October 13, 2016
Dear Members,

I wanted to take this time to speak with yall regarding a few important changes that we are making and the effects that it will have on our organization. First and foremost I would like to thank all of you for supporting this transition; and assisting the ISM-CU Board to deliver what the membership is looking for in support of your professional development. The Board knows that many of you have limited opportunity to attend conferences, seminars, and training. We appreciate that you choose to be a member of ISM-CU and get those opportunities with us. Many of you have told us that the peer to peer networking is a high value experience. We want to continue to provide that for our members, and enhance the training and seminars available to our conferences.
Therefore, we have voted to move ISM-CU’s Annual Meeting to coincide with ISM’s Utility Purchasing Management Group (UPMG) annual conference. This was discussed at our last Annual Meeting in New Orleans in February 2016, and presented to the membership during our Summer Meeting in Lexington, Ky in July 2016. We also approved changes to the ISM-CU Bylaws to support our change and clean up a few other outdated provisions. We now can have the Annual Meeting at a location to be determined by the Board without regard to which conference we are attending. ISM-CU and UMPG have agreed for two representative of ISM-CU to serve on the UMPG planning committee. Tammy Martin our 1st VP has joined the committee and will remain until she assumes the role of ISM-CU president. Amy Miller our 2nd VP has also joined the committee and will serve for at least three years. This arrangement will allow ISM-CU to have a continuity of leadership on UMPG planning committee. They both recently attended the UMPG conference in September 2016, and were welcomed aboard. That committee is working now on the 2017 conference to be held in Chicago during September. More information will be shared as we get closer, additionally this will be the site of our ISM-CU Annual Meeting for 2017.
Unfortunately we were not able to secure a host for the ISM-CU 2017 Summer Meeting, and will not have an opportunity to meet until the September 2017 Annual Meeting. Moving forward, we are already planning our 25th Anniversary Celebration on Hilton Head Island, SC where our Charter Meeting was held in July 1993. We expect that will be held in April 2018. More information regarding that celebration meeting will be forthcoming as details are finalized. Our 2018 Annual Meeting will be held at the UPMG conference as well. We are looking to find a sponsor and site for our Spring 2019 meeting.
Pleases feel free to contact me if you any concerns or questions.     
Thanks,
Chris Cady
President ISM-CU
ccady@aikenco-op.org
(803) 641-8313