The newly formed Alliance for Meeting Management Consultants (AMMC) wasn't planning to solicit membership until this summer, but the interest has been so great, membership information is being sent out right away, reports Toni Sylvester, CMP, AMMC secretary-treasurer, and president of Sylvester Management Corporation in Irmo, SC.

By setting up a financial pool, AMMC will enable members to launch joint marketing efforts. Other AMMC goals are to establish an identity for the meeting management consultant industry both within the meeting industry and in the general business community; to provide networking and education opportunities for members; and to promote high standards and ethics among consultants.

Sylvester and two others created AMMC: Lynne K. Tiras, CMP, president of International Meeting Managers of Houston; and Earlene J. Hill, CMP, of Hill Management Concepts, Inc. in St. Louis. For Sylvester, the primary impetus in co-founding AMMC was to establish an identity for her field. "I had a problem with what I was reading in some trade publications," she says. "I felt that I was grouped with people I don't have much in common with--DMCs, housing bureaus. I'm an independent meeting planner. True, I am in business for myself, but in business to plan meetings."

AMMC will hold its first meeting, Toward the Future: Thinking Strategically, July 24 at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC. The one-day session will be led by Hugh K. Lee, president of the center for Organization Development in Webster, NY.

AMMC membership dues are $250. In addition, members must contribute a minimum of $500 to the marketing pool. (The minimum fee is set annually, and can change depending on members' wishes.) For more information, contact Toni Sylvester at Sylvester Management Corporation, PO Box 986, Irmo, SC 29063; (800) 200-2774; fax: 803-732-0135.