Purpose and Values By participating in NAMA, members gain knowledge, skills and contacts that help individuals and organizations meet business challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
Knowledge - NAMA provides learning opportunities through the exploration and exchange of ideas and information.
Skills - NAMA offers skill development opportunities through involvement in specialized programs and leadership positions.
Contacts - NAMA facilitates opportunities to make business contacts, including the development of relationships, networks and sources. Planning for the FutureAs a member-driven organization, NAMA relies on input and direction from chapter and national leaders to guide future program development.
NAMA Organization As a member-driven organization, NAMA relies on input and direction from chapter and national leaders to guide the future.
Chapters -- Chapter leaders have the most direct contact with members and provide valuable input on the needs, interests, and challenges faced by members. Chapter presidents serve on the National Board of Directors where they can funnel member input.
Committees -- National committees have the primary responsibility for planning and execution of NAMA programs. Feedback from committee leaders is gathered by the Executive Committee and evaluated for future program direction. National committee chairs and vice chairs serve on the National Board of Directors.
Executive Committee -- The Executive Committee has the key responsibility of evaluating current programs, assessing member interest and needs, and recommending future direction for the organization. Input from chapter, board and committee leaders is vital for the work of the committee.
Board of Directors -- The National Board of Directors has the ultimate responsibility for approval of all allocation of resources, short and long-term strategic planning, and direction of the organization. The Board relies heavily on the Executive Committee for input and recommendations.
The Role of the Chapter President Job Description This is the top leader position at the local chapter level. A chapter president should be prepared to lead, motivate, organize and build NAMA enthusiasm. Responsibilities
Recruit officers and committee chairs for the NAMA year which runs from May 1 through April 30.
Hold a planning meeting to establish goals for the year and to reiterate responsibilities to each individual.
Communicate the local chapter’s plan and goals to the membership.
Set a schedule for and hold regular board meetings to plan and evaluate chapter events and activities. Always have an agenda ready to distribute at the beginning of each meeting.
You will be asked to submit a report to the NAMA three times during the year.
As chapter president, you automatically serve on the National Board of Directors which meets twice a year. See description below.
Inform those who are expected to attend your board meetings. This would include any person with a leadership role in the chapter.
President
Vice President or president-elect
Secretary/Treasurers
Committee Chairs
Determine what the expectations are for your upcoming meeting. Developing an agenda, one that you will follow, has a lot to do with what you will ultimately accomplish at a particular meeting. Know ahead of time the informational topics to be covered, which topics are open for discussion and debate, and which topics require a formal decision. If possible, have documentation for each topic to be covered.
Determine the frequency, dates, location and times of your board meetings. Get them on the board members’ calendars so that they know to schedule around them if possible.
Send out the following information at least one week prior to each meeting:
Agenda
Any supporting information/recommendation for decisions to be made
Determine who will be documenting the meeting. Meeting minutes are not expected to be verbatim. They should, however, reflect decisions, assignments and action items.
Planning a Chapter Meeting The following steps are helpful to insure that your meeting is a success.
Choose your program topic.
Choose the dates of your programs
Choose a location and a facility.
Develop an agenda to insure that you cover the information necessary and important to your members.
Establish a communication process so that all members receive notice of an event. The national office can assist.
Promoting Your Chapter Meeting Once you have selected your facility, you’ll want to begin promoting your event. Post your meeting on your chapter web site and notify the NAMA office as they will post on the NAMA site and social media channels.
Other Chapter Positions The following is a list of the typical chapter positions. A detailed position description with duties and responsibilities is provided by clicking on the "Responsibilities" listed after each description below. Not all chapters will fill all of these positions. Some chapters may choose to structure their boards differently. Each chapter should do what works best for them.
Vice President/President Elect Depending on a chapter’s bylaws, this position will vary in scope and responsibilities. This is the person that would step in for the chapter president in the event that the president would be unable to complete their leader year. Some chapters have more than one vice president (i.e., first vice president/president elect, second vice president, etc.). In this event, responsibilities can be created and delegated to meet the specific needs of the chapter.
Secretary/Treasurer The primary functions of this position are to record minutes at chapter and board meetings as well as the financial well-being and operation of the chapter. This officer should keep the financial books and records for the year.
Responsibilities:
NAMA and all affiliated chapters are 501(c)(6) organizations. The IRS (www.irs.gov) provides the following information on filing of tax information. “If an organization normally has gross receipts of $50,000 or less, it must submit Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard) for Tax-Exempt Organizations Not Required to File Form 990 or 990-EZ..." The deadline is the 15th of the fifth month following the end of the fiscal year. Visit their site for additional information.
Keep accurate records of all receipts and disbursements. If necessary, prepare a financial statement for each NAMA chapter meeting and provide the Chapter Board of Directors with the monthly statement. The ledger should be set up to correspond with information needed on the IRS Form, and should show income versus expenses by month. It should show cumulative income and expenses, detailing excess income or deficit every month to provide a comparison to budgeted figures.
