IABC Los Angeles celebrated the end of the chapter year in trendy and gourmet style at Le Ka Restaurant in downtown L.A. What a truly memorable, upscale event and vibe for existing members and new faces to meet, enjoy each other’s company over deeply-flavored red wines, a three-course gourmet dinner and John Kobara’s outstanding commentary on 21st century philanthropy. The IABC Los Angeles board also announced the new board slate for the 2013-2014 year and upcoming plans.
The board welcomed longtime members Deborah Hawkins of Focus Communications and Past-President (2000) Trish Lester of Signature Communications who have been exemplary and dedicated members. Deborah and Trish sat with our very newest volunteer, Dustin Alipour, VP, Events (2013-2014) and discussed strategies to bring lunch-time get togethers back to the chapter. How’s that for networking and rolling up Dustin’s sleeves already!
John Kobara, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, California Community Foundation insisted on no long, formal verbose introductions of his accomplishments! He’s clearly a renaissance man with tremendous professional experience in managing development, marketing, marketing, grant-making, civic engagement and donor relations functions of the foundation. He provided our attendees with with a glimpse of:
- what the Foundation truly supports
- how Ivy-League colleges are influencing applicants in terms of focusing an applicant’s true interests vs. what’s expected
by parents or misperceived “balanced” activities - how micro-lending changes a motivated entrepreneur’s life
- statistics in terms of philanthropic giving in Los Angeles…we think the $10 individual gift doesn’t make a difference. It does!
The California Community Foundation provides programs and grant-giving focusing on the most pressing and critical issues in the arts, education, healthcare, housing and human development and has over $1 billion in assets.
While John spoke, the otherworldly chocolate bittersweet dessert communicated yet another engaged “Wow!” moment to our senses during the evening.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iabc-la/9029590551/We also welcomed Betsy Berkhemer Credaire who announced her new groundbreaking book “The Board Game: How Smart Women Become Corporate Directors” featuring how women can get on thriving corporate companies’ boards. The book also discusses Betsy’s movement to make it legally mandatory to have at least three women on a public company board.
I briefly informed members of the progress we’ve made since I took the helm months ago. We are looking forward to a very substantive 2013-2013 year with chapter events in the works featuring a strong line-up of professional development and networking opportunities, including very collaborative events leveraging other associations who would like to leverage themselves with us as well. Our hefty yet very-refreshed strategic plan is being refined and we’ve launched our chapter’s video series on “We Are Diverse Storytellers”.
Warner Boutin, VP, Development gave a preview of some very updated events in the works for members including our chapter’s leveraging of Silicon Beach (Santa Monica) to how agency and content managers are working together in communications. Our student outreach is very much underway and we are working smart to bring students into the IABC family of communicators.
I thanked the existing board members who gave such dedicated time and energy to revitalize the chapter, create momentum and add outstanding contributions so the chapter thrives at a new level of engagement:
President: Nicole Maury
Past President: Paula Cassin
Treasurer and Chair, Major Events: Christie Ly
Chair, Member Communications: Betty Henry
Chair, Membership: Kerry Bonner
Chair, Website: Mike Spasoff
Chair, Social Media: Warner Boutin
Chair, Student Relations: Kyle Kearney
We would like to express our sincerest thanks and appreciation for these IABC-LA members who graciously volunteered time and services throughout the year and for the June event:
- Michael Ambrozewicz
- Chris Cabrera
- Bill Spaniel
- Gerhard Runken
- Rhonda Sciarra – Pacific Plains Regional
- Dawn Pace
The IABC Los Angeles board also announced its new slate of all-volunteer board members:
2013-2014 Chapter Year
President: Nicole Maury
President-Elect: Mike Spasoff
Treasurer: Christie Ly
VP, Membership: Gerhard Runken
VP, Development & Social Media: Warner Boutin
VP, Student Outreach: Kyle Kearney
VP, Events: Dustin Alipour
Finally, we are so delighted to connect with some members and new faces who are interested in volunteering: member Amy Friend of the The Capital Group, and new faces Lucine Ying Chen and Benjamin Kee.
We thank each and everyone of our attendees for celebrating with us. And a very special thanks to Christie Ly who created such an outstanding and engaged event for all of us. There was such a camaraderie with new and veteran friends.
