about 20-25 members at each of our meetings."

What topics or discussions that have been valuable to your chapter members?
"We surveyed our members to gather information from our membership to find out what they were looking for from the chapter, and what their specific areas of interest were. We also used the website menti.com to do a survey answering the question 'What can the AR Chapter Do for You?' From those results, we had a group discussion on the topic of doing more with less.”

At our second meeting, we started a 'member spotlight' where a member introduces him or herself and shares some information with the group. We also had a presentation by Jess Scheer and Gail Robinson on IOFM including a tour of the website and discussion of AR Resources and Plans.

In December, we had a presentation by George Uko on 'Five Ways to Optimize What You’ve Got' (a session adapted from the IOFM Fall 2024 conference) and we began a new chapter feature where we include introductions of new members."

One of the biggest challenges for chapters is getting people to actively participate and engage in discussions during the meetings. What tips can you offer other leaders to encourage active participation?
"In our meeting slides, we include some tips that encourage members to turn on their camera and leave it on as long as they are comfortable. We also encourage using the 'raise hand' function for questions and comments. And throughout our meetings, we ask questions and solicit input from members. In our member introductions and spotlight, we encourage everyone to join in the conversation with questions and input. Sometimes it’s just a matter of throwing a question out to the group and letting it sit for a moment to give folks a chance to speak-up."

What was your chapter’s most successful meeting so far?
"The presentation from George Uko on automation optimization was well-received and triggered good conversation throughout the membership—with lots of questions, observations and discussions. We have plans for having another conference presenter at our chapter meeting and are aligning topics with what our members indicated they were looking for. We learned in the survey that among a variety of topics, there is interest in looking at how we can use the tools/systems/resources we already have in new and different ways to be more effective."

What are your chapter’s goals for the future?
"We are focused on developing meaningful content in regular meetings to share valuable information with our members. As we approach the end of our first year, we’ll be taking time to evaluate our progress and set goals for the future, incorporating our first year of learning and experience into that effort."

What’s the single most important thing for keeping your members active and engaged?
"We need to show members that we are listening to them and incorporating their input into the plans we develop."

Any other comments or tips you’d like to share?
"Thanks for this opportunity to share information and learn from the experiences of others. This is a great forum!"

Thank you so much, chapters for sharing your great ideas and goals!