If you were lucky enough to join us in March at ACMP's CHANGE San Diego conference, you likely saw our fun and interactive SoCal Chapter booth. We wanted to take the opportunity to gather your thoughts and ideas while we had so many of our members there in person. This is just one piece of a larger empathy-gathering and creativity-capturing project our SoCal Board is collaborating on with the NorCal Chapter. Both Chapter Boards are super invested in reimagining what a valuable chapter experience could be for our members.
The themes shared here are only those we collected on the boards pictured above. You gave us 50+ ideas for our How Might We (HMW) questions! Most of the responses came from our SoCal members, but we also included the ideas shared by members from other chapters worldwide. Thank you so much for your time and creativity.
We look forward to sharing our larger project's insights, ideas, and action steps soon!
Overall HMW Themes
Engagement & In-Person Connection
It's no surprise you're ready to get back together more often, in person, at unique locations. And there are varied interests in what you'd like to engage in. We saw some interest in Chapter community-building via dinners, networking parties, book clubs, localized meetups, field trips, personal connections with the Board, and new ways to find other Chapter members in your neighborhood. We also saw several requests for swag ranging from tools, kits, clothing, and totes!
Enhanced Communication and Awareness
What we saw most was the desire for personalization. We heard you want to hear more directly from Chapter Board leaders in various places. With that, you also want the ability to connect via social platforms you already use in your everyday lives. We loved seeing that you want to know what other members are doing and what they're learning.
Professional Development & Knowledge Sharing
Did we already mention the desire for in-person events? Well, that also showed up quite a bit in learning and development. A popular sticky note repeating itself was the hope for workshops and case study events hosted at different companies with actual change professionals and teams. You also indicated that you want to learn from each other and study together!
Community Service
This was somewhat of an unexpected but delightful theme! We saw quite a few sticky notes calling out volunteerism as Chapter "team building" in local communities. There was also an element of volunteering our skillsets and expertise to smaller businesses and non-profits in need of change management assistance.