Collect monthly meeting fees and registration fees at any chapter meeting activity incurring a charge.
Deposit income on a frequent basis and keep permanent records of all deposits.
Pay bills promptly and check all expenses to see if they were authorized or part of a budgeted expense. Notify the president if a particular committee exceeds its budget. Keep a copy of all paid bills in a permanent file.
Create a formal approval process to commit funds (i.e., have two officers sign off on the commitment if over $500).
Chapters get a portion of membership dues that are paid to the organization. Monthly payments are direct deposited from the National Office into chapter accounts.
Membership The key function of the membership chair is to promote chapter membership. This is done through the recruitment and prospecting of new members, as well as the retention and renewal of existing members.
Membership is central to your chapter’s success. By developing a plan that spans more than one year, you will focus your chapter’s efforts and have the greatest impact on the membership areas that need development.
There is a national campaign that will provide tools to help make local recruitment more effective. These tools will include flyers and other recruitment/retention materials. These tools are available at www.nama.org under “Leader Resources.”
Goals: Choose a membership goal. Don’t overload on goals, but look at what will benefit membership recruitment and retention within your chapter. Focus your goals where they will do the most good.
Strategies: Strategies are the tactics you are going to use to attain your goals. For the goal,“Grow Membership by 3%,” the following could be used:
Utilize the national membership incentives to recruit new members
Direct mail campaign to a list of prospective members by October 15
Cash award of $25.00 to any member bringing a prospective member to a meeting.
After you have the goals and strategies:
As a chapter board member, you are a walking example to current and potential members of the benefits NAMA membership provides. Don’t be afraid to share how you have grown personally and professionally due to your involvement with NAMA. Y
Share with other companies the value of having employees involved with the NAMA chapter. NAMA even has a flyer listing some of those benefits. You will have many opportunities to share how it has benefited your organization.
Involve less active members in chapter work. Involved members realize the greatest value and are more apt to continue their membership.
As a chapter board member, contact chapter members who have not renewed their membership. You may change the direction of their decision and improve membership for your chapter as a whole.
A healthy membership base is an investment in your chapter’s future. This investment doesn’t grow overnight with the efforts of only a membership chair. Membership is the job of the chapter board, the membership chair and all chapter members.
Programs The function of the programs chair is to develop and implement programs and topics to be covered throughout the year. Some chapters have two people, who are co-chairs, to share the responsibilities. The first step is to discuss the plan with your board. Many chapters survey their membership at the beginning of the program year to ask their members where their interests lie. These surveys can also help chapter leaders determine the most desirable time of day and week to hold chapter meetings. If you’d like to conduct a survey, the NAMA office can assist you by sending it out to your members and compiling the results.
Once you’ve determined what your members are interested in, you can begin brainstorming topics and speakers and put them on the calendar. Several chapters take advantage of NAMA webinars for chapter meetings. Members are invited to gather at a central location to have a “brown bag” lunch while listening to the webinar and, possibly, have a discussion afterwards.
Best of NAMA The Best of NAMA awards honor the best work in agricultural communications. Most chapters participate in their regional ceremonies. If a regional banquet will be held, the Best of NAMA chair may serve on the regional committee, helping plan and execute the event. The NAMA office will assist with forming this committee. If the chapter decides on a chapter ceremony, the Best of NAMA chair will plan and coordinate the event. The event must be completed before January 31 each year, as the regional first place and merit winners will be notified by the NAMA office by February 1st.
Student NAMA The Student NAMA chair should assist the student chapter officers and faculty advisors as needed. Should a chapter have more than one student NAMA chapter, it is recommended that a committee member be assigned to each school. So your student chapter may gain the most from your chapter, you may want to implement one or all of the programs outlined below.
Mentor Program: Students explore career opportunities one-on-one with professionals in agri-marketing through a mentor program.
Professional Interaction: Professional interaction could be as simple as inviting students to meetings and events. Many chapters allow students to help with on-site meeting registration as a way to meet professionals. It’s important to make contact with student chapter officers.
Marketing Competition: Your chapter can help students prepare for the annual Marketing Competition by inviting them to present their marketing plan prior to the Agri-Marketing Conference in April. Constructive criticism on these plans is invaluable to the student chapter, and professionals can help oversee that deadlines are met.
Scholarships: Develop a scholarship program for your student chapter. Implement a scholarship to help send the student chapter to the Agri-Marketing Conference. Or if you choose to award an academic scholarship, this can be done through the NAMA Foundation. Contact Jenny Pickett at 913-491-6500 for details on academic scholarships.
Communications This chair is responsible for internal communications within the chapter and organization as a whole. Communications efforts include informing members and the NAMA office on a timely, ongoing basis of the news and activities of the chapter. Determine what vehicles you will use to communicate with current members, prospects and expired members. Once you determine how to communicate with these audiences, put together a written plan to share with your board of directors.
