The American Marketing Association has had a presence on campus before but has never been registered as an official organization with the University. This semester, that changes and the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, Melanie Rodriguez has high hopes for the future of the organization on campus. 

“My goal with this is not just to be a place where you go every two weeks to listen to somebody talk about marketing,” she said. “I want people to be able to go to meetings and interact with people and network. The point of marketing is to create and maintain relationships so that’s at the core of this organization.”

Rodriguez, a senior majoring in public relations and marketing, joined the Association last year after hearing about it from a sorority sister and was eventually appointed president. She recently began working with her executive board to re-affiliate the chapter with the university after seeing a lack of resources for marketing majors. 

“There are so many organizations dedicated just to public relations within the communication school, but over at the business school there was nothing for marketing,” she said. “I saw they were looking for leadership positions, I saw how underdeveloped the organization was and I really wanted to help develop it and create a foundation that would, after I left, continue on and be able to function without me running it.”

Setting up the organization through The SOURCE was a lengthy but straightforward process according to Rodriguez. Marley Waskin, the organization’s Chief Administrative Officer, wasn’t directly involved in the affiliation process but said that one of the challenges of getting the chapter up and running has been reaching out to students, getting them excited and letting them know the benefits of membership. 

Waskin, a sophomore majoring in management information systems, said her affiliation with the American Marketing Association has given her experience in marketing she may never have gotten otherwise since she’s not a marketing major. 

“Marketing is really important no matter what your major is because you have to market yourself to future employers and so I don’t think people should be afraid to come out to AMA because they’re not a marketing or business major,” Waskin said. “It’s really open to all majors.”

Both Rodriguez and Waskin are optimistic about the future of the organization.

“I would really like it to be at the point where we’re having to rent out one of the Alston Hall buildings because there are 200 people that want to come to our meetings,” Rodriguez said. ”I want it to get to the point where everyone knows who the American Marketing Association is and we constantly are partnering with other organizations on campus…I want it to be nationally recognized, in all honesty, because we’re a big enough school for that.”

The organization’s first meeting is this Thursday, Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Bidgood Hall in room 365. 

The group will meet once a month to discuss certain topics related to marketing strategies and techniques. This month’s topic is how to get internships. 

Rodriguez said the group also plans to try to do one fundraising event each month. Interested students can join the organization’s mailing list by emailing [email protected]