Jerilyn Church of CM Services Honored as an "Influential Woman in Business"
Glen Ellyn, IL--Jerilyn J. Church, CAE, Executive Vice President, CM Services, Inc., the Association Partnership Company® has been named one of 22 “Influential Women in Business” for 2007. The honor, announced jointly by The Business Ledger, a suburban Chicago business newspaper, and the National Association of Women Business Owners, Chicago Area Chapter, was bestowed on Church at a luncheon on October 24th.
As a consultant, educator and entrepreneur Church has forged an accomplished, professional presence in the area business community and beyond. For 30 years Church has been an entrepreneur and an executive at CM Services, Inc., a thriving Glen Ellyn, IL, based business that has grown to have an international reach serving manufacturing and distribution industries. In 1977 she and her husband Richard Church founded CM Services Inc., and initially worked out of their home and around a growing family to manage a trade association of plumbing manufacturers. In 1978 they added a second association and moved into offices in Glen Ellyn. Since then the business has grown, often by referral of one trade association to another, to include partnerships with thirteen national and international trade and manufacturing associations ranging in size from 100 to 1,700 member companies.
In addition to her position with CM Services, Church serves as Executive Secretary of all of CM Services’ association partners and as the Executive Director of the Thermoset Resin Formulators Association, which she helped found in 2003.
Before the launch of CM Services, Inc., Church distinguished herself in the business world as the first female Systems Engineer in IBM’s Springfield, Illinois, branch. She later transferred to IBM’s national headquarters in Chicago where she taught customer education classes in COBOL, RPG programming and general business processes before going to sell computer graphics equipment for Xerox, attaining membership in the 100% club. She also taught COBOL programming at Lincoln Land Community College and at the College of DuPage.
Church’s educational expertise and business acumen were the driving force behind the development of the first certification program for one CM Services association partner, the Bearing Specialists Association. Working with subject matter experts as well as professionals in developing and verifying tests, she helped develop the only certification program in the bearing industry. Church and CM Services have since used it as a model for developing similar programs in other industries served by their association partners. She has also served on the Certification Committee of the Chicago Society of Association Executives, now the Association Forum of Chicagoland.
Church has earned certification within the association management industry. The Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation is a program designed to elevate professional standards, enhance individual performance, and designate association professionals who demonstrate the knowledge essential to the practice of association management. CAE’s make an ongoing commitment to professional growth, pledge to continually advance their knowledge and achieve higher levels of excellence in association management, and must also actively advance, support and promote association membership and the association profession as a whole.
As the company executive responsible for vendor relationships, Church has driven the development of numerous successful partnerships between CM Services and hotels and resorts, destination services companies, speakers bureaus, media companies, statistical consulting companies and government agencies that help the company deliver core and customized services to association partners. On behalf of its association partners, CM Services facilitates dozens of meetings, large and small, across the country every year.
In her role as association executive secretary, Church has