iSMA Annual General Meeting and Board Meeting
July 2020
The 2020 iSMA Annual General Meeting was well attended, a mix of members and the Board representatives. The meeting opened with a review of the organization’s financial standing. As a result of identifying new vendors for international meetings and to host the webinars, iSMA ended the fiscal year with net gains. iSMA is enjoying a new revenue stream from online social marketing training courses where iSMA benefits from 40% of the training revenue. Going forward, iSMA will continue to work to identify new revenue streams.
Members were encouraged to review the 2019 Annual Report which is posted to the new iSMA website. Membership in iSMA and all regional associations is standing at 1,200. The model for iSMA is as a federation of currently 6 regional associations. Accomplishments of the last year have been: standing up a new website to promote the work of iSMA, membership, and member benefits, a partnership with The Social Marketing Quarterly was reached to enable members to enjoy free access to that content. iSMA is participating as a member of the Global Alliance on Social and Behavior Change to advance our professional approach to change. iSMA is also in close coordination with all international conference planning related to Social and Behavior Change events.
iSMA offered 6 webinars in the past year, the COVID panel this past June, enjoyed the highest audience count in the history of iSMA webinars.
iSMA offered the first training opportunity in social marketing in March of 2020. The next virtual course will be offered beginning September 28th.
The Communication Team rolled out the new website in April, produced 6 newsletters, generated a broad Member Survey covering all aspects of member benefits enjoying a high response rate, and created a new Blog Team with bloggers representing 5 countries around the globe writing about their community social marketing approaches. The Team is shaping a Strategic Plan to map organizational goals for the next 3-5 years. They are also looking forward to expand the new website to develop the member portal.
iSMA is preparing for fall elections to fill spaces for the departing positions of President and Vice President as well as additional Board Spaces to be filled. There is already an impressive line-up of candidates.
The iSMA secretary is working on a Board Operations Manual to inform Board member transition.
There is a team working to draft a statement of ethical principles for the organization.
Nancy Lee reminded all that COVID shows us the impact that behaviors can make and that this is social marketing’s time to address these behavior-based challenges.