AFA Conference

It sounds like the Association of Fraternity Advisors (AFA) conference in Denver last week was a success! Tim Roth, Jeremy Turner, Josh Terhune, Aaron Walker and Garret Bredenkamp all had the opportunity to meet with a number of Greek national offices, councils and chapters at the event. There was a great deal of interest from people that were interested in our services to help network their organizations.

Not sure who won this tug of war for convention goodies from the picture. It looks like Jeremy (left) and Josh (right) were fighting over a stuffed SPAM character and a Dynamic Recruitment DVD. Not sure who won that battle though...

The crew made it to Denver a day early before the convention to discuss 2009 at Chapter Communications. Next year will be the most exciting year in our company's 4-year history, with an upcoming launch of our Olympian software (more to come on that in the upcoming weeks), expansion of services and hiring of new staff. We are also launching our new Chapter Communications website in January, so be on the lookout for that as well.

Funny story from the convention, make sure you remind our Sales Director Garret Bredenkamp to make sure he still has his MacBook. After buying a new one in Denver...he misplaced it not even an hour later and a few of the guys had to walk from store-to-store to find it. We are happy to say that Garret was reunited with his new MacBook at a Brooks Brothers store.

Economic Struggles, Lay Offs....Not Here!

We've seen it over and over again in the news how people are losing their jobs and companies are tightening up their budgets because of the current economic conditions. Chapter Communications continues to thrive despite the economic downturn, and still continues to grow. The company has recently hired two new employees and announced an expansion into Canada.

Sarah Kim is our new Client Manager. She will be one of the primary contacts for technical assistance with our websites. Basically, she'll be a client's best friend when they start using their new website. Sarah is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois.

Aaron Walker was recently hired as our VP of Marketing. He'll be leading the charge as we expand our services into Canada. You can view an announcement on Aaron's hiring at http://tinyurl.com/5uup5s

We're not done yet. Chapter Communications is still looking for passionate and hard-working professionals to join our team. For more information on job opportunities, visit http://tinyurl.com/5a2k5h.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Halloween Tales

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Some of us here at Chapter Communications did in fact dress up for the occasion. Seth Eheart, our Chief Operating Officer, was the flashiest of the group. He dressed up in a giant banana costume. The funny part was...he interviewed a potential employee that day. It's a safe bet that it was the first time that person has ever been interviewed by a banana...

Carrie Seymour, our Client Manager dressed as a cat. Anna Pougas, our Product Manager, donned some purple hair to add some flash to the development office.

I am kicking myself over the fact that we have NO PICTURES from Halloween. It got me to thinking, do any of your clubs or organizations have Halloween pictures that you'd like to share? Any funny Halloween stories? Please share...

Back and Blogging!

Hello all! Just because we haven't posted lately, it doesn't mean we have been asleep at the wheel here at Chapter Communications. We've actually been quite busy.

Recently, I was hired to be the Communications Director. Basically, that means I handle public relations for the company and help with the overall message of who we are, and what we are doing as an organization. One of things I have started to do is get more exposure for our clients that are effectively using the websites we provide for them. So if your chapter is doing something great with your website, let us know!

Behind the scenes here at Chapter Communications, we have been gearing up for a launch of our new web system, which will change the overall look and fuctionality of the websites that we provide. It will be available to all new and exisiting clients. The new version allows each organization’s administrator to make more changes to public and private pages within their websites. One major function allows members to customize their personal pages, which allows them to see various calendars, photo albums, files, etc in the order that they want. As always, Chapter Communications will offer training for each organization’s administrators.

Sigma Kappa sorority at the University of Illinois is testing out our new version. You can get a look at it by visiting http://www.sigmakappaillinois.org/.

We'll be sure to keep you updated on the new version, along with other announcements from Chapter Communications in the near future.

College Fraternity Editors Association, Nashville, TN

This past weekend Jeremy and I traveled to Nashville for the CFEA Convention. It was a great weekend. The accommodations and staff were nothing less than great! Chapter Communications has had the privilege of creating the new CFEA website and has been working closely with its staff to make it nothing be the best! On Thursday night we went to the opening reception at the Chi Psi National Headquarters located near downtown Nashville. The night was full of chatting with new people, having a drink here and there, and congregating in a restroom?! Friday we had a full day of vendor responsibilities. It was great to meet some current clients as well as converse with potential new clients. Friday night was a dinner event at BB Kings, a locally known restaurant/bar in Nashville. This provided everyone with the opportunity to mingle and have a fun relaxed evening. Saturday was a pretty short day that ended with an evening banquet. All in all, I have to say the CFEA convention was a great trip. You can never go wrong when you meet satisfied current clients as well as interested potentials.

