Tauri, Sara Martel, Shawnyne and Heather had the pleasure of attending the annual Great Northwest/Pacific Regional Leadership Conference in Newport Beach, California.  For those of you who don’t know or have never been, every year each region of ARMA international holds a leadership conference.  Each chapter sends members from their leadership team to discuss information governance and leadership topics.  Members form ARMA HQ are present, and give us a rundown of what is happening this year in ARMA.  This year’s HQ attendees were CEO, Jocelyn Gunter and Director of Strategic Affairs, Liz Icenogle. In addition to HQ, regional and industry experts presented information on chapter resources, certification opportunities and hot topics in the information governance/records management community.

Tauri

I’m so excited that I was able to attend this year’s leadership conference.  This is such a great opportunity to network and learn with others.  My main takeaway that I want to bring to our Chapter and it goes along with our year’s theme…..”What can ARMA do for me?”  I continue be impressed with this organization because of the support from other members and Headquarters.  So, what can ARMA do for you . . . . find out at our next meeting.

Sara

The ARMA 2018 Region Leadership Conference was well worth attending.  The days were packed with great speakers and valuable information along with friendly people ready to share their knowledge.  There was so much wonderful information presented, I couldn’t write fast enough as I listened to the presenters and attendees talk about the different ways to entice new membership and encourage continued attendance.   I was also excited to learn about the various resources available from the ARMA website.  So, I came away with lots of new information, a wider of array of resources and networks, and had the privilege of listening to wonderful speakers.  It was all rolled into one package at a beautiful resort with raffles and fun after conference activities.  A definite must for anyone considering attending future conferences!

Heather

Some of the highlights for me from the conference were: learning how other chapters operate and how they utilize the resources available to them, connecting with other members of our region and bonding with my fellow chapter leaders.

To promote chapter connection, the conference organizers put on two networking events.  The main networking event was a dinner cruise around the Newport Bay, the theme Tiki.  Everyone was eating, talking and enjoying the beautiful sunset.  Here I made some wonderful connections with members of the Utah chapter, the Puget Sound chapter and the Inland Empire chapter of Southern California.  I especially enjoyed my connection with the members from the Utah chapter, Mandy and Bonnie.  We discussed the challenges both our chapters face being rural chapters that cover many square miles.  We discussed ways our chapters could leverage technology available to us to strengthen chapter connections and interaction.

Lots to Learn, People to Meet and Fun to be Had…

All in all, it was an inspiring and motivating experience for everyone.  We returned home with our heads full of ideas to make our chapter even better.