Upcoming Meetings

The New England Association of Service & Support Professionals typically hold its meetings 4 to 6 times each year, taking summers and winter holiday seasons off. We hold the meeting in various locations in the Greater Boston area, typically the Waltham-Burlington area, MetroWest, and Merrimack Valley. Meetings are held mid-week, and we purposely vary the meeting dates since some members have other obligations on specific weeknights. Plus, we choose dates to accommodate the calendars of our speakers. Topics cover the range of customer service and customer support issues.

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If you have an idea for a meeting topic or a meeting facility we could use, please click here..

November 29, 2006 - Dinner Meeting (and more)

Mia Melanson, Performance Consulting

The Value of Teams:

An Exercise in Team Building

** And a Holiday Social **

It must the holiday crunch, but we have not received enough registrations to successfully hold this type of meeting exercise.

So, regretfully, we have cancelled this meeting.

If you would still like to meet at the Horseshoe on 11/29 for some holiday cheer among the 80 beers on tap, please let us know.

Our last meeting of the calendar year, will be an interesting one for sure. Customer-facing organizations are expected to deliver results to customers through effective team performance, like it or not. Although individual heroism is sometimes rewarded, more often than not, the entire service and support team is goaled, measured, and rewarded for efficiently delivering an outstanding customer experience. (But wait! Don't sign up yet. Wait until you hear the context...)

Non-Members are always welcome to attend!

Mia Melanson of Performance Consulting will lead our session (along with yours truly, Fred Van Bennekom). Mia has spoken in our chapter many times, and this one will prove valuable -- and fun as well. Through a facilitated team exercise, we will explore the value of teams in producing winning results. During this session we will:

Identify characteristics and behaviors of high performance teams

Experience the role of collaboration in making sound decisions

Analyze the impact of effective processes on achieving results

Determine when an expert versus a team approach is best

While team performance in important, it's also the holiday time, so this dinner meeting will be a four-course "beer dinner". That is, we'll have a different style of beer served with each course and a speaker from Berkshire Breweries will describe each beer style. (The price charged will include dinner and the beer.) It's within this context that the value of team building will be presented. Really. You'll see. And don't worry, dinner will be excellent. Horseshore has a good chef. This ain't a pub food beer dinner.

Please join Mia Melanson, Fred Van Bennekom, and your colleagues for this educational -- and festive event.

Speaker:	Mia Melanson, Performance Consulting. Biography below.
Topic:	The Value of Teams: An Exercise in Team Building
Where:	Horseshoe Restaurant & Pub, South Street, Hudson, MA. We'll be in the upstair function area. Horseshoe is less than 2 miles off I-495. I frequent this establishment and can speak highly about it.
When:	Wednesday, November 29, 5:00 to 8:00 PM
Cost:	$40 for members. $45 for non-members and all registrations after November 22. This price will include dinner and all the beer that's part of the dinner.
To Register:	The meeting has been cancelled, unfortunately.
	We cannot guarantee registrations after November 22 since we have to commit to a headcount to the restaurant on that date. But usually we can accommodate a small number. Because of Thanksgiving, this is a little bit more lead time than usual.
Directions:	You'll be redirected to a site with directions upon registration form submission. (The direction web page is not secure so you will get a message that you're being redirected to an unsecure site. The registration form is secure.) Directions will be sent again to registrants shortly before the meeting in a confirmation note.
Cancellations	Cancellations must be done by November 22 as well. We're not trying to be nasty; it's just that we pay for all headcounts we've confirmed.
Card Billing Address	If paying by credit card, please note that we ask for the billing address for your credit card on the registration form.
Name on Charge Card Statements	Please tell your admin person about this charge, which will be show on your card statement as "Great Brook Consulting" -- NE ASSP president's company. We like to avoid unnecessary challenges to charges!!

Biography of Mia Melanson

For the past fifteen years, Mia has provided professional and organizational development programs for customer contact centers within entrepreneurial organizations and Fortune 1000 companies. These programs focus on implementing best practices and exceeding industry standards, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Through her firm, Performance Consulting, Ms. Melanson works primarily with professionals in high customer contact functions where performance impacts profit on a daily basis. In addition to classroom training, Ms. Melanson provides clients with appropriate tools including resource kits, assessment profiles, and call guides to reinforce skill development. She also instructs students at Northeastern University's School of Business where she is an adjunct faculty member.

Before founding Performance Consulting, Mia was a Manager in Sales Support at Prime Computer, Inc., responsible for both strategic and tactical aspects of marketing campaigns and sales support programs. These initiatives generated measurable revenue including new accounts and an Excellence Award for individual achievement. Prior to joining Prime Computer, she was involved in Theatre Arts as an actress, producer, and publicist.

Mia has authored articles and books on coaching, communication skills, and stress management. She is a member of the Association of Service & Support Professionals, Who's Who in the World, HDI's Faculty, and a nationally known speaker.