Mid-America Greek Council Association/National Black Greek Leadership Conference - Chicago, IL

I spent last weekend attending the MGCA/NBGLC in Chicago with a bunch of our staff members. Chapter Communications has been attending this conference for the past 5 years. It is always a great conference to be apart of. This was a very rewarding conference not only because of the amount of attendees but also because of the feedback we received from current clients. Our booth was located right across from registration which proved to be very helpful. Also, our Wii gaming systems (yes we brought 2) didn't chase people away. We had a contest for the attendees to win a FREE website by bowling a strike in 3 frames. We had people swarming just to play! This only helped our staff to them provide this individuals information about what our system can do for their council and/or chapter. It was a great success!

Even Timothy Roth, our CEO, was joining in on the Wii activities! Jeremy Turner, our National Marketing Director, and Josh Terhune, one of our Regional Marketing Directors, became very competitive and even started challenging the MGCA staff! Don't worry this was all taking place when meetings were in session.

We want to thank all of the fantastic staff of the MGCA and NBGLC as well as all of our current clients who stopped by to introduce themselves. We are also thankful to all of the attendees who came to join in all of the Wii fun and look forward to hearing back from our conference winners!

All in all, this conference was extremely successful and we are looking forward to joining in the fun next year.

Tau Kappa Epsilon - Regional Leadership Conference - St. Louis, MO

I spent this weekend with the men of Tau Kappa Epsilon. I talked to several chapters who were quite excited with what we could do to help them in the future. They have several colonies and of the ones I spoke to were very interested in our colony program. The staff leaders for TKE were helpful and several were encourging their chapters to speak with us further. I believe we will have many more TKE chapters using our services in the near future and look forward to building a better relationship with their members.

Pi Kappa Alpha - Pike University - Dallas, TX

I too spent the weekend with Pi Kappa Alpha in Dallas and had a enjoyable weekend. Several chapters knew about us already and were eager to learn more. The Pike staff was there usual through selves and made a for a great conference. I look forward to many new long term customers from Pi Kappa Alpha.

Pi Kappa Alpha - Pike University - Costa Mesa, CA

I had the opportunity to visit with the Pi Kappa Alpha staff again this weekend. As always they are more than helpful and do everything they can to accommodate the vendors that are present. Like Kara mentioned in her blog about the Atlanta Summit, we had many clients already represented at the Costa Mesa Summit, but I enjoyed meeting with them and taught them a few new things that they weren't aware of before. All in all it was a great conference, had some very productive discussions with the Pike staff and I look forward to working with each chapter in the future.

Pi Kappa Alpha - Pike University - Atlanta, GA

First off , I want to thank Sherry Walker and Rick Burt for being such great hosts. They were very accommodating and as sweet as can be. I also want to thank them for the opportunity for Chapter Communications to host their banquet on Saturday night. This provided our company with another outlet to get our name out into the Pi Kappa Alpha Community. Since we already had many of the attendees as clients it was great to hear feedback from these young men. It was also a great opportunity for these men to tell their fellow brothers about our services and receive a referral discount $50.

Sherry Walker was so intrigued with the demo she saw me give that she called up her daughter immediately. Her daughter loved everything she heard and is proposing using our services to the Panhellenic Council at the school in which she attends.

All in all, attending Pike University this past weekend was a great trip for Chapter Communications and we look forward to attending the Leadership Summit in Chicago, IL February 22-24th.

Sigma Chi - Grand Praetors Meeting, Las Vegas, NV

Last weekend Jeremy and I attended the Sigma Chi Grand Praetors Meeting in Las Vegas. We were invited to attend this gathering due to the partnership we made late last year to create over 145 Sigma Chi Alumni Chapter websites. This meeting provided our organizations to further our partnership and extend the opportunity for undergraduate chapters. We believe this opportunity will provide the Sigma Chi Fraternity with the communication tools it deserves. The Grand Praetors were very anxious about getting to know how our services work. Once all questions were answered they were ready to take information back to their undergraduate/alumni chapters and encourage them to use our services. Jeremy and I had a great time the first night. We enjoyed some great sushi and the penny slots! The second night Jeremy had to get back home so I was to venture Vegas alone. I was lucky to have made a few Sigma Chi friends prior to this trip and was thankful for an invitation to join them that night. So I would like to thank the gentlemen of Sigma Chi for allowing a lady to join them.

Pi Kappa Alpha - Chapter Executives Conference, Memphis, TN

I think I have finally caught up from being away from the office and can now write about the PKA CEC. This is the second year Chapter Communications has attended the conference and I cannot stop saying thank you to the staff at PKA Headquarters. Everyone there truly is a class act. This year Chapter Communications has decided to sponsor the luncheon at the CEC, all four Pike Summits and the National Convention. The sponsorship will allow us to get our name out there to the chapters that are not currently using our services and to say thank you to the chapters that are. So thank you to Pi Kappa Alpha and the great job that you do in making the vendors feel welcome. Maybe next time I'm in Memphis for the PKA National Convention I will actually visit Graceland instead of just driving by.