Home   »   News
12.31.2018 | SSP News & Releases

SSP Operational Changes for 2019

Happy New Year from SSP! 2019 is bringing a number of changes to the way in which SSP manages its operations. At the end of January, SSP will be ending its relationship with Kellen, the association management company (AMC) that has provided operational support for SSP for a number of years.

SSP is essentially a virtual organization, as we do not own or rent office space. Our AMC partner provides us with a mailing address, among other things. Effective as of January 1, SSP’s new mailing address is:

Society for Scholarly Publishing
1120 Route 73, Suite 200
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054

We’ve partnered with another AMC, Association Headquarters (AH), to provide membership management, event registration, customer service, accounting, and database management. We already had an existing relationship with AH for business development, with Christina DeRose serving as our Industry Relations Specialist. Our new Membership Coordinator is Becky Carroll.

While AH has already started some work in the background and accounting functions will transition at the beginning of 2019, the membership database won’t be fully migrated until closer to the end of January. Therefore, Jennifer Lanphere and Kellen will continue to provide customer service and process membership and event registrations until the database is migrated. Until the end of January, you’ll still contact Jennifer should you need assistance at the existing phone number: 303-422-3914.

For management of our Annual Meeting, we’ve partnered with the international event management firm, Conference Direct. Our new annual meeting event manager is Tracy Mitchell. Tracy works out of Chicago and is already busy getting up-to-speed.

Mary Beth Barilla, our new Program Director as of November, will be taking on an expanded role, serving as event manager for all SSP events other than the Annual Meeting. This includes webinars, seminars, regional events, and adjacent events.

You may have seen that we have also created a full-time position to manage marketing and operations (including committee support). We felt we needed more control over these functions and would be better served having them overseen by a dedicated SSP employee. We’re in the final stages of selecting a candidate and hope to have the position filled by the end of January.

We’ve very much enjoyed working with the staff at Kellen and wish to thank them for their support over the years. Look for a “meet the team” email coming soon where we’ll introduce you to all the new team members.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Best,
Melanie Dolechek
SSP Executive Director

View Comments

Be the first to write a comment!

Join the Conversation