cultivating relationships
Rachel John SMPS Service: INTERVIEW
Marketing Director, Rachel John: My name is Rachel John. I’m the Director of Marketing at BOUDREAUX and my official title at SMPS Palmetto is Past President.
Marketing Coordinator, Hannah MacDonald: And what is SMPS and how did you become involved in it?
RJ: SMPS stands for Society of Marketing Professional Services. It’s a nationwide organization and I am involved in the local chapter. SMPS Palmetto covers the entire state of South Carolina with hubs in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville.
I was encouraged to get involved by our President at BOUDREAUX. She is a firm believer in the organization and knows the benefit of staying in touch with people that help promote industry knowledge, networking, and the latest and greatest in marketing.
HM: You kind of just touched on this, but what are the benefits of joining the organization? I know you mentioned networking.
RJ: The benefit of membership of SMPS is the immediate network of people you have that are doing the same job you’re doing in the same industry. SMPS focuses on the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry, and we are very unique crew of people.
We’re marketers. We’re designers. We’re writers. We’re social media gurus. We’re business developers.
It’s not a niche group, but we come together quite a bit to work out issues that we’ve been having with software or talk about the different clients that we have, to learn about their hot button issues. A lot of our get-togethers are informal, but we also host monthly programs that focus on the industry, so it gives us an edge over those who are operating without SMPS.
HM: You also kind of just touched on this, but how many members of the local chapter does SMPS have? I know you mentioned there’s multiple regions and groups within your region.
So what does that look like?
RJ: So, statewide we’re around 110 members right now and in the Columbia area we have about 35 to 40.
HM: So that’s pretty sizable. Do a lot of people come out to events or programs? What kind of programs does SMPS offer? Both locally and regionally.
RJ: So, one of my missions as President last year was to bring programming to people that weren’t able to leave their offices. SMPS had been known for our in person panels, for our coffee networking, for our happy hours with clients, but over COVID we faced a not unique struggle to everybody else.
We were trying to engage our members and bring value to the industry still without being able to get together in person, and that kind of kickstarted our virtual programs, which have been monthly as well.
So, SMPS kind of picked up that ball and continued to engage speakers from across the country so that our members would gain valuable insights from not just people in the Southeast, but hear what people in California are doing. What people in New York are doing. That really got a strong response from our members. We’ve continued that virtual programming to kind of bring that outside perspective to our southeastern industry.
As Past President, I’ve been helping programs as well, whether they’re in person or virtual. It really gives me a lot of joy to put these events together and get to know our panelists, our clients, our competitors, a little bit better on that end.
HM: Okay. And you say as Past President that’s your current role but you were the President prior. So, how does that work in relation to the rest of the board? What does the board set up look like?
RJ: Sure. So we have a President, a Vice President who will become President the next year, and we have a Past President and along with the Treasurer and the Secretary that makes up our Executive Committee.
Then we also have Committee Chairs, which includes Programs, Membership, Sponsorship and Communications right now.
So we all work in tandem to bring value to our SMPS.
As members across South Carolina and right now, we have a really strong board and I’ve been happy with everybody’s commitment to SMPS considering this is a volunteer position. But I think that our membership numbers show what an incredibly strong presence SMPS has grown over the past five years in South Carolina.
HM: So, since it’s volunteer, do you get any training for being on the board or is it just kind of feeling it out, seeing what you like, or what doesn’t fit?
RJ: Great question. So as President, I was trained at CLS, which is just Chapter Leader Symposium training about six months before I started as President and as Vice President, you also shadow the President at that time.
So really, the training that we offer folks in our board retreats, teaches them how to use our Star chapter programming, how to use Basecamp. All the different software that we use to keep ourselves organized and that’s all done through the board retreats. To become President, SMPS National really invests in your training and gives you the best tools possible to lead your chapter.
HM: Oh, that’s awesome. So, you’re not going in blind, you’re really getting a good understanding.
RJ: Yes, and you have to serve on the board for a certain number of terms before you are asked to become president as well. That’s all done through the executive committee.
HM: Oh, I see. So, there’s like a tenure to it.
RJ: Correct.
HM: Gotcha. As President, you were really, really invested in bringing virtual programming to SMPS Palmetto and getting perspectives that weren’t just local or even regional. Would you say that’s what you’re most proud of over your tenure in the organization or is there something else that really sticks out to you?
RJ: I think what I’m most proud of with my time with SMPS so far has been the reach that we have gained in the state. Virtual programming was a big part of that effort to make sure that people all over South Carolina felt like they had the support of their chapter. It’s hard to be a statewide organization and cover all of your bases and make sure that you are devoting equal amounts of time to each hub, and that the programs are successful in different locations.
So I’m most proud, I think, of the effort that we’ve made to increase member retention and build our hub in Greenville.
HM: Yeah, that’s awesome to have the different hubs grow.
RJ: It’s something we’re really excited about and are still, you know, making efforts to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to take advantage of all the benefits of SMPS membership.
HM: Right. And then is there any advice you would want to give somebody entering the industry? I guess it can be AEC marketing specific or marketing in general. Whatever speaks to you.
RJ: Advice for people in the AEC marketing industry is to try as much as possible.
Expose yourself to new software, to networking events, different firm cultures. I think in marketing it’s so easy to get stuck behind your computer and constantly churning out proposals or doing research. But there are so many different facets of marketing and AEC that it’s important for people to really try to expose yourself to things that make you uncomfortable, because that’s where growth happens.
HM: It’s like the old saying, pain is growth or whatever it is.
RJ: Exactly. A little bit of pain. It’s never a bad thing.
