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What Can Volunteering do to propell your career?

Written by: 
Katy Kless, Ahtna Diversified Holdings
President Elect, SMPS Alaska Chapter

In 2013, someone saw in me the potential to grow and become a leader through the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). To this day, I am forever grateful for that opportunity. It has provided me with a community that I now call some of my best friends (both locally and nationally). It has also supported my career growth; networking; focused skills such as budgeting, goal setting, action plans, and accountability to meet those goals; leadership skills; and public speaking (a total fear of mine and probably many of you as well).

Though my involvement with SMPS, I have served as Pacific Regional Conference Delegate, Education Director, Treasurer, Membership Director, Communications Director, President-Elect (twice), and President.  Through each of these roles I have gained valuable skills that I brought back to my firm, providing value to the team. You see, being part of a volunteer board must provide value to you and your firm. In order to get the most “bang for your buck” aka value out of your membership, all it takes is truly engaging and investing your time.  Like any membership, you get out of it, what you put into it.

What can volunteering do for you?

I challenge you to look at where you want to be in the near future in your career. What do you need to get there? Do you want to be more of an influence in your firm’s business development? Maybe you need to broaden your network of professionals. Consider perhaps membership, in which you can meet every member of the association and make a connection! Do you want to earn a seat at the table with your firm’s leadership? Studies show that you need to understand the firms’ financials! Consider the treasury role where you get hands on experience building and maintaining budgets and reporting on financials. Or maybe you’re like me and have leadership goals for managing people at your firm. Consider the role of President-Elect (PE).  I am currently serving as PE with goals in mind on building leadership skills. How to effectively manage a group of people from varied backgrounds and skill levels. Whatever your career goals are…  I know first-hand that taking the plunge and getting involved in the Chapter will provide value to both your personal and professional growth.

Serving today for a better tomorrow.

In my current role as PE, I am spending the remainder of the board year shadowing and learning from a 30K foot level, the interworking’s of the Chapter. I am being mentored every step of the way from the current President and executive board. My role this year is to be a sponge and take it all in. Prepare for the future and get a clear vision of where we are, where we want to be, and set goals for how to get there.

In April, the Chapter leaders from all 62 (and growing) SMPS chapters, are invited to a leadership symposium held in Washington, DC. It is two full days of chapter leadership training and building relationships with fellow PEs.  This event is valuable to prepare for presidency. It is an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of what challenges each chapter faces and solutions to take back to implement. Going into the event, you might feel like, man our chapter is really facing challenges in XYZ. But then you hear from other chapters that they too face these challenges or even in some cases, realize that hey, we actually have our ducks in a row and can provide other chapters with new ideas! That is one of the biggest takeaways this year for me. Since the inception of our chapter in 2011, our volunteers have really taken our chapter to a level of excellence.  We operate as a cohesive unit and are committed to improving processes and providing value to our members. 

I just returned from this event last week, and man am I excited!  I am ready to connect with my incoming board and set some healthy goals for a better tomorrow.

What will you do today to improve your tomorrow?

As with any decent marketing piece, there needs to be a call to action right? I encourage you to take the leap! Invest in you. Take your career to new heights by committing to your goals. Can SMPS help you get there? I would love to hear from you about where you want to be in 3-5 years! I am confident that we can help.  Ok now the shameless plug..  WE ARE HIRING.  We need future leaders to step in and volunteer! No matter if you are ready for leadership now (more shameless plugging- I need a PE for this year) or if you are newer in the AEC world…  we have a home for your career advancement!