Newsletter
President's Report
The old saying that time flies when you are having fun is one that I have been thinking about a lot this month. I feel this old adage applies to so many areas of my life. Every single vacation goes by way too fast. Every start of the school year I panic at the thought that I am one year closer to being an empty nester. I have no idea how I only have seven (7!!) more years with my daughter before she is an adult and onto college or wherever life leads her. Every date with friends or trips to see family are over way too quickly. The weekends race by leaving me on Sunday wondering “did I actually DO anything this weekend?” Life goes by way too fast. That is until you are in a pandemic.
March 2020 was the longest YEAR of my life. Even though the pandemic hit in the middle of the month- the month never ended. It stretched out leaving us all wondering why it had only been days when it felt like weeks. The rest of year moved at this glacial pace. It felt like time stood still and we were desperately pushing through it to get to the end. So why does it now feel like March was literally a second? Especially since we are still not fully out of the woods yet – we still have a ways to go.
I was talking with Court about this and she made a valid point- that even though we are still in a pandemic- we are getting back to what we love. We are doing events again. We are seeing years of designs finally coming to fruition. We are working with our friends and seeing people outside of our bubbles. Clients are booking, new connections are being made, and the joy is coming back. We are finally doing what we love after a year of hitting pause.
It was like a lightbulb went off and was such a powerful comment for me. It was easy to understand the grief, the loss of connection, the fear, worry, and just helplessness that 2020 brought us. I don’t think I really understood that part of my feelings of loss and despair last year was because I wasn’t able to do what I love - what I was meant to do. I was just waiting, biding my time until I could finally get back to it.
So here we are – a new season, a hopeful season – filled with the joy of getting back to the grind. I can see my calendar is slowly becoming what it once was with the days full of meetings, networking events, and in-person coffee dates. I am starting to make the endless to do lists and have the false confidence that I will get through it. My weekends are being spent with the happy couples we get to serve and amazing teams of vendors. The fun part of our job is finally returning and I am so grateful that I once again can say – Where does the time go?
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Scholarship
Apply to have your Nace membership paid for!
In an effort to support our members as the effects of this pandemic stretch into 2021, we have developed a scholarship program to aid our members in covering membership costs for the coming year. The devastation of this past year cannot be overstated and so many of our industry peers have been out of work with businesses shuttered for the duration. Over the past year, your Triangle NACE leaders have been working with other industry leaders to advocate and lobby for our industry. We have seen both success and setback along the way. We will continue to advocate and keep our industry top of mind with our state lawmakers. We share in the pain of this past year and have worked to support our members along the way, but we must do more.
We will reopen. Events will return. We will go back to work.
When we get back to doing what we love, it will be more important than ever to be a part of an organization that can provide valuable resources, education, and networking. While we know how important belonging will be in this coming year, we also acknowledge that our members’ resources will be limited. We know association membership fees will not be your top priority this year, so we have developed a plan to put our members’ money back to work for them.
Triangle NACE will immediately put forth money to cover membership costs for our members in need of assistance. We will also be asking our community to donate to this scholarship fund by donating to the wine pull to help cover costs for our members in need. Triangle NACE will also match each donation, dollar for dollar, up to $1200 This means we have a potential scholarship fund of up to $2400. While we may not be able to cover the membership costs for everyone in our chapter, we hope to cover costs for those that need it most. Your Triangle NACE board will be evaluating each application based on a series of metrics to award these scholarships.
Any of our members that were or will be forced to let their membership lapse between March 2020 and May 2021, we encourage and implore you to apply for this membership fee scholarship.
To qualify, members must:
- Have been a professional member in good standing prior to March 2020.
- Have had or currently have a membership lapse between March 2020 and May 2021.
- Be willing to volunteer in a support role within your Triangle NACE chapter (totally worth the minimal time commitment).
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Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- How long you have been a member.
- Whether you are currently employed or unemployed or had your business impacted by Covid.
- Size of business (priority given to small businesses or sole proprietors).
- BIPOC owned business, or industry professional.
- Your story.
Click Here to Apply
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What are our Members up to?
The Maxwell is Officially Open!
The Maxwell is officially open! After almost three years of designing, planning, and building we are finally ready to share this one-of-a-kind wedding and event venue. Our first ever Open House will be held April 28th and we hope you can join us:
Get your Tickets Here!
Have Donovan's Dish Cook Easter Dinner for you!
This Easter, let Donovan’s Dish bring Easter to you with a delicious Chef prepared Traditional Easter Dinner for four. Pick up in store or delivered right to your door. Simply heat & eat!
https://dishtodoor.com/product/easter-dinner-for-four/
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Current Member Promotions and Important Information
SHOW NACE MEMBERS SOME LOVE WITH OUR NEW GIFT GUIDE!
Are you a NACE member with physical gift products for sale that you can ship nationwide? If so, sign up for the NACE Gift Guide! This free member service will put your products in front of all of our members.
The NACE community will be able to support members by doing their holiday, birthday and special occasion shopping from the NACE Gift Guide. It’s a great way to find creative, one-of-a-kind gifts that also support our vibrant community!
Coffee with The President
Join NACE National President Morgan Montgomery, CPCE, CMP for informal conversation over coffee. Talk about the latest and greatest from NACE, catering and event industry news or whatever strikes your fancy.
The 4th Thursday of each month at 2pm EST. Register here to join!
