Annual Kick Off 2025

Dear fellow members!

What a wonderful Kick-Off event we had Wednesday, January 29th, 2025. Thanks to everyone who could join us live and we definitely missed those of you who couldn’t!

Make sure you go and watch the recording at your own pace or check the slides below but here are some of the highlights of our first member event of 2025! (Passcode: 98#RnsZ1)

Introductions + Meet & Greet:

We started the event with ICF NYC Chapter President, Antoy Grant, who shared a few words of introduction before jumping in to a meet and greet with the board. Each member of the board shared a little bit about themselves, the reasons why they volunteer for our chapter, and key priorities for 2025.

Board Member Key Priorities: 

Email us to learn more or get involved with our committees!

Antoy Grant – President  

  • Support the board, including adding more board positions
  • Create connections with other local chapters and members
  • Succession planning
  • Hear from members – what are your priorities? What do you want more of, less of, what can we improve on?

Email Antoy

Gina Martin – President Elect

  • Activating key stakeholders
  • Empowering members in ways that are aligned with our strategic plan, so you can do what you do best
  • Get ready to be president in 2026

Email Gina

Anita Kishore – Treasurer

  • Maintain records
  • Provide guidance and support for event planning purposes (especially in person)
  • Recruit for a 2026 successor

Email Anita

Payal Mehta – Secretary

  • Ensure members are informed about open board roles and empowered to step into leadership
  • Drive strong interest and engagement in the nominations and elections process to foster a competitive and dynamic board
  • Establish an Assistant Secretary role to strengthen operational continuity and support the chapter’s growth

Email Payal

Madjdy Kassem – Director of DEIJB

  • Get the new scholarship program up and running
  • Get metrics and criteria published for fall 2025
  • Restart the buddy program with a new cohort

Email Madjdy

Sarah Poitras – Director of Marketing & Communications

  • Support the boards and committees and fulfill chapter’s new strategic priorities with clear and compelling communications
  • Develop a strategy and implementation program for social media
  • Revive the blog project

Email Sarah

Julien Lefort – Director of Membership Engagement

  • Bring offerings that match with our members’ needs wherever they are in their journey
  • Re-engage with members who are less engaged
  • Expand our technology and platform for members such as the directory and the learning management system

Email Julien

Brendalyn King – Director of Professional Development

  • Streamline our speaker paperwork
  • Create a well-managed, self-managed committee
  • Strengthen partnerships with other chapters around events i.e. different speaker types, different languages, etc

Email Brendalyn

Rachel Fichter – Director of Strategic Partnerships & Sponsorships

  • Match our members with useful products and services
  • Costs down for in person events, in particular educational, and ATD-type relationships
  • Expand partnerships with corporate development and professional associations – communicate why ICF NYC and an ICF credential are valuable

Email Rachel

Linda Layne – Director of Community Impact

Email Linda

Strategic Planning Update:

Gina, President Elect, updated us on the work that has been done to create the very first 2025-2026 Strategic Plan for ICF NYC. She took us through our vision, our mission and the strategic areas of focus for the next two years. She deep-dived into the objectives, initiatives, and KPIs aligned to the three pillars of our plan: member focused, organizational, and empowerment. 

Stay tuned for a website update with the full strategic plan. 

Recognizing Our Members and Volunteers:

We took a few minutes to recognize our 2024 volunteers and members who have helped the chapter live day in, day out, through our committees, our events, and our goals as a chapter. 

A big thank you and a heartfelt congratulation to all of you and in particular our volunteers who every month help build our community through our coach cafes, our book club, and our competency co-lab. 

Hearing From You!

Thank you for your participation in sharing your thoughts about what you would like to see more of in 2025 as well as what you would like to bring to the chapter this year. 

Please continue sending us your feedback and your ideas to continuously improve our offerings and our chapter as a whole. We look forward to all your ideas and to explore implementing them in the near future.

What would you like to see more of in 2025? What would you like to bring to the chapter this year? Reach out and let us know!

Finally we shared with you a few Announcements such as: 

  • Getting Involved either through joining a committee or through exploring some of our volunteer opportunities. Follow this link to learn more about it
  • Upcoming Events to look out for:

February 13 – A Deep Dive Into Why Values Matter: How to Apply Them to All Relationships
February 18 – Trauma-informed Group Coaching – Working with trauma in group coaching through embodying a coach mindset, maintains presence, and evoke awareness
February 24 – Book Club: Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth
February 25 – The Competency Co-lab – February Skill: Deepening the Agreement
March 10: NYU x ICF NYC – Innovate and Elevate: What’s Next for Marketing Growth-Oriented Coaching Practices

  • New Speaker process where you can seamlessly fill in an application to express your interest in becoming a speaker for one of our events 
  • New Sponsors and Partners process where you can apply to become a sponsor or a partner to our chapter and share some of the products, services, and programs you are working on. 
  • Last but not least we reminded everyone of the importance to vote as a member and asking you to review our new bylaws and to approve them so they can come into effect in 2025. 

Once again we are very excited to have you part of our chapter and we’re looking forward to an amazing 2025 surrounded by all the energy that every single one of you brings to our membership!

Full Presentation Slides:

2025-2026 Strategic Plan: