Dear ChemPharma ® professional associations, partners, alliances and friends, 

This is an exciting time for ChemPharma and we have much to report!   

We have completed the first quarter of 2008 and are all very excited about our upcoming national spring event on April 30 in Princeton! 

We have a record number of registrants and anticipate a full house for Valli Baldassano, chief compliance officer of Cephalon, and Phillip Deming, nationally renown human resources and security expert  – so if you are interested to attend, please go to: www.chempharma.net to read more and register.  Registration will close if capacity is full, so please don’t delay. 

During first quarter, the Board of Trustees finalized plans and continued activities to improve our organization.  At the end of last year, we voted to increase the board headcount maximum in order to better allocate workload, set up for more success, and give more ChemPharma members the opportunity to participate on the board.  This was positively accepted and we received more nominations and volunteers as a direct result.   

[Note: if you are interested in joining the board now or in the near term, please contact me, Ellen Derrico, or any other board member]. 

In addition, we made significant progress in several key areas, and have accomplished the following: 

*In January, we kicked off the new board, with all members present, and began our 2-year strategic planning process revisions  

Your board is on deck! 

*In February, every committee chairperson and board member presented refinements to the basic elements of our two-year strategic plan (100% participation), and we added additional plans to last year’s fundamentals for: 

·         Alliances and business development

·         Online networking forums and meetings (networkopportunities@chempharma.net)

·         Operations – holistic plan

·         New chapters – Boston and Houston

·         Website enhancements – next round of upgrades and performance improvements

·         National events – added these to Member Services area, increasing number and quality programs 

Your board is committed! 

We are still marching with our mission towards our strategic goals to:

* Double membership

* Increase membership of landed members to 75% of total

* Establish at least two additional chapters

* Increase “stickiness*” for landed member interest (*websiteenhancement and additional events)

* Develop processes/procedures and marketing plans to achieve2007—2008 vision 

Your board has longer-term goals and we are inspired! 

*We completed our first two Board of Advisors 2008 meetings this quarter. TheBOA includes former Board of Trustee members, chosen by the president, who serve in an advisory capacity and our vice president, Frank Merenda.  

Charlie Allen continues to advise on finances, is helping to run Philadelphia day meetings, until we find a replacement for Roger Singer, and provides overall guidance to our officers and management team, for which we are deeply grateful!  Gary McDaniel has continued to help Member Services as editor in chief for The Periodic Tablet.  Don Anderson is involved with helping our Chicago chapter.  Brad Schweon has recently agreed to help manage website content uploads.  Eric Borgstedt continues to provide support for links to other professional groups and to help identify and gain alliances.   

While Rich Brautigam has decided to roll off the BOA officially, he still spends time to help coordinate New Jersey local events, and to provide his leadership and guidance to me, which I am greatly thankful for our relationship and his continued support! 

We, the BOT and BOA, are in it for the long haul! 

*The new web site is progressing – every day. We have garnered support for a web team to resolve bugs, improve performance, add functionality, and increase important ChemPharma and industry content. 

*We planned and secured our first national event, speakers, and venue for this spring’s meeting, have identified and gained commitment from several of our fall national meeting panelists (more about this to follow), and have locked down a third national event, a summer social mixer, for September. 

*We have signed and finalized our alliance with Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group (GPSEG) to extend member pricing between members for open events and to improve our cross marketing of these networking event opportunities. 

We are making progress, one step at a time, and every day, but…. 

We still need your help. 

*VOLUNTEER—We have ongoing needs across the board to continue delivering better programs, content/communications, alliances, and value to our members, throughout your careers. It is a great chance to get a feeling for joining the board, before actually volunteering and making a 2-year commitment.  So, reach out to one of us today.  Your professional experience can help.  Also, if interested in a full board position, we have an immediate opening for a Philadelphia chapter head. 

Roger Singer has decided to begin his retirement and move to Bend, Oregon, to be with his family and be able to migrate his financial services practice with Merrill Lynch.  We are all happy (and a little jealous J of Roger, and will miss him on the BOT!  Please join us for the spring national meeting, as it will be Roger’s last event and we plan to give a good send off. 

Also, we hold regular elections in November.  If there is a particular area you would like to be considered, please contact the vice president, Frank Merenda, as he will be taking nominations and volunteers.  If you would like to learn more, please give Frank or me an email or call.  

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Kind Regards,

Ellen M. Derrico

President, ChemPharma ® professional association