Two weeks later and the chapters team is still impressed by the whirlwind of energy we saw at NI14. Now that things are settling down a bit at Net Impact Central, we’ve taken some time to reflect on the Chapter Leader Session. Our conclusion? We have the most energetic, enthusiastic, and exceptional chapter leaders around; it’s no wonder our CLs are such an essential part of Net Impact!

Some highlights:

• Chapter leaders are fantastic networkers. There was never a quiet moment during the session, where chapter leaders shared many insights and formed a strong sense of community.
• Chapter leaders are always looking for more meaningful ways to engage their members. Out of three challenge options to address during the Design Thinking Workshop, nearly all chapter leader groups chose to brainstorm solutions for engaging members beyond just attending events.
• Chapter leaders are social media savvy. Just take a look at what you all posted with  #CLSesh on Twitter!
• Chapter leaders are action-driven. A member from the Mason School of Business emailed us to follow up on implementing a solution his group came up with during the Design Thinking Workshop. Now that’s showing initiative.

We built the 2014 Chapter Leader Session workshop around the concept of design thinking, loosely based on IDEO’s human-centered design toolkit and methods from the Institute of Design at Stanford. 

The Design Thinking Workshop was a condensed and tailored version of the global  Impactathon series Net Impact holds in partnership with SAP. If you’re interested in signing up for this free event, the next Impactathons will take place in Paris on November 28th and Bangalore on December 6th. You can take a look at the application here.

For those of you we met in Minneapolis, we hope the session expanded the possibilities of how your chapter can use discussion to reach new, actionable solutions. For those of you we missed at NI14, we hope you’ll join us next year!

Thank you for being an inspiration, chapter leaders.