Aloha, after serving as committee chair and officer for this Chapter and learning under the great past presidents, it will be an honor to serve you as its President.  I am very excited to be given this opportunity as I truly believe that we will continue and build on the success of the past.  We have a strong foundation and my vision for the Chapter is to build on this foundation and create an organization where people are saying, "even if my employer didn't pay for my dues, I would still be a member of APWA," and recommend to others that they too should be an integral part of the APWA.  We need to be that relevant!

To do this, we will need to build on our membership value.  Members need to understand exactly what they get out of being part of APWA and that they get out a lot more out of it than what they put in.  If we can do that, we will build our membership just like in the Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams... "build it and they will come."

Getting there will not be easy or quick.  In fact, it'll take more than the year that I am serving as your President.  Fortunately, we have a great executive committee and other association members to follow through after my term is completed.

To start, we will be sending out a survey to our membership to gauge what is important.  We have some ideas, such as education and networking, but would like to build consensus that this is the direction that would yield the most results.  Using the survey results, the executive committee will meet and develop a multi-year strategic plan.  The plan will layout our goals, measurements and implementation projects.  If you are interested in getting involved in this effort, or just have suggestions, please let us know.  It is a great opportunity to shape the direction of your APWA.

Much Aloha,

Corey Matsuoka 

April 2009