History

The AMP Club was founded in 1990 by Janet Neese, Huntington Bank, with the help ofArvid Olsen, of the J&C. Since there was a club for advertisers, they formed a clubwith marketing professionals…hence…Association of Marketing Professionals. We had our initial meetings at Mountain Jack's with area marketing professionals that were experts in their field to do our programs. Some were clients of members and we utilized Purdue a lot for speakers. Our initial mailing list consisted of Chamber members, the Ad Club and the Women in Communication.

Membership continued to grow over the years. The organization met year round butnfound that the summer offered challenges for members to attend so it was decided tonmeet September to June. Annually, we struggled to maintain a balance in the bank accounts due to meal shortages, speaker travel expenses, gifts for speakers, etc.

A newsletter was developed and mailed from M.A.I.L. In the late 1990's, a website was designed by member Gerry Murray.

A couple of years later before Jon Sautter became president, the Ad Club was really struggling to maintain members and have an affective Addy Awards program due to lack of entries. Dave Sattler and Tom McCool were instrumental in merging the two marketing/advertising organizations together with Sautter at the time. AMP took the lead in restructuring them adding another "A" to the title of for Association of Advertising and Marketing Professionals. At the time of the merger, new bylaws were created by David Huhnke adopting both organizations together. AMP saw a huge benefit
with the merger by becoming members of AAF (American Advertising Foundation) and hosting the defunct Addy Awards and gaining additional dollars by combining both treasuries.

After the merger, AAMP had challenges of a past president that bankrupt the organization, a past president embezzling funds, squeaking by on zero dollars, just to name a few. But through it all, strong leadership prevailed and the organization continued to grow. Membership growth reached an all time high of 100 members in 2000, which we are very proud.

Milestones:

Steve Roswarski became president after David Huhnke and attended the national convention for the first time. He brought back many great ideas and networking contacts. It was decided then that the incoming president would attend the national convention with AAMP picking up all or partial expenses.

Huhnke was president for the very first AAMP Addy Awards with Sautter chaired and was a huge success and has continued to succeed each year.

Virginia Myers structured our first database for mailing, which was a huge undertaking at the time and committed many working hours in perfecting the list.

To add value to membership, we met for many years at the Lafayette Country Club.

Cathy Swick was our first district Addy winner.

All past presidents would serve on the Board of Governors and would meet annually to approve the Executive Plan for the year. This would be chair by the outgoing organization president.

AAF Name Changes – At the 2007 conference in Louisville, Kentucky, AAF Chairman Murray Gaylord, AAF President and CEO Wally Snyder and AAF Executive Vice President of Club Services Joanne Schecter spoke to club leaders regarding the AAF brand, suggesting that they consider changing their club names to better identify with the AAF national brand. Our new name changed to AAF – North Central Indiana.

We were awarded National Presidents and Clubs of the Year in 2007, 2008 and 2009 for Division IV.

*2007 President was Allison Beggs
*2008 President was David Huhnke
*2009 President was Michelle Kreinbrook

Club Achievement

Each year, the AAF honors top clubs in eight categories: advertising education, communications, diversity, government relations, club operations, membership, programs and public service. Additionally, a "club of the year" is chosen in each division. The clubs of the year are determined by the total score of their entries in the eight categories.

Clubs and federations are divided into five divisions based on membership size and compete within those divisions:

Division I

500+ members

Division II

250 to 499 members

Division III

100 to 249 members

Division IV

Under 100 members

Division V

Ad 2 clubs

AAF-North Central Indiana is a Division IV Club.

Advertising Clubs & Presidents of the Year

Annually, the AAF’s objectives are fulfilled through the support and contributions of member clubs. AAF club leaders volunteer their time and expertise on behalf of their local advertising community and work together to advance and protect advertising interests.

Overall achievement in all areas of club operation is honored through the AAF Club and President of the Year Award. The AAF salutes the work of these clubs and thanks each club president for their significant contributions to their local advertising community and the industry at large.