The Fun and Challenges of a FMI Chapter

Running a Financial Management Institute (FMI) chapter, like running most volunteer organizations, is a combination of fun and lots of terror.  The fun is in seeing a great idea mature into an event and be pulled off without a hitch.  The terror is in coming up with a great idea, finding the speakers, the volunteers the venue, and everything that can go wrong.

(Author’s Note: feel free to download the original article. I have updated this page to better reflect this methodology as being an all purpose event and project management resource. Also, because I am no longer with the Edmonton Chapter, I have made the references in the past tense. Hopefully you find it useful! February, 2023. Original article published in the FMI-IGF Journal, July 2015.)

• Seven Factors for a Good Event
• We Are Not Alone
• What is an Idea Locker?
• Execution and the Resource Locker
  • Idea Generation
  • Event Idea Refinement
  • Pre-event Organization
  • Event
  • Post-event
• Planning a la Carte
• Can I Share the Ideas and Resources?
• FMI-Idea Locker
• FMI-Resource Locker

Seven Factors for a Good Event

An engaging speaker, a flawless production, good food (perhaps) and a topic of relevance—surely it is not that difficult!  Unfortunately, it is hard because there are so many things that can go wrong and too few volunteers to do the work.  Here are seven factors for a great FMI event:

• 1. Topic 2. Topic 3.Topic: (with apologies to real estate agents and their maximum of ‘location, location, location‘).  Even the most flawless production will not overcome a snooze-fest topic. See the idea locker for more than seventeen ideas your chapter might use.
• 4. Speaker-Presenter: A killer-topic with a droning speaker is just as bad as a poor topic. Fortunately, many people are adequate speakers and are keen to share their stories freely. The key is to ask people to speak—and ask and ask and ask.  If one person says yes after nine people have said no, you are doing pretty good.
• 5. Venue: A great venue 1) is centrally located, 2) has good parking/public transit, 3) has good food for a reasonable price.
  • 2023 Update: If COVID-19 did nothing else, it normalized the Online Conference. You are probably a pro by now in using this technology. Just in case, see my blogs on: Zoom for the Newbie, The Alpha Zoom & Other Tricks, or Zoom Tips, Tricks & Hacks with Tony White.
• 6. Organization: Seeing volunteers running around at the last moment while the start-time slips away is a killer for repeat sales.  Good organization will not sell out the next event, but bad organization will dissuade people from future events.  See the resource locker for methodologies that can make the event go smoothly!
• 7. Promotion: The best topic-speaker-venue combination is for naught without an audience.  Each market is a bit different and our members are constantly being bombarded with demands on their time and attention.  A list of promotional ideas is available in the resource locker.

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We Are Not Alone

FMI chapters are not alone in their struggle to find volunteers and put on good programming at a reasonable price.  The Edmonton chapter had some success in collaborating with other professional and industry organizations.  Make one organization the senior partner, to clearly define the roles and responsibilities. Also, develop a cost sharing agreement with the partner organizations early on.

What is an Idea Locker?

An Idea Locker is a bit of a junk drawer. Each of the entries is a germ of an idea to build upon. The idea locker includes untested ideas and ideas used in past events held by FMI chapters. Where possible, former chapter presentation decks, etc. has been included to help you convert an idea into a FMI event. Some possible broad themes the ideas can fall into include:

1. Government/Public Service Theme
2. Financial Management Theme
3. Local or Personal Interest Theme

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Execution and the Resource Locker

Ideas are great but only hard work delivers results.  Some simple tools and methods makes this easier. The following graphic provides an overview. More details can be found in the FMI-Resource Locker.

• Idea Generation: establishing the program for the year
• Event Idea Refinement: taking a possibility and turning it into a plan of action
• Pre-event Organization: executing the plan of action
• Event: running the all- day session, lunch hour, breakfast meeting, etc.
• Post-event: continuing the learning after the audience has gone home.

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Idea-generation

• FMI – Idea Locker: Never let a bad idea go to waste.  
• Idea Selection Night: A board meeting in a pub is a good venue!.

Event-Idea Refinement

• Event Idea Document: This is a one- or two-page document detailing the idea.
• Assignment of Event Manager: Assigning a responsible project/event manager is critical. Ideally, no one manages more than one event per year.

Pre-Event Organization

• Excel Planning Tool: An all in one planning tool.
• Event Registration and Communication Tool: Don’t go cheap on the registration or communication tool.  
• Conference Calls for Event Planning Meetings: A bi-weekly 20 – 30 minute conference call will pro-actively resolve a lot of issues.  
• Presenter Conference Call: If you have two or more presenters.
• Pre-Conference Notes: A program summary, speaker biographies, etc. which is available 2 – 3 weeks in advance of the event on the FMI.ca event registration page.
• Promotion: multiple mediums such as email, posters, cross promotion, etc.

Event

• Event Manager: the Go-To person to get the presentation back on track!
• Single Presentation Deck: Combine the various speakers’ decks into a single file.
• Time Cards: A Toastmasters technique, time cards keep the program on track.
• Record the Event: Useful if you are preparing post-conference notes.
• Enable Text a Question: Audience members who are a bit shy can text their questions in.

Post-Event

• Post-Conference Notes: A summary key points of the conference.
• Event-Debrief: finally, no event goes un-debriefed.

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Planning a la Carte

The above are a menu of possible tools, not a prescription of activities to follow.  Scale as applicable.

Can I Share the Ideas and Resources?

Please use and re-purpose the ideas and resources – but a bit of attribution and link to this page is greatly appreciated.

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