I spent the weekend at a Westin near O'Hare, joined by fellow marketers from across the U.S. All of us are board members of the American Marketing Association and come from all kinds of professions. I've been a member of the AMA for a while, but I learned so much of what the association has available -- I had no idea! For those of us who sometimes feel we have no one to bounce ideas off of, well the AMA is your answer. Plus there are so many tools for you available on their website. Such as: A Marketer's Tool Kit that includes things like:

• Brand Assessment Tool
• Marketing Communications Plan Templates
• Social Media essentials including building the business case, posting schedule templates and metrics dashboards

Here's an example of what they call a Marketing Activities Calendar (don't mind the 2009 date!)                   White papers on "Harnessing the Power of Facebook Data" and many, many others. Free (with membership) webcasts on every marketing topic on earth: "Essentials for the Users of Marketing Research," and "Pinterest: Beyond Lifestyle Scrapbooking to Brand Marketing Tactic." They even have a dictionary that explains current trends in marketing and the "official" AMA definition of marketing: "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Gotta love that! Hope you'll check it out. The web resources are complemented by local chapters, which present events, offer a community of marketers as well as networking opportunities. You can find your local chapter here.