As a Society member, not only are you a member of the National Organization, you are also a member of a local chapter. Local chapters play a critical role in providing programming and networking opportunities for members. Chapter officers generously donate their time and expertise to plan chapter meetings. Below is a summary of the timely and relevant meetings Chapters have planned this spring.

Fairfield-Westchester Chapter - Tuesday, May 19 - Roundtable discussion on current corporate governance issues including CD&A's and the CFA Institute's recently published manual to aid companies in drafting CD&A's, 2015 proxy season review and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and how boards are addressing risk.

New York Chapter - Monday, June 8 - Annual Meeting of Members.

If you are unsure of which chapter you are a member, go to your member profile page, and click on the Communication Preferences tab. Your chapter is listed here. In addition, if you would like to receive communications about chapter meetings from other chapters, you have the option of adding those chapters to your preferences by clicking on the pencil.

Society staff is busier than Santa's elves at Christmas preparing for this year's National Conference. The conference will take place in Chicago, June 24-27. Register and make your room reservations now!

This year's theme Connect|Communicate|Collaborate perfectly describes the experience we want attendees to have. The conference provides numerous opportunities for attendees to connect with colleagues, communicate on the issues that matter most and collaborate on strategies and professional development.

We are excited this year to offer two new pre-conference sessions for members. First, for private company members we will host the first annual Private Companies Discussion Roundtables, where, pending demand, private company attendees representing different company types can collaborate on unique issue and trends, and gain tips on how to succeed in the private company environment.

Our second new event this year is the Investor Forum. Our goal is that the Investor Forum will be a catalyst for shareholder engagement, particularly for small/mid-cap companies who may not have the time or resources to engage with shareholders. The format of the forum is to have roundtables where 1 investor meets with 7 issuers for 3 periods of 30-45 minutes each. Issuers will meet a new investor and be seated with different companies during each session. Investors will be prepped with your company's guidelines in advance of the meeting and useful topics will be proposed. The following investor representatives will be onsite: Blackrock, Cap Re, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Columbia Management, Florida State Board of Administration, Morgan Stanley, State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Vanguard, United Automobile Workers. You must be registered for the conference to attend the Investor Forum. For more information contact Rachael Delano at rdelano@governanceprofessionals.org or 212-681-2011.

Other conference highlights include keynote speakers Mary Jo White, David Axelrod, Richard Clarke and Cokie Roberts. On Thursday evening, the Society's Chairman Doug Chia, will host a reception for Society leaders and first-time conference attendees. Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry will be the venue for the Closing night event on Friday evening.

The conference is the perfect one-shop place to get required CLE credits, particularly for ethics. We offer a session on Legal Ethics on Wednesday, June 24 and an Ethics workshop on Saturday, June 27. Many state bars and CLE boards grant continuing legal education credits (CLE) to conference attendees. We will apply to several states prior to the conference for CLE accreditation of the ethics workshops and business sessions.

A conference of this magnitude and caliber could not happen without the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors. We encourage attendees to greet exhibitors at the opening reception on Wednesday evening and visit the exhibit hall often on Thursday and Friday.

My Kind of Town (Chicago is)! See you there!

A staff project for this year is a review of all website content. During the review we will be making the appropriate enhancements to ensure that all content is current and easy for members to locate. One of the first steps in this process is to rework topical pages. Currently the website has 88 topical pages. So far we have added/revamped pages on the following topics - Dodd-Frank, Hedging, Securities Act Liability, Securities Offerings and Whistleblowers. Take a look!

Another great source for content, particularly for benchmarking information is the 2014 Board Practices Report released earlier this year. The report includes survey results on the following topics: board selection, recruitment and composition, board leadership, board meetings and materials, board committee structure and roles, board orientation and training, board evaluations, strategy and risk, audit committee, compensation matters, disclosure committee, CEO succession planning, shareholder engagement and activism, technology and data analytics, cyber security, sustainability and compliance, culture and setting the tone at the top.

Members (name, title, company and chapter) who joined in March and April are listed below. Thank you for joining!