Dear IAPSC family,
We have officially closed out 2024 and most of us are focused on our plans for a prosperous 2025. Rest assured, your leadership and management team are working hard on the same. Before we fully devote our attention on the year ahead, I’d like to take a moment to remind you of what we have accomplished this past year.
First and most significantly, I have to point out that we broke the IAPSC record for more new memberships issued in 2024 than any other year in the organization’s history. Much of this is attributed to our Membership Committee’s outstanding efforts. Under the guidance of Paul Manley, the committee has streamlined the membership process and together with our Executive Director, we have a much more responsive and efficient structure in place. During the year, we added 21 new members! Growing our association is not the result of one committee’s efforts, but the combined work of our entire membership. To date, our most effective recruiting tool remains member referrals. Your efforts with one-to-one contacts, social media, and other outreach, is the backbone of our growth plan. We have experienced sustainable growth without compromising any of our standards.
2024 represented our first full year with our new management firm, Redstone Agency. Under the guidance of our Executive Director, Adena Goldberg, we have made incredible strides with just about every aspect of the day-to-day operation of the IAPSC. Our Treasurer, Bill Durso, has worked closely with the finance team and we now have a better grasp of the IAPSC’s financial future, allowing us to create solid stability and growth plans. Our Events Coordinator Liana Cook has worked hand in hand with our Conference Chair Al Zajic and the results both behind the scenes and on the conference stage were apparent. I can confidently say that the relationship between our management and leadership teams is much more of an effective partnership than it is a business agreement.
Forgive me here for using the term “finally,” but the complete rebuild of the IAPSC website has begun and will continue in earnest until such time as a new, vibrant “face” of the association is fully active and lives up to the image we expect and deserve. As we all know from our own businesses, a website is only as effective as its reach. To wit, this project includes a component focused on increasing our site’s SEO. The evolution of our website, along with the SEO optimization, will yield a directory that is not just the listing of our members, but the first and only fully capable and searchable directory designed to help prospective clients and project partners find the consultant they need.
Continuing with the area of marketing and brand exposure, our newsletter is reaching new heights and literally reaching many more sets of eyes every month. As the newsletter grows in reach and notoriety, so too does its generous sponsorship opportunities. These opportunities are open to members and sponsors alike and provide a chance to support the newsletter while affordably expanding your company’s marketing reach.
Growth and expansion are hallmarks of any professional association. In these challenging times, attempting to do so in a silo is ineffective and inefficient. In a first ever for the association, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Security Industry Association. Within weeks of signing the MOU, we presented our first co-sponsored webinar. The webinar was a tremendous success and if it serves as a litmus test of the partnership, I foresee great things for our association and members as we continue to work together.
We have always had a special relationship with our “sister” organization in the United Kingdom, Association of Security Consultants. They are the only other professional association in the world dedicated to the profession of Independent Security Consulting. We have a continual dialogue with the leadership of the ASC on areas where we can work together to strengthen our bond while simultaneously increasing the professionalism of the security consulting industry. As a gesture of friendship and our commitment to partnering with them, we have granted honorary membership in the IAPSC to their President. I am extremely honored to say they have returned the gesture, and I am now a member of the ASC. I will do my best to proudly represent their organization in the same manner as I do the IAPSC. Great things will come from these partnerships and in the coming year, we are planning to explore similar partnerships with other like-minded professional associations.
We have simply accomplished so much together, as an association, this past year that there is truly little opportunity to edit. As I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2025, I ask one favor: make one of your resolutions revolve around your dedication as a member to the IAPSC. Our association’s continued success is impossible without you.
Happy New Year and full speed ahead!
Mike