With a healthy dose of humour, the CFA Society Memphis board works collaboratively and effectively to deliver value to its 215 members.
Jeff Lewis, CFA, past-president, CFA Society Memphis, explained: “Our board really likes one another; we share the same mission and this helps us to make a real impact locally.”
The Society benefits from the fact that board members are within a 20 minute radius of one another, which helps them to share responsibilities. Tyson Peterson, CFA, president, CFA Society Memphis, added: “Everyone has their hands in everyone else’s projects and this enables the team to successfully progress initiatives.”
With CFA Institute recently increasing funding and resources to CFA Societies, Tyson felt the level of expectation on Societies to deliver locally had increased.
“We had a realisation that for years, if not decades, CFA Society Memphis had been doing things the same way,” Jeff said. “We asked ourselves how we can better engage our members and believed that by building a strategic plan, we could enhance member value.”
To formalise its strategic approach, CFA Society Memphis had discussions with CFA Institute and agreed that hosting a half-day strategy retreat for the board in Memphis would be beneficial.
The board brought its usual joviality to the session, which was led by Liz DeFreitas, society relations manager, CFA Institute. Jennifer Garbowicz, CFA, the Southeastern US PCR, also attended and was a helpful addition to the strategy retreat. Following the meeting, Liz provided a note outlining all the discussion points and the Society developed a strategy blueprint that they need to make traction with.
“Now is the hard part,” Tyson noted. “We have a long way to go.”
Benefits of formalising its strategic plan
The strategic plan has helped CFA Society Memphis to formalise and centralise a lot of the initiatives that were already taking place. As Tyson stated, “With our informal approach, the strategic plan provides a more formal structure. It was easy to play the 'I’m just a volunteer' card and procrastinate on tasks in the past. Having a centralized tool in place with assigned ownership, expected timetables, and the resources needed to achieve our key objectives should ultimately make for a more effective board.”
In particular, CFA Society Memphis wants to increase the number of informal events it hosts and the strategic plan will help the Society to effectively implement this.
“For the first time, we are going to have metrics in a dashboard,” Jeff explained. “This will really help us to track our initiatives and distill what impact we are having in Memphis.”
In addition, the metrics will provide the CFA Society Memphis Executive Director with the opportunity to see where the Society is going and help her role to become more strategic, rather than just operational.
Institutional Partnerships
Along with formalising its strategy, CFA Society Memphis has built unique relationships with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an internationally renowned children’s hospital based in Memphis.
Paul Smith, CFA, CEO and President, CFA Institute, attended a meeting with the hospital during his visit to Memphis earlier this year and they discussed similarities and differences between the organisations, including the challenges they face being recognised globally. Through the partnership with St Jude’s, CFA Society Memphis is able to raise its profile locally.
In addition, the Society is taking part in community service to give back to the local area and is providing sponsorship to a PGA Golf Tournament.
It is clear that collaboration is crucial to CFA Society Memphis and through a formal strategic plan and institutional partnerships, the Society hopes to raise ethical and professional standards within the local investment industry.
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