President’s Letter

Dear AMA SF community,

As the AMA SF chapter enters its new fiscal year and I begin my second term as Chapter President, I’ve been reflecting on the year just completed – both the challenges and the achievements of AMA SF.

Our theme for 2021-22 was Reactivate-Reconnect. Our efforts aimed to reactivate our industry and reconnect with our members and the broader Bay Area marketing community. When the year began July 1, 2021, people were getting vaccinated, mask mandates were being lifted, and the economy (finally) was opening up. We all believed the sun was setting on COVID and life soon would be getting back to normal.

Unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case, and we were challenged to navigate the ongoing uncertainty COVID wrought on us as humans, professionals, and as an organization. The Board planned our programming thinking we would be able to go back to in-person events and kicked off the year with our Summer Gathering event at Water Tavern in August – then the Delta variant hit and forced us back online.

When in-person events resumed at the end of 2021, we celebrated our Jingle, Mix and Mingle Holiday Party in December with our good friends and partners from PRSA SF – then Omicron hit and again we had to pause in-person events.

Despite these challenges, the heroic efforts of our fantastic programing team led by @Irene Sanchez produced some powerful online events that are worth watching if you have not yet done so:

Over the past 12 months, we also strengthened and established connections with many professional and community organizations in the Bay Area: BAARC, sfBIG, AIGA, PRSA, The Job Forum, and VMA, to name a few. We supported and collaborated with our partner organizations in a variety of creative ways, including two highly relevant, high-impact initiatives I’d like to highlight:

The Bay Area Advertising and Marketing Mentor Program

This new program led from the AMA SF side by @Thomas Moyer wildly exceeded my and the AMA SF board’s expectations.

We partnered with our good friends from BAARC and SF Big to match 35 mentor-mentees pairs. I can’t stop gushing about how incredibly gratifying it’s been to watch this program develop and see how much mentors and mentees get out of this program. I’m extremely excited about the future of this program and look forward to collaborating with our partners in the year ahead.

AMA SF Externship Academy

We recently began piloting this highly relevant program and hope to implement it on a permanent basis. Led by @Elizabeth Mittleman, our Externship Academy aims to identify local small businesses or nonprofit organizations in need of marketing services and match them with recent graduates or marketing newcomers seeking professional experiences to help establish their careers. Organizations get professional marketing services free of charge, and the externs develop marketing skills on real-world projects.

Our summer pilot recently matched 10 marketing professionals with four organizations. For its conclusion, we will invite businesses and externs to a live event where they will present their projects to their “clients” in front of professional marketers.

In addition to these exciting programs, the AMA SF Marketing Communications team launched two new initiatives this past year:

Nonprofit Promotion Program

Every quarter, we promote a Bay Area nonprofit organization through our social media channels, email campaigns, and a blog written by the nonprofit explaining who they are and what they do. This program, an initiative from @Luke, so far has promoted The Food Bank of Marin County and the Center for Domestic Peace.

Volunteer Spotlight

This program highlights the efforts of our wonderful volunteers who generously and selflessly donate their time and talent to serve you, the Bay Area Marketing Community. Every two weeks on our social and email channels, we showcase a volunteer (board and none board members) to celebrate their many contributions and hopefully inspire others to begin their own adventure as an AMA SF volunteer.

Given the challenges of the pandemic’s second year, we accomplished much more than I thought possible. For that, I am incredibly proud of and thankful for the many, talented team of volunteers who donated their valuable time and talents to serve the chapter members and broader community we belong to and serve. We are here for you.

Thank you to @Luke, @Eric, @Thomas, @Irene, @Arianna, @Cynthia, @Eva, @Matt, @Denise, @Laliv, @Essence, @Kara, @Kiana, @Johanna, @Jorge, @Martina, @Gene, @Jessica, @Florian, @Elizabeth, @Nikita and @Shruti for your support in the past year.

As always, I want to invite you to consider volunteering with the AMA SF or, if you live elsewhere, consider volunteering at your local AMA chapter. Volunteering provides myriad opportunities to meet fellow marketers, do out-of-the-box projects, sharpen your skills, and (last but definitely not least) give back to your community and help shape the next generation of rising marketing stars. Visit our website to learn more about volunteering and check out our current volunteer opportunities, and if there are other ways you’d like to support the chapter as a volunteer, please email me at gerardo.garciajurado@amasf.org.

Now it is time to look to the future! And the future is precisely where the AMA SF Board is focusing its energy. San Francisco is the innovation capital of the world, and in the year ahead we look forward to showcasing influencers, new ideas, and emerging technologies in the field of Marketing.

Join us for the AMA SF Summer Social on August 18th, 6-9pm at “The Porch” of Spark Social, San Francisco. You will be able to meet the team and learn more about what the AMA SF has planned for the next year. Register today.

Thank you for allowing me to serve you and the marketing community in ways that are relevant and impactful, and to continue doing so in the year ahead.

To a prosperous 2022-2023!

Gerardo Garcia-Jurado

President

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