As the new president of ISM-New York, my first function is to pay well-deserved recognition to
our
outgoing president, Ms. Nancy Murray. And let me emph
asize well deserved. Just under a year ago, Nancy found herself as the president of our affiliate. Nancy transitioned into he
r role in a smooth and seamless manner while overseeing the transition of the Executive Director role. Through her
even-keeled approach and commitment to h
earing all side
s
of a discussion, Nancy presided over a complex and challenging year but the results were admirable. It was a banner year for our affiliate and we owe her a debt of gratitude for keeping us on course through so much transition.
For those who do not know me, I currently am a Vice President of IT Sourcing & Contracts at MUFG Union Bank, a global Japanese bank. I have been part of ISM since the late 80's and I have been serving as a board member this past year as 1st Vice President, and then for several years as a director in various roles. I am happy to assume the role of President of the affiliate I have been part of since the mid-1990's. As President I would like to share my vision and goals I hope to achieve in the next year. I have three "ambitions" for this upcoming year.
The first is to be focused on our core mission. I want to take a look at all our activities and ensure they are aligned with ISM-New York's mission - which is found on our web site - and that mission is as follows:
to educate, develop, and advance purchasing and supply chain management.
My ambition is to ensure we are meeting this statement and to focus our activities to it and away from anything that does not fulfil that objective. I want to ensure all of us are gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to remain relevant at our jobs, at our organizations, and within our profession. ISM-New York's goal is to strengthen your skills and knowledge against these misconceptions and make you all better in your roles.
My second ambition is to show membership growth for the coming year. It is no surprise that our affiliate's membership number has declined since its high point in the mid-2000's. This stems from a combination of the Great Recession, a generational shift in thinking on membership organizations in general, and a smaller pool of professionals in our New York geographic area. The lifeblood of our organization is membership.
In order to remain attractive to current and future members, as well as welcoming back past members who may have drifted away, I am going to ask our board to continue to transform our affiliate in its operations. These transformations include how we meet and the fo
rmat of those meetings, how we share information and best practices, and why our membership is a valuable to you as perhaps an up to date résumé.
In the next year I am hoping to have more web-based meetings to adjust to modern work arrangements and out-of-office demands, to re-establish our Sourcing Groups on a more frequent basis, and provide as much support to those who find themselves in transition within our profession. Having experienced job loss myself, I cannot reiterate the importance of having my ISM-New York membership and how I was able to work through to my next position. I think those ideas will strengthen our value proposition, bring in new members and bring back past ones, while retaining our current membership base.
My third and final ambition is to receive affiliate excellence recognition from ISM. Ideally, affiliate of the year would be our ultimate prize and it is something I believe we can achieve. I look forward to strengthening our relationship with national ISM and striving to be the premier affiliate in the ISM universe.
This upcoming year we are operating with a slightly smaller Board of Directors but we are always in need of volunteers. This organization lives not only because of members but because of members who go above and beyond in their service to all of us. Please give this idea of volunteering above and beyond normal membership status serious consideration as you will find it rewarding and gratifying in your professional career.
On a side note, I want to welcome new members from the Long Island affiliate that have recently moved under ISM-New York. I am hopeful they will remain part of our affiliate and see the benefits and vibrancy of an active organization.
Sincerely,
James E. Martin
ISM-New York President
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