Behind the Scenes with AMA Volunteers

November was a proud month for AMA Toronto. We beat out more than 70 AMA chapters to be recognized with a Silver Chapter Excellence Award for outstanding operations and another award for noteworthy accomplishments in our DEI efforts. This recognition didn’t come easily or overnight. Each Board member, Team Volunteer, Advisory Council member and Mentor played a part. Thank you to the many volunteers who have worked behind the scenes both in the past and present to help us move AMA Toronto ahead. 

Miglena Nikolova deserves tremendous recognition for her contributions. Not only did she inspire us with her leadership as President last fiscal year, she spearheaded our award submissions and assisted by Arash Singh worked with our teams to collect the information and materials used to tell our chapter story. 

Some of our stand-out achievements: 

1. Mentorship. Our Mentor Exchange and Career Accelerator programs are the envy of other chapters. We pioneered mentoring within AMA 12 years ago and have shared our learning through our network. Many thanks to Craig Lund, David Kincaid, Alan Middleton (who literally wrote our new book on mentoring, “Mentorship Matters” available on Amazon), Yasmin Pallan, David Pullara, Maclin Williams, Matt Mackenzie, and other Board and Advisory Council members past and present who have nurtured this program. And many thanks to our many mentors who have shared their wisdom and time each year to more than 500 mentee alumni.

    

2. Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends. CMHOL was the first awards program of its type within AMA. Many thanks to Jacob Kessler and David Kincaid who reworked the nomination, judging and presentation process last year to ensure the program is better representing diversity in the Canadian marketing community. CMHOL has also been transformed from an annual awards gala to an ongoing program that shares the wisdom of our legends with the AMA community. A special shout-out to VP PR Rob MacLean for bringing our story to the public.

    

3. Our strategic approach to DEI. VP Christine Andrew and Director Naomi Hamersley have led our sub-committee and DEI strategy which now underpins our chapter decisions, communications and programs.

    

4. Our new brand promise. Our promise, “empowering your leadership potential”, was launched last year. I was proud to work with Tina Portillo and our Advisory Council and Board to help articulate what we stand for and how that promise should be delivered across our organization to benefit our community and focus our chapter efforts.

    

5. New community partnerships: A partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association and our Career Accelerator program provides more resources for new marketers. Our partnership with ACCES Employment helps Canadian newcomers re-establish their careers.

    

6. Other great programs and communications.  Great events: our agency and CMO panels, monthly Marketing Networking Group events, Legendary Leadership events and the CMHOL gala. New initiatives: Career Centre, a monthly newsletter, more chapter videos, a new website, the volunteer Rockstar program, new social media campaigns and more.

    

7. More profile within our international AMA network. Many of our Board members have become more involved with our Professional Chapters Council initiatives and the Support Centre in Chicago, sharing best practices and participating in cross-chapter activities. Last year Craig Lund was also a finalist for the international Volunteer of the Year award.

    

We’re proud of our achievements but continue to work for the future success of AMA Toronto and our larger marketing community.

Thanks to volunteers like our November Rockstars, our future is bright.

Arash Singh: Director International

Arash helps bring greater value from AMA international to our local community. His outstanding work with Miglena Nikolova on our award submissions played an integral part in winning both the Silver Chapter Excellence Award and our DEI award. 

 Arash is Group Marketing Director at Venture Park and acts as a marketing head for start-ups. He’s a seasoned marketer including a decade with Coca-Cola in Asia and has an MBA and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering.

Jagriti Malholtra: Manager Social Media

Since joining the Marcom team, Jagriti drove a successful social media campaign for the launch of our “Mentorship Matters” book authored by Dr. Alan Middleton and published by AMA Toronto. She pushed narrative that grabbed attention and recommended stunning “in real life” visuals of the book.  She used Canva to quickly design and produce attractive on-brand artwork to accompany our posts. 

Jagriti is a Sales and Marketing Associate at JJS Canada and has also worked in India and Vietnam. She’s a 2021 graduate of Western University’s Ivey program with a MSc in International Business.  

Meaghan Clark: Executive Communications Director

Meaghan assists President Tina Portillo in managing our Board and Advisory Council meetings and also helps Tina with her strategic written communications. 

Meaghan splits her time between her native Toronto and New Orleans. She’s Director of Marketing and Development for Con Tech in New Orleans and the owner of Meaghan Clark Communications and Marketing based in Toronto. She has a Masters in Communication and a BA in Journalism.

If you’re interested in learning more about our talented volunteer community and opportunities, please contact me at debbie.bolton@ama-toronto.com