Renewal Rate for existing and expired members
For renewing members and those that have expired, NACE National is offering a really great renewal rate!
Professional Member Rate: $265
Corporate Member Rate: $265
Non-Profit Member Rate: $265
Young Professional: $175
E-mail: [email protected] for renewal codes
Join NACE for 15 months for the price of 12!
NACE National is running a new member special. Join NACE for 15 months for the price of 12 months. For more information, reach out to Jesse Smith [email protected]
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Event Professional Spotlight
As we navigate the waters that 2021 will bring, we want to be smart and realistic as to what our meetings will look like. In order to properly prepare for the year, we have a few businesses that are providing us with long term sponsorships.
1705 East
21 C Hotel in Durham
Fresh Affairs
The Maxwell
Donovan's Dish
Also Huge Shout out to our Rental Partners who are each taking on a quarter!
We have decided to stay at one venue for 3 months at a time. The main reason being ease and safety. It is easier to plan and know how to make a safe event if we are there month after month. 1705 is our sponsor for the first quarter, 21C is our sponsor for the 2nd quarter, and the Maxwell with Donovan's Dish is our sponsor for 3rd Quarter. Please make sure to say Thank you when you see them!
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Upcoming Event
Join us on the 13th at 21C in Durham!
The face of the wedding industry has had 1 face for such a long time however, the face of the industry does not look the same as it once did. Weddings come in all shades, colors, cultures, and traditions, and not only should they be celebrated but they should be considered within your business model. The wedding industry is a very diverse place and unless you become more inclusive, your business will be left behind. Changing some of the practices within your business to be more diverse and inclusive can increase your profitability while improving the reputation of your company. Elana will discuss:
-Benefits of diversity & inclusion within your business
-How to authentically diversify your business
-Marketing to a more diverse clientele
-Maintaining diversity within your company
-What you can do within your market to evoke change
Get your tickets here: Triangle NC Chapter of NACE - Meeting/Event Information (trianglenace.com)
Join us the following week in a CLubhouse Chat
We are so excited to be able to provide you with more than one educational meeting each month! And this month we ask you to join us on the CLUBHOUSE APP, as Aneesa Glines and Elana Walker lead the conversation on diversity in our industry!
* The Clubhouse app is currently available to all iPhone users. If you’re not already a clubhouse member, send us a DM and we will happily make sure you get an invite to be a Clubhouse user!*
This event is free to both members and non-members!
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Fundraiser
Donate to our Wine Pull which goes directly to membership scholarships!
Nace Needs You!! We all know that 2020 was tough! But we also know that with a little help from our NACE friends, we are going to bounce back even harder! We want to insure that our vendor friends have access to all of the help and support that NACE has to offer - that's where you come in! We are going to be doing a wine pull fundraiser at every NACE - Essentially we will be selling tickets to raffle bottles of donated wine - each wine bottle should have a value of 10.00 plus. Our goal is at least 4 bottles per meeting. How is this benefiting our Frendors you ask? Great question! We will be using the proceeds to give away memberships to our nace chapter - this can be a new member or renewal member! The more wine we can raffle the more members we can benefit! Please email Courtney @ [email protected] to schedule a pick up for donations! We thank you in advance for your help!
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Join our Members Only Facebook Group
If you are a member of Triangle NACE - make sure you join our members Only Facebook Group. The sole purpose of this group is for live-streaming our meetings. You will also have access to all the recordings from the chapter meetings. To join - head here:
(12) Triangle NACE Members | Facebook
Request to join and an admin will approve you.
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Future Event
2021 Chapter Meetings
We are so excited to start 2021 with a bang! As a board we have worked really hard to plan for a year that gives the most back to our members. We feel like it is important to bring you education that helps grow your business and gives you the spark of inspiration to get you through another toough year ahead. As we move forward with meetings, we wanted to share with you a few things on how we will have chapter meetings in the first few months.
January, February, and March are all at 1705 East.
April, May, and June are all 21 C
July, August, and September are all at The Maxwell
We will have 3 different types of tickets:
1. In person with boxed meal + bar = $45/members and $60/non-members
2. In person with bar only = $20/members and $30/non-members
3. Live Streaming = Free for members and $10/non-members. Make sure as a member you join our FB group! More on that below.
Following each meeting we will have an additional virtual meeting with a national speaker that goes a little deeper into the content of our in-person meeting. Our next topics are:
April - Elana Walker on Successfully Diversifying your Business followed by a clubhouse chat moderated by Elana Walker and Aneesa Glines.
May - Megan Gillikin on strengthening your vendor relationships: Learn how to be a better friendor and how to support your industry peers more intentionally. Followed by Meghan Ely speaking on how to get published.
June - Aleya Harris speaking on Building Trust and Consistency Through Social Media Messaging and Engagement. Followed by a clubhouse chat with Aleya!
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions/concerns. We are looking forward to seeing you all virtually or in-person this year!
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Welcome New Members
Welcome to our newest members!
Michelle Stansfield
COVID clinic
Wendy Dahl
COVID clinic
Addie Thompson
Dogwood Gathering and Events
Felicia Anderson
Governor's Club
And a special Welcome to our Scholarship Recipient for this Quarter:
Arie Bobbitt
Arie Corin Events
Join me in welcoming everyone to the NACE Family!
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Announcements
ARe you a NACE member and Have an announcement?
Head here to fill out the form so we can include you in our next newsletter!
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