It’s with honor and pride that I write my first message to the membership as Ad Club president. Because it’s been almost 20 years since a vendor member has been president, I appreciate the faith that the board has shown in me for leading the organization for the next two years.

The season has already started with a bang. The Joint Networking event attracted 118 people from various organizations. All who attended commented on how it was such a worthwhile function. Not only did we make a profit, we continued to build goodwill for the club.

The board met in August for their annual Strategic Board Meeting. The last couple of years have been hard on the club. With the decline in membership and the lack of attendance due to a slow economy, we have suffered financially. In order to ebb the flow and turn the tide in a positive direction, our plan is to attract younger members by offering topics that interest them, populate our committees with more Ad Club members, attract more corporations, increase the number of sponsors to our events and to align more closely with other industry associations, such as PRSA, IABC, ADCNJ and JSPRAA in order reduce our expenses without reducing the quality of the programs.

The club needs you!
Of course, none of this can be done without your participation. As a member, you should be attending more functions and volunteering to help on committees. For those who say that they don’t benefit from being a member, I believe that if you become more active, you’ll benefit in ways that you never thought possible.

Remember, without the New Jersey Advertising Club, there is no Career Day to help young professionals who are starting out in our field, there are no Jersey Awards for you and your clients to receive accolades for a job well done, there are no Wake-Up Call Workshops for that junior executive in your office, there would be no voice in Trenton on your behalf and there would be no Smartalk, no Hall of Fame and no networking events.

To quote Bruce Beck of NBC News, “My parents taught me that it’s nice to receive, it’s better to give, and giving back is best of all.” So when you think about your membership and why you should be more involved, just think about the satisfaction you’ll receive by helping another achieve success in our industry.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding your desires for the club. This organization is a community filled with wonderful people, people who have brought out the best in me over the years and to whom I promise to serve to my best ability.

Gary Denburg

Read August 05 AdTalk