Since 1958, AAF Roanoke has strived to be the unifying voice for advertising for the region, and part of the grassroots basis of a nationwide organization. As we celebrate 60 years, we have renewed our commitment to our members and our community. We plan to bring you professional development events featuring local and regional speakers, recognition of your creative excellence with the Western Virginia American Advertising Awards, and opportunities to give to our community through our public service events.
As President, I speak for the entire board when I say that we are so excited to bring you a new year of events that includes several updates.
Memberships fund 100% of Our Professional Development Events
During July and August, we’ve taken a diligent look at the breakout of our budget, implemented polices regarding spending, and adjusted our own expectations to attempt to do more with less. More on that in a bit. Currently, the money we get for a Single Membership ($220) is used like this:
22% goes directly to dues outside of the club. We use 19% to cover operational costs, like taxes and fees, and the rest goes right into event programming. As a 501(c) 6, we make no profit on any event we hold, and any extra money that comes in from ticketed events goes back to fund more programming.
Western Virginia American Advertising Awards
The WVAAA’s is the local entry point to our industry’s largest annual competition recognizing creative excellence. I’m proud to say that our planning is well underway, and we’re waiting for the entry submission portal to open up on December 3rd. Speaking of dates to save, why don’t you go ahead and add these events to your calendar.
- Call for Entries, December 3rd, 2018
- Entry Drop-off, January 10th, 2019
- Western Virginia American Advertising Awards, March 2nd, 2019
Giving Back for the Future
We feel a strong calling to serve the Roanoke region. We will continue to promote advertising as a profession to high school students through AAF in the Classroom and AdScape. We will continue to donate advertising resources to local non-profits with our public service initiatives. We will continue to represent the interests of the advertising industry, both locally and nationally, through our Government relationship efforts.
While these may or may not affect you directly, our Public Service, Diversity, and Government Relations happen through your support. By simply becoming a member or renewing your membership, you also allow us to serve you, the industry we represent, and the place we call home.
Membership
To enjoy the advertising and marketing events of AAF Roanoke for free, and to help us with our mission of serving you and the community, we would like to ask you to join us as a member.
Sign up now and save 10% through October 1.
We are anxious to get started this year, but we want to make sure that you are on board, too. If you have questions about anything in this letter, or about AAF Roanoke, or how you or your company could help this year, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. You can do that by sending an email to president@aafroanoke.org.
On behalf of the entire board, thank you for your support.
-Patrick A. Carrell.
President, AAF Roanoke