Speakers: Sheryl Martin, Membership Director
Sheryl Martin: Hi, I'm Sheryl Martin, and I'm a Membership Director with the Enterprise Data Strategy Board.
What does a Membership Director do? How do you work as an expert advisor?
Sheryl Martin: When I first introduce myself to a member, I try to tell them to think of me as their concierge to all things data. I want to be there for them to create the conversations they want to have with our membership. To be connected one on one to people that are on a journey similar to their own. So they don't go down a path that might not be the best. I want to be there to help them draft questions, research answers. The bottom line for me, as the Membership Director, is finding the organization, the member organization, and the members the best value they can get from being a part of the Board by getting them the answers they need, and talking about the topics that are most relevant to them.
What’s something new members are surprised about after they join?
Sheryl Martin: How giving other members are in the safe space that we've created. Everybody signs confidentiality agreements, and they're really getting unbiased perspectives. There's nobody sponsoring or pushing their colleagues in a certain way or their customers. It's really people talking to each other and giving them honest answers about what they feel is the best approach or the best vendors they're working with, and even some experiences that have not been so good in a confidential environment. Another thing they're very surprised about is how a few minutes with me can get them some perspectives on ways to do things, even when they're super busy and running from meeting to meeting. How I can help them draft questions, how I can help connect them to people, how I can send them the meeting notes, how I can integrate questions they have into calls when they cannot make them. I love having new members who get pleasantly surprised by the volume of resources we have in the Member Center. We have an incredible archive there where I can help them to identify the resources they want. They don't have to spend a lot of time looking for these things.
What do you think makes this community different from other peer groups?
Sheryl Martin: The number one thing that makes our community different and I hear this time and time again from members, is you are in a vendor-free environment. No one's putting a proposal on your desk after our discussions. You're gonna get unbiased discussion feedback, unbiased perspectives. We're not having a vendor's customers on our call, kind of tainting it in a way that would favor one method or one tool versus another. You're gonna have people that are really using these things giving unbiased feedback in a very safe space. No one's selling their secret sauce to what they do. Rather they're sharing journeys, they're sharing ways to manipulate data, and it's a very giving environment. I think that everyone tells me it is a very different place than anywhere else they've been, including our face-to-face meeting. No one said that it was like anything they've ever attended when they joined our meeting last year, and we're looking forward to doing that again with our members this year.
