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July 2016
BOD Spotlight
 Tom Moriarty, Director

1. What's playing in your car right now? 
The radio station WDRV 97.1.  Are there others??
2. If a genie gave you a wish what would you wish for? 
To have enough money to live comfortably and be able to volunteer more at the American Cancer Society.  
3.Who would you most like to have dinner with? 
Clint Eastwood
4. Most famous person you met? 
Michael Jordan
5. What do you most like to do to unwind?
 Read my favorite two authors; John Grisham & Robert Ludlam.
11:00am 
Sam Reed 
Pacesetter Awards

11:45am 
Kelly Borre 
AAA Innovations

12:30pm 
Gordon Blake 
Big River Marketing presenting; Leashables, Quickpoint and Totally Bamboo

1:15pm 
Mitch Romasko 
& Chip Danby 
Delta Apparel
Questions??

Jen Mendoza
Executive Director
:: 630-983-7722
Annual Charity Golf Outing is in 10 days! 

Are you signed up?
 PPAI Regional Relations 
and  RAC Announces 
Promotional Products Work! Week
Regional Challenge Winners

PPAChicago wins 2nd place out of 
27 regionals!
Executive Director, Jen Mendoza Represents PPAChicago at This Year's PPAI Women's Leadership Conference  
This year, PPAChicago Executive Director, Jen Mendoza had the privilege to attend her first PPAI Women's Leadership Conference. She, along with 160 others, enjoyed the empowering and inquisitive education courses, break out sessions, and networking events at this year's conference held in Atlanta.

"Being an Executive Director at the conference (the only one there this year), I felt I had a special look into the concerns and questions my fellow industry professionals have. Similarly I discovered a lot of the Q&A's were were similar to mine, and was able to see how many of the examples given are tangible in situations dealing with the association. I am excited to begin implementing the knowledge gained throughout the association and membership."
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PPAChicago Education Scholarship recipient Dawn Ruler (Geiger) used her scholarship to attend this year's Women's Leadership Conference.

PPAChicago Executive Director Jen Mendoza and Dawn Ruler (Geiger)

"Thank you to the PPAChicago organization for the opportunity to attend this year's PPAI Women's Leadership Conference.  I have attended at least 7 previous conferences and I can say this year's event ranked in my top 3.  The speakers were inspirational, funny, encouraging and dynamic.
 
Personally, I learned how to create my own strategic plan, something that is always a challenge to me.  Dale Denham spoke about the Zero Moment of Truth, helping us to understand how our clients make their buying decisions.  There were education sessions on serving on boards, effective presentation skills, measuring success for your team and coaching skills. But what was most important is the ability to build on the relationships we have in the industry and create new relationship with people we have never met before. 
 
The Women's Leadership Conference gives us a chance to grow both professionally and personally.  This year I was able to attend because I received the PPAChicago Scholarship.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to attend.  I came back with energy and new goals to be successful in many areas of my life, met many new friends and reconnected with so many wonderful women in our industry."  - Dawn Ruler
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Some classes attended were:
  • Developing Your Personal Strategic Plan with Carol Gauger (PPAI). In this session Carol explained the importance of visual graphics with relation to creating your plans for goal development. Also to always 'inspect what you expect'.
  • Executive Decision Making with Jo-an Lantz (Geiger). We discussed both intuitive thinking; effortless impressions and feelings, and deductive reasoning, and their importance in our professional lives. "The premise is that it is easier to recognize other people's mistakes other than our own".
  • Gaining a Seat at the Table; Serving Leadership or Board Roles with a panel of 4; Jacque, Mary Jo, Denise, and Paul, moderated by Carol Gauger (PPAI). In this discussion we were given key points from the four experienced panel members on the importance of volunteerism, board roles, and responsibilities in those roles. Key points learned; a) a board is only as good as its volunteers b) you need to be a working board not a figure head.
Three word for a  successful  board: 
'Loyalty, Care, Obedience' - Paul Bellantone
'Work, Wealth, Wisdom' - Mary Jo Tomasini

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Round Table discussions also took place and included; Industry News, Changes & Trends with Paul Bellantone (PPAI), Women Leadership Challenges with Ashlee Duerr (Bic Graphic USA), and Emerging, Retaining & Working with Millennials with Seth Barnett (PPAI). 

