As I celebrated the July 4th holiday, enjoying picnics and the most amazing fireworks display right here in our nation’s capitol, I had a few, rare moments to reflect. It’s summer and though I keep hearing that this is the “slow” time, I haven’t experienced this slow time since my first job after college. My guess is that those of you reading this share my sentiments. As marketers, we generally don’t have time to reflect and more often than not, we find ourselves forced to react.

As I celebrated the July 4th holiday, enjoying picnics and the most amazing fireworks display right here in our nation’s capitol, I had a few, rare moments to reflect. It’s summer and though I keep hearing that this is the “slow” time, I haven’t experienced this slow time since my first job after college. My guess is that those of you reading this share my sentiments. As marketers, we generally don’t have time to reflect and more often than not, we find ourselves forced to react.

My first reflection was to just over a year ago when AMADC began planning for the 2009-2010 year. In many ways, it feels like yesterday. I’m incredibly proud of our organization and all that we accomplished under the tutelage and leadership of the visionary marketer Brendan Hurley, SVP of Marketing and Communications for Goodwill of Greater Washington, by day. Those are some big shoes to fill. I’m equally inspired by the talented board we have as well as the many dedicated volunteers who make the organizations an invaluable asset to marketers in the region.

Then I reflected on the unlimited potential for the organization over the next twelve months. While AMADC embarks on its new year and I take over the weekly President’s Post, I realize how fortunate we are to have the freedom to pursue new ventures and unlimited potential to try new things while consistently delivering on the value proposition we offer our members and area marketers.

So as we continue to experience a tough economy and work to reestablish ourselves and our industries, I encourage each of you to embrace the fact that change is constant and to reflect on the past year and what you achieved and what changes you might make, what risks you might take, if you had no constraints. Declare your independence and take a minute to set some new goals, small, medium or large, as this is a great time of year for reflection and new beginnings. If you’ve always wanted to start a blog, follow me on my journey and start today. If you want to network more, join us on the evening of July 12 to meet fellow marketers. If you want to send your first tweet, set up your account and follow us @amadc.

Wherever you are on your marketing journey and whatever direction it may take you, we’re here to help you. We’re in this together and a year from now, we might just find it to be a slow time of year when we have a minute to reflect.