IIBA^® recognized Bluegrass Chapter at Building Business Capability 2016 in Las Vegas, as the 2016 Innovation Award winner. IIBA Bluegrass Chapter was selected for their creative and inventive approach to supporting community outreach, enhancing Member engagement and increasing Chapter collaboration. 

 

We created a “BA Feud” game modeled after the hit TV game show “Family Feud” that we played at our Winter Networking Social. This fun game was shared with several Chapters in the Americas Eastern Region. We also reached out to the community to produce videos and created three “BA Talks” video series in August 2016.
 

We launched the Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame to raise awareness of the business analysis profession in the community. We outreached to the community for nominations; and inducted our first class of candidates in May 2016. 

 

We have implemented inventive approaches to team up with other Chapters. For example, working with the Louisville Chapter we held a combined meeting, where they broadcasted the meeting to us and our Vermont Branch. We also teamed up with the Cincinnati Chapter to increase their meeting broadcast capability. 
 

Collaborating with the Louisville Chapter we developed a 10-part workshop series to show students an in-depth look at the IT Business Analyst role. Working with the Toronto Chapter we created a program interest survey to send out to our local community and combine results for analytics mining. 
 

We also wrote role descriptions for every chapter leadership position and committee, and shared them with the Americas Eastern Region and IIBA. These descriptions are now part of the IIBA Chapter Leaders Toolkit. 

 

We continue to use Wild Apricot CMS system as a website, as well as a contact, member and event management system. The system sends out event notifications and membership renewal reminders. This saves countless hours of time for our leadership not having to do many tasks manually.  We also use Wild Apricot to do 1-click check-in of meeting attendees to make the check-in process quicker, making the customer experience better. 
 

We broadcast and record all our events using online meeting platform. And post event recordings to the members-only section of our website. We also use some recordings for promotional purposes. 
 

We hold chapter elections via electronic balloting, so that all chapter members have an opportunity to vote, not just those that have attended a particular meeting. 

 

The Chapter uses a variety of formats for monthly meetings and events including role-play, a leadership fair, combined Chapter meetings, presentation and panel discussion formats, just to name a few. 

 

We evaluate our meeting content through paper and electronic surveys to help us improve the value of our meetings which has contributed to more attendees. We also hold our Leadership Fair to give the community an opportunity to explore leadership opportunities with our Chapter. And, we introduced the Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of our Members.
 

Congratulations to the Bluegrass Chapter. Next month, we profile the Winnipeg Chapter, 2016 Excellence in Chapter Sustainability Award Winner.