Dear Creative Community,

It is with great pleasure I begin my term as AIGA Upstate New York President in serving our 190+ members throughout the New York state.

There are many new challenges which lie ahead for our chapter, such as the introduction of our new website, new event registration tool, new Board of Directors, and our monthly social hour – CMYK – will transition to a bi-monthly event.

One AIGA
AIGA introduces a new membership structure with a new mantra “One AIGA”, the first of many changes we will discuss over the next few months.

Chapter Initiatives
AIGA Upstate New York’s Board of Directors met to discuss chapter goals and developed the following initiatives for the 2012-13 programming year:

Student Group Initiative
The chapter will continue to provide our student focused programming – Student Portfolio Workshops and Portfolio Reviews in Albany, Rochester and Syracuse – while connecting members with chapter resources through social media and event planning.

Member Connectivity
The chapter will attempt to record an event, provide at least one webinar, and provide monthly Facetime with the President in an effort to address our geographic barriers by providing interactive content online.

OR … in our quest to remove the geographic barriers separating us.

Communications
The first step in membership is to follow us. Our new web site and event registration will allow us to streamline our process, allowing us to focus our energies on developing a larger social media presence.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for this my first year as your president. We’ve developed a good team of volunteers to sit on the Board of Directors, all eager to tackle the many changes that lay ahead – stay tuned and be in touch!

Yours,
Sarah Burns

Our chapter is successful because of our members; please make sure to join if you are not already a member. People often as what they need to do to get involved, do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in making AIGA Upstate New York successful!