Category Archives: President’s Corner

Last week, Devon Long-Lytle and I had the privilege of meeting with a group of MBA students at the Hult International Business School in Cambridge.  Hult, a convening sponsor of the Net Impact conference, was interested in providing students with more information about Net Impact and learning of the benefits of organizing a chapter.  While I never bore of being an advocate of Net Impact, this group of ambitious and motivated students really fired me up.  The morning after our meeting we learned that there were 45 students committed to starting a Net Impact chapter at Hult.  The students were particularly excited to learn that over 10 Boston area B-Schools have active chapters with which they may network, socialize and partner.  Welcome to the community, Hult!

During September we wrapped up our call to leadership and are ready to announce our wonderful team in place for the 2011-2012 year.  Most of last year’s Board members have chosen to stay on, some continuing in role and others taking on broader responsibility.  We are very happy to have some new folks joining the team and bringing their energy, talent and fresh ideas to our great chapter.  Welcome to Clare Connelly and Maureen O’Brien (Events), Lotus Samuel and Nigel Gurnett (Professional Development), Barbara Seymour (Internal Communication) and Betsy Assoumou (Student Chapter Relations).  In addition, we are thrilled to announce that after months of development, we’ve put in place a Net Impact Boston Advisory Council of highly invested former Net Impact Boston leaders.  Please see the Announcements section for more information.

Hope to see some of you at the Conference in a few weeks!

Best,
Monica

Monica Sullivan
2011 Net Impact Boston President

Call to Leadership!

September…A beautiful time in New England and a month signaling change.  Net Impact Boston begins its annual chapter year this month and we have the great fortune to have filled most of our Board positions with incumbent team members.  We look forward to leveraging our team’s experience and cohesion in order to bring you continued excellent events and programs this year.  We do, however, have a few open positions for interested and motivated newcomers!  If you are a Net Impact Member, you are welcome to apply to a position on our Board.  If you are considering being a more active member of our community, please review our list of open positions and email me directly with your interest by September 12th.  Our team is planning an annual kick-off meeting for late September and we’d love to have the whole team be able to join.

For your convenience, the open positions are as follows:

Events Team Member(s)
Student Chapter Relations Manager
Secretary of Internal Communications
Professional Development Program Manager

Finally, please join me in wishing Monica Nakielski our best as she exits the Net Impact Boston Team.  Monica has contributed much of her time and talent to the recent successes of the Chapter and we would be not have made such enormous strides without her.  Enjoy the next phase, Monica.

Hope to hear from many of you.

Until Then,
Monica

Greetings Net Impact Boston,

Seasons, especially in New England, bring such rhythm and pace to our lives.  Like the Back Bay, Kenmore Square and distinct parts of Cambridge, Net Impact will bustle in the next few weeks with folks coming and going.  Our team begins a new Chapter year in September and with that, we will be saying goodbye to a couple of our highly valued members.  Our amazing Events Team duo of Jesse Gossett and Eric Misbach are headed to SF and NYC, respectively, to further their careers, learning and life experience.  We wish them the best of luck and know that we will see them again (perhaps in Portland!).  With the turn of our year, we are looking forward to leveraging our current committee members in existing or new roles while inviting other members to join the NIB team.  We are planning a formal call to leadership meeting for September, but in the meantime we welcome your interest — a great opportunity to learn more would be to join us at our August 9th Happy Hour.  Chat with us about roles we’re looking to fill and hear more about what it’s like to be on the team.

Fall is also the time of year when we work to place Board Fellows.  The Net Impact Boston Board Fellows program — touted as the best — places business professionals in one-year board fellowships with Boston-area non-profit organizations.  These members sit as non-voting board members and advise their sponsor organization as a regular board member.  Fellows contribute their expertise from the private sector to the benefit of participating organizations.  Maura Hodge and Kevin Greer are the extremely hard-working Co-Chairs of the Board Fellows program.  Here’s a bit about the program in Maura’s own words:

“The Board Fellows program is a unique intersection of for-profit and non-profit coordination in Boston. It has been incredibly exciting to see this program grow in the past year and we hope to continue matching talented and passionate business professionals with great non-profits improving the quality of life in both local and global communities.  This past placement, the Board Fellows team facilitated the match of 14 volunteers with a variety of organizations in the greater Boston area. Fellows are assisting boards with various projects, including the development of a young professionals network, corporate sponsorship and other fundraising strategy development, and institutionalization of the board’s operations, structure and roles and responsibilities. As a Board Fellows co-chair, learning about various non-profits in Boston and meeting professionals who are excited and willing to serve has been incredibly inspiring and a perfect example of putting Net Impact’s ideals into action.”

For more info on the Board Fellows program, check out this interview with a current Fellow  or visit the Board Fellows page.

See you soon,

Monica

Monica Sullivan
2011 Net Impact Boston President