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A host of incredibly engaging and powerful speakers spoke at this years conference:
  • Truths Female Leaders Need to Know - Colette Carlson, Speak Your Truth, Inc. "Be an Ask Master. Ask for what you need to succeed"
  • Communicate with Impact  - Maria Higgins, Clear Steps Group, Inc. "Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti"

  • Up Your Innovative Quotient and Gain the Edge - Tamara Kleinburg, The Shuuk. "Every moment is a moment to innovate"
  • Building Brands - Yolanda White, The Coca-Cola Company. "Speak up for yourself. Your voice counts, so let it be heard"

  • You, Your Story, Your Impact - Motivational Speaker Kelly Swanson. Swanson speaks "I a world of black and white zebras, be brave enough to be pink!"
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*Women make up 60% of the global workforce.
*Women receive 10%  of the global income.
*Women reinvest 90% of their earnings into their families and communities.
(Yolanda White, The Coca-Cola Company)

ASI Chicago
July 13-14th

PPAChicago members get in free!

 A Board That Plays Together Stays Together

President Kamil Dys (spouse & son), Director Tom Moriarty, ED Jen Mendoza (3 children), Director Melissa Kopf (boyfriend), Past President Lisa Shayne (father).
In attendance but not in photo: Vice President Matt Gallegos, Secretary Colleen Krause (husband), Past Treasurer Jennifer Savor (spouse).
Early June, the PPAChicago Board of Directors, and family, meet up for a  cook out  at Executive Director Jen Mendoza's house. They spent their time relaxing, minimal strategizing,  and enjoying each other's company. Mrs. Mendoza plans on making it a yearly occurrence.

"It gives our board the chance to socialize with one another and learn a little bit about each other's lives outside of the conference room and events. I think that plays a major role to a successful board." - Jen Mendoza
SAGE® ANNOUNCES SAGE WEB™ 2.0

The latest version of SAGE's web-based product research and business management service now offers full presentations, complete order management, supplier specials, and discussion groups.

Addison, TX (June 28, 2016)
-SAGE announces a major new version of SAGE Web, the web-based version of SAGE's industry-leading research and business management platform. SAGE Web gives promotional product distributors access to SAGE's powerful research and business management tools from Mac computers, Windows phones, and any other desktop or mobile device with web access that may not have the Windows-based SAGE Online or the SAGE Mobile iOS/Android app installed. This new upgrade introduces several new features and enhancements, including: 

 Full presentation publisher allowing users to create, edit, and share professional presentations with their clients 
 Complete order management capabilities including the ability to create new forms and edit existing orders 
 Discussion Groups area giving users the ability to share and collaborate with industry and company colleagues, including the option to attach product searches and images  
 Supplier Specials area to quickly view, search and filter top promotional product specials 
 View and edit supplier and product personal information.

"It's important to us that our Mac users and any other users without SAGE Online have the same core functionality that exists in the Windows-based SAGE Online," said David Natinsky, President of SAGE. "The added features of SAGE Web 2.0 have definitely achieved this goal."

The upgrade is available now to all SAGE Total Access subscribers. There is no charge for the upgrade.

SAGE Web shares all of its data with SAGE Online and SAGE Mobile, allowing customers to use a mix of SAGE Online, SAGE Web and SAGE Mobile without any trouble. Everyone can seamlessly access the same presentations, project center, orders, and other information regardless of the platform they are using.

Pro Towels Welcomes Paul Schmitt as Cotroller
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - June 22, 2016 - Pro Towels, the industry's largest towel supplier, announced today that Paul Schmitt has joined the company as Controller. Schmitt will oversee the accounting function for both Pro Towels and Superior. 

Prior to joining Pro Towels, Schmitt was the Senior Accountant for The Physical Therapy Institute, Pittsburgh, PA. He helped to improve their accounting processes in addition to adding stability to their accounting department. 
 
Schmitt's previous experience includes a variety of accounting leadership positions with mainly oil and gas companies. Prior to The Physical Therapy Institute, Schmitt was a Project Controller for an international engineering firm that specialized in oil and gas projects. 

Schmitt holds a BSBA from Duquesne University with a concentration in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant. "I am honored and excited to be joining Pro Towels, one of the leaders within their industry. I look forward to helping the company grow and get to the next level", says Schmitt. 
 
Schmitt will report to Chuck Lang, Chief Financial Officer, who commented, "Schmitt's addition to the finance department will be invaluable in helping us achieve our goals as we continue to grow and evolve".
Linda Misiorowski & Associates Announces a New Addition to Team


We are thrilled to announce the addition of Ben Black to our team.  Ben has over 14 years of experience in the Promotional Products Industry, working as an Outside Regional Sales Manager for Top 25 Supplier Prime Resources.  Ben was introduced to the industry by his Mom, who is a Distributor in New York.
 
Ben is a 3 time winner of Prime's Regional Sales Manager of the Year Award and, most recently, was recognized by Advantages Magazine as a Top 5 Supplier Sales Representative in the country.