Hot _____!  Fill in the blank, but that about sums up our 2015–2016 fiscal year. When I think about the things I’m most proud of in my career, one big-ticket item that stands out is that I’ve had the privilege to serve a second tour as president of our chapter and in doing so, work with a terrific group of volunteers to help get us on a solid trajectory for success. We all have seriously impacted our chapter in a wonderful way and we should all feel incredibly excited about its future.

As I write this final note to you as president, I’m happy to report that our chapter is in a very positive and healthy state. Here are just a few of the major accomplishments we achieved this fiscal year:

• We met our annual revenue objective three months ahead of schedule.
• We grew our membership from the fourth largest chapter to the third largest chapter (of 79 chapters in North America) while simultaneously increasing our member retention rate by approximately 10%.
• We doubled the size of our Board of Directors and created a succession plan for each board member, enabling us to produce nearly 50 programs (with more on the way)—a 100+% increase in programming over last year.
• We rethought our approach to creating programs, and in doing so we designed, branded, and introduced three distinct communities of members sharing common needs, and delivered significant relevance and value to each (check out our programs here).
• We successfully rebranded our chapter, visually and experientially, and enabled it to evolve to better align with the efforts of the national AMA rebranding initiative—placing us on a course to ultimately become “One AMA.” In conjunction with the rebranding we were also able to update AMADC.org, and launched a state-of-the-art responsive website developed in Drupal 8 with huge opportunities to introduce further enhancements in the upcoming year.
• Cash sponsorship dollars increased 200% over last year and by July 1, our in-kind sponsorship dollars will likely exceed $225,000.
• Member engagement is at an all-time high, with more members attending multiple events on average, and a record rate of member volunteers helping to execute programs.

None of this could have happened without the dedicated team that agreed to jump in and help drive the necessary change that our chapter needed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of the board members who gave countless hours helping to shape and form a lasting vision for the future of the DC Chapter. 

Speaking of the future, it is my honor to hand over the torch to Regan Lamb who will serve as the AMADC President for 2016–2017. Having Regan by my side this year was a terrific experience. She’s smart, fun, and shares the vision we created this year together. She will be an awesome leader and we will all benefit from her natural ability to lead and get things done. Regan comes with a silver bullet for AMADC: Brent Hayhurst, who will serve as President-Elect. The two of them will create continuity in the leadership that AMADC has lacked in past years. As for me, I’ll still be actively engaged in our chapter, working closely with Regan and Brent. In my new role as Immediate Past President I will serve on several committees, and will continue to help our chapter achieve a level of excellence that is deserving of our members.

Thanks for the great ride. Thank you for using your membership to make a difference in moving our profession forward!

Looking forward to seeing you at Jack Rose on the 14^th to celebrate our successes and to wind down and welcome summer during our Sweet Spirit of Summer Soiree. 

Mike