About the Ozarks Chapter:

Fifteen internal auditors and academic professionals in Springfield and Joplin formed the Ozarks Chapter on February 23, 1989. The chapter grew and was very active for a number of years. We held monthly meetings and had 1-2 seminars every year. In order to raise funds, we marketed the seminars to all chapters within a day’s drive. While the chapter was successful, we were challenged by several factors. First, there were a limited number of auditors in the Ozarks area. Second, most of the chapter membership was split geographically between the Joplin and Springfield areas making drive times long. Third, many of our members’ employment required them to travel out of town extensively.

Due to these challenges, the chapter went through a period of relative inactivity for a few years. In 1998, we surveyed our members to determine their interest in continuing the chapter. As a result of this survey, we found that our members were interested in continuing the chapter in order to maintain local audit contacts and provide affordable training. We decided to drop the monthly meetings and focus on seminars for training. It was easier to schedule travel to come to a seminar, and the longer training made the drive between Springfield and Joplin worthwhile. We decided to offer two one-day seminars with one in Springfield and one in Joplin. We changed our focus from marketing seminars extensively outside the chapter to providing quality local training to our membership at a cost that would breakeven. Additionally, the chapter continues to have a student night every year in order to support the profession and the academic community.

This approach has proven to be very successful for the Ozarks chapter. Because of the reduced annual program and the extensive use of email, the amount of effort involved in being a chapter officer or committee chairman has been reduced greatly. Additionally, we have been able to maintain audit contacts and provide reasonably priced continuing education to our members. In fact, the IIA even named our approach "Chapter Lite" and promotes it as an alternative for other small chapters who are geographically challenged. While Chapter Achievement Points (CAP) were not tracked during the first year using this format, the chapter received the IIA’s Gold Award during 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.