Ag Day/Special Events (optional) NAMA has endorsed the Agriculture Council of America’s celebration of National Ag Day as a primary industry outreach activity. This chair has overall responsibility for the chapter’s Ag Day activities and/or other special events. It is logical that some of the other chapter chairs should help you make arrangements for these events (i.e., professional development, publicity, communications, etc.). More information on this program is available at www.agday.org.
NAMA Office Services Membership Record Services The NAMA office provides all aspects of membership data management services to all chapters. These services include billing, new member processing, chapter summaries, membership evaluation summaries and other services and database management.
Payment Processing The NAMA office can process payments for chapter meetings and will reimburse the chapters. They will also send chapters dues payments via automating bank transfer.
National News Submit your upcoming events to Janae Prewitt. Also, be sure to submit photos and write-ups of past meetings for chapter promotion. A template to make this easier is located under General Leader Resources.
Staff Visits/Leadership Training The NAMA staff is available to visit with your leaders and assist with chapter management.
Chapter Web Pages/Sites NAMA can house a link to your chapter web site or Facebook page on the NAMA Site. Those can be sent to Janae Prewitt.
Social Media The NAMA office will post information about your meetings on their social channels.
Best of NAMA The NAMA office will assist in the planning of chapter/regional Best of NAMA events.
NAMA Office Contacts The National NAMA Office is Located at: 8700 State Line Road, Suite 105, Leawood, KS 66206 913-491-6500
2022-2023 NAMA Calendar The NAMA calendar contains national deadlines and events throughout the year. Please Note: Responsible position is noted after the activity.
May Send roster of new chapter leaders to NAMA office (chapter presidents) 15 Chapters IRS Form 990-N due to IRS if fiscal year ends Dec. 31. (treasurer)
July Finalize chapter board members
August Hold a planning meeting to establish chapter goals (all chapter leaders) 10-12 NAMA Boot Camp - Kansas City
September Communicate chapter plans and goals to membership (chapter presidents) 30 Chapter and committee reports due to national office (chaper presidents and national committee chairs)
October 10 NAMA Executive Committee meeting – Minneapolis 10 National Board of Directors’ meeting – Minneapolis 10-12 NAMA Fall Conference - Minneapolis 21 National Best of NAMA entry deadline
November 15-16 Regional Best of NAMA judging (all regions) in Kansas City 18 Student NAMA Accreditation deadline (student NAMA chairs)
December TBD National Committee reports for Executive Committee meeting due to the NAMA office (national committee chairs) TBD Chapter reports for Executive Committee meeting due to the NAMA office (chapter presidents)
January 2022 TBD Agribusiness, NAMA Marketer of the Year, Ag Association Leaders and Next Gen. nominations due to the NAMA office (awards)
February 1 Best of NAMA regional first and merit winners notified
March 21 National Ag Day (Ag Day/special events)
April 7 National Committee reports for Executive Committee meeting due to NAMA office (national committee chairs) 7 Chapter reports for Executive Committee meeting due to NAMA office (chapter presidents) 25 NAMA Executive Committee meeting - St. Louis 26 Chapter Leader Exchange - St. Louis 26 National Board of Directors’ meeting - St. Louis 26-28 Agri-Marketing Conference - St. Louis
Frequently Asked Questions Below is a short list of Frequently Asked Questions. If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to call the national office at 913-491-6500.
Q. How are memberships transferred? A. Memberships belong to the entity that paid for them. If an individual’s dues are paid by a company and he/she leaves that company, then the NAMA office will ask the company for a replacement name for that membership. If the individual member pays the dues, then the membership will transfer with the individual to the new company.
Q. When does my NAMA membership year start? A. The membership year starts when a member joins.
Q. What is NAMA's relationship with Agri Marketing magazine? A. NAMA has a sister relationship with Agri Marketing, but does not publish the magazine. The magazine is published by Henderson Communications. To place an ad in Agri Marketing or ask a question, contact (515) 954-8381.
Q.What if I’m not getting AgriMarketing magazine or there is an error in the way it is addressed? A. Contact AgriMarketing Magazine directly at (515) 954-8381.
Q. When does the Marketing Services Guide come out? A. The Marketing Services Guide, which is published by Henderson Communications, comes out in January.
Q. When is the Best of NAMA entry deadline? A. The Best of NAMA entry deadline is October 21, 2022. Entries are due to the national office by that time.
Q. How do I notify my chapter about a meeting? A. The national office can send an email free of charge. Contact Janae Prewitt to coordinate.
Q. When is the next Agri-Marketing Conference? A. The 2023 Agri-Marketing Conference will take place April 26-28 at the Marriott St. Louis Grand. Q. When is the next Fall Conference? A. The 2022 Fall Conference will take place October 10-12 in Minneapolis.
Additional Resources Use this website as your most up-to-date source of NAMA materials and background information. More tools and resources you may need include:
