I recently traveled to Seattle, Washington for a work assignment. As I usually do, I looked up the local IAAP chapter info and sent an email to the chapter president. Having an IAAP contact in a city you've never visited can be tremendously helpful to you or your boss - especially for those unplanned issues that seem to always arise at the last minute. I highly recommend reaching out to other chapters/divisions to establish contacts in other cities.
Washington-Alaska (WA-AK) Division is the home division to the current International Board President for IAAP, Judy McCoy CPS. I had the benefit of realizing that their Division was hosting their annual meeting in Seattle while there so I arranged to attend their closing dinner banquet.
One thing I learned is just how different the Division and Chapter personalities are.. just like our Division - Delaware-Maryland-District of Columbia. I also learned that for the Alaska members to attend the Division meeting-- they have to fly, yes... FLY to attend their division meeting. So you can imagine that many of those members must chose between attending Division meetings or International.. just based on cost alone.
The WA-AK Division also has fundraising challenges.. just like our Division. They had a live and silent auction the night of the dinner. I cannot tell you how impressed I was with the auctioneer ( a chapter member). Unfortunately, I missed her name.
They also have to compete with other events for member attendance. The Seattle Mariners had a game that evening and of course, many members had family obligations for proms/graduations and such. So this is not unique.
What I did believe was different... was the networking. Not alot of wandering around to each others tables to chat or visit. Pretty much stayed at the tables with their chapter mates.. ..
More on these thoughts will follow... but overall Seattle is a really fascinating city .. Great shopping.. and hosted a wonderful division dinner.
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