UMaine Marketing Association Wins National Awards
Contact: Prof. Omar Khan, 581-1949; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO – The American Marketing Association (AMA) student chapter at the Maine Business School won two intercollegiate awards at the AMA’s Annual International Collegiate Conference in Orlando, Fla. on March 23-25.
As important as the national recognition, however, is what it reflects — the remarkable turnaround of a student marketing organization threatened with extinction until three years ago.
The chapter received one of five Outstanding Community Service awards and one of three Best Revitalized Chapter awards, recognizing the resurgence of the group as a whole and the services it provides to the surrounding communities.
“These awards become even more noteworthy when you consider that there were over 140 chapters competing at the conference this year,” says Omar Khan, assistant professor of marketing, who accompanied the chapter’s representatives to this year’s conference.
“These are, indeed, exciting times for the AMA chapter at the Maine Business School,” Khan says, “and these laurels will only encourage our membership and executive board to further enhance our position in the AMA chapter standings internationally, as well as to be even more effective and productive on campus and the surrounding community.”
Advised by Khan and associate marketing professors Harold Daniel and Kim McKeage, the association’s goals include advancing professional development, fundraising, communication, community service, recruitment and operations skills for students interested in marketing. In its early years, the association has had a larger membership, but dwindled during the 1990s.
In three years, the organization successfully “rebranded” itself, clarified its goals and became better organized, says Elizabeth Duran of Saco, a senior business administration major. She has been the association president for the last two years and vice president the previous year.
Association members now hold regular weekly meetings, work on charitable fundraisers and projects, hold professional development programs and actively recruit new members. The organization has grown from four members three years ago to more than 30 now, Duran says.
Among the community service activities the group has engaged in recently were volunteering for two Children’s Miracle Network fundraisers, the Enchanted Forest last Halloween and the Maine Business School broomball game at Alfond Arena in February, and a campus blood drive. On April 10, the association will hold its annual business etiquette dinner, and later in the month will host a group of area high school students for “shadow day,” to introduce visiting high school students to the college environment and the business school.
Duran and several other UMaine students attended annual student AMA conference last year and this year, but this was the first year Duran submitted the group’s annual plan and report for competition.
The conference awards, Khan says, provide increased leverage for the chapter in its membership and sponsorship drives, and “are a direct result of the hard work of the entire AMA chapter’s executive board under the leadership of student Elizabeth Duran and the savvy and longstanding efforts of co-advisors Kim McKeage and Harold Daniel,” he says.
Other officers of the UMaine student AMA chapter include: Shuja Masood, a business administration major from Lewiston, vice president; Michele Hutchins, a senior marketing major from Orrington, treasurer; Meaghan Cashman, a business administration major from Marblehead, Mass., communications director; Carolyn Paige Madeira, a business major from Rangeley, community service executive; and Angela Clark, a senior business major from Canandaigua, N.Y., recruitment director and social chair.
Duran credits the resurgence of the association to leadership from the business school and dedication of the student members. “We have an amazing dean who is always willing to support our projects and the faculty is exceptional,” she says.
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