Letter from your President - Q1 Recap

April 15, 2021
 

Hello!

Well that was a fast first quarter! We have been VERY busy establishing CREWBaltimore as the professional organization of choice for doing business and advancing women in Greater Baltimore’s CRE market! Our committees and board members have been fabulous, staying focused and driving this forward. We’ve already had 10 events this year! Well done!

As I shared in my first Letter from the President in January – I have 3 focus areas for my year as President: Connection, Vision, and Financial Health. I would like to share the progress we are making:
 

• Connecting with Your CREW monthly virtual networking calls are in full swing. We’ve had 4 already in 2021. We’ve had to increase from an hour to 90 minutes because of great conversation. Love watching and being part of connections being made! Next CwYC will be May 11.
• We will be starting a new series called Conversations with your Prez. These will be Conversations over Coffee where I host a CREW-content information session. Open to all members to call in to learn more about how to use the infrastructure and resources that are in place to help inform, connect, and advance our members. First event will be on April 29 co-hosted with CREWNetwork’s Director of Digital Strategy.
• We hosted our UCREW event with Morgan State University and it was awesome! We have such powerful, influential CRE leaders as chapter members – and it showed with the students and faculty that attended. This was just the beginning of our partnership with Morgan to grow more CRE professionals!
• Our Neighborhood Series event in February – spotlighting Park Heights – was a huge success. Baltimore has so many neighborhoods that have an incredible history and inspiring future! Looking forward to our second event focusing on the Southeast (Highlandtown, Brewer’s Hill, and Greektown neighborhoods) in May.

• Our Strategic Plan is speeding along the tracks! This has been a heavy lift with a lot of asks, so I am so appreciative of our SP team. We have set our Goals based upon membership feedback – now working through our Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics to achieve these Goals. Our deadline for Board approval is set for this summer – hopeful for the July board meeting.

• Back in January I said 2021 is going to be a tough, scrappy year – and so far we have been pleasantly surprised with our Membership renewals AND growth, as well as our Sponsorship renewals AND new supporters! We are chipping away at our goals on both fronts and we are hopeful for a VERY productive second quarter.
• Our Past President’s Committee has met each month this year and watching these minds collaborate for our Chapter is fascinating! They are working towards bringing in big sponsorship funds creatively and through new connections.

I hope this update sheds some light and transparency of where we are as a Chapter. Thank you all for continuing to recruit & sell CREWBaltimore as the place to be! If the next three quarters are like this first one……WATCH OUT!
 

Sincerely,

Kristen Ernst
CREWBaltimore President