Beth Bloomfield is the founder and principal of Bloomfield Associates, LLC, a local Annapolis firm specializing in executive coaching and strategic consulting. She is an experienced certified professional executive coach, certified management consultant and senior executive whose clients include leaders in business, non-profit, and public sectors. She serves on the faculty of the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Certificate Program. Beth specializes in helping senior executives who are engaged in high- stakes assignments or projects, and can't afford to fail. Visit her website at www.bloomfieldassociates.com or call Beth at (410) 626-6008 for more information.

Resources Related to This Month's Program. The following resources provide some background in preparation for the IMC NCR program (or if you cannot attend, they will give you at least the basics):

• Executive Coaching References

• CoachThee, a resource base for coaching

• Resources for coaches and those looking for a coach

Also, look for IMC NCR's Taking Flight With Your Practice workshops next spring to leverage this session on planning your business. Member Molly Hughes-Wilmer is scheduled to be the facilitator for this practice and business development series offered by IMC NCR.

Summary of Last Month's Program. The consulting industry is rebounding from its first major recession in 30 years, making development of solid business and marketing plans more important than ever. In October, IMC NCR hosted Margarita Rozenfeld to talk about planning your practice for 2005. We help clients reflect, explore and plan but how good are we are at doing the same for ourselves? This workshop helped participants recognize and celebrate this year's wins, challenges and lessons learned and start crafting vision and a plan for next year.

Register online now for this month's program »

New Member Reception - October 16. Given our rapid growth in the past year, it has been difficult for new members to get involved in the chapter and meet other members to take full advantage of the new network. To solve this problem, we hosted a new member reception at Argosy University in October and found the forum of free food and friends worked as planned - we deepened our relationships and developed new friends and potential partners. Look for photos of the reception on the IMC NCR website by 11/5.

Baltimore Network Group. The Baltimore Network Group will hold its next monthly breakfast meeting on Friday, November 19, 8:00-9:30am, in Room 230 of the ILB building on the campus of Howard Community College in Columbia. The speaker will be one of our members, Molly Hughes Wilmer, President of Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications. Molly will present a lively program on "Marketing for the Management Consultant," an overview of marketing, and a practical look at marketing for people and companies like us. Every attendee is requested to bring samples and success stories, and at least one burning marketing question. Get ready to grow at this interactive session! If you plan on attending, please contact Beth Bloomfield (beth@bloomfieldassociates.com). See a map of the campus, showing ILB and adjacent parking area.

Northern Virginia Network Group. In January, IMC NCR will start its monthly breakfast networking group for Northern Virginia, modeled on the Baltimore Network Group (see above). The purpose is to provide another forum for IMC NCR members and guests to get to know each other better, discuss teaming on current projects, and learn of business opportunities. We team with people we know and, while having a member directory listing is a start, spending time with another consultant is the surest way to build the trust needed for teaming. As for similar groups across the country run by IMC, this kind of group works best for you when you attend regularly and, as possible, bring in colleagues who you think would benefit from or provide benefit to, other attendees. The group is self run and will decide its own format and location. New member Frank Schmidt will be coordinating the group. If you are interested in attending and want to nominate a venue or location, please let Frank know at frank@geniusone.com.

I want to join IMC or I know someone I'd like to introduce to IMC (membership@imcdc.org) »

Women's Business Center. The Women's Business Center offers women business owners high- quality, low-cost business training and support. Its mission is to be the premier provider of training in the national capital area for women who want to start or expand their own business. Contact WBC if you are interested in training to develop your own business or think WBC might be interested in your management advisory services to add to their suite of training capabilities.

See additional marketing resources on the IMC NCR website »

Seeking Volunteers for the 2006 IMC Conference. In 2006, IMC NCR hosts the North American Conference for Management Consultants. The conference theme is CollaborationNation, the power of collaborative techniques, organizations, technologies, and people to create higher value services and products than they could have individually.

We are now looking for capable and creative members to contribute to the development of a very high profile and productive conference. Being part of the conference team has several benefits, the least of which is the chance to give back to your profession, but even greater is the opportunity to create and manage a part of a large and high-visibility and memorable conference for businesses, researchers, technology vendors, and consultants. It's easy to see the benefits of working on a team to coordinate speakers, sponsors, technology vendors, marketing, liaison with consulting firms or government executives, etc. Planning is already underway so if you want to work with other members and local business executives on a high visibility international conference, contact Mark Haas CMC, 2006 NACMC Program Chair at mhaas@rominc.com or (301) 320-5889.

Click here if you have news to share or would like to be featured in this newsletter (president@imcdc.org) »

For Members Only: How To Hire a Management Consultant Book and Presentation. Developed by the IMC USA Professional Development Committee, How to Hire (H2H) has become a powerful way to deliver service to a group of prospective clients. Several members have gotten significant engagements and established trusting relationships with executives just by helping them better understand what a management consultant can do and how to select one. Their affiliation with IMC USA, as the professional association and sole certifying body for consultants, provides a powerful message about how best to identify and acquire the help they need to improve operations or management. These materials, available on the members only area of the IMC USA website (www.imcusa.org) can help you to:

• Better position your practice. Through using H2H with your marketing and proposals, you demonstrate your professionalism that you and the client have a need to see that a good decision is made.

• Increase visibility for you and our profession. Through tested materials for business, trade and organizational workshops, you can increase your visibility and stature.

Giving a presentation to a business or executive group is the most powerful way to engage in a dialog of what services a management consultant in general and your firm specifically can provide. The materials on the site include the H2H booklet (to be distributed), a marketing plan, a 30 minute PowerPoint, a sample press release, and worksheets (you can use any or all of these, as appropriate).

IMCDC Mission: Get Smart, Get Friends, and Get Business

Join IMC. If you're satisfied that IMC is the right professional organization to help you "Get Smart, Get Friends, and Get Business," then join IMC online. You will become a member of IMC USA and may affiliate with any US chapter at no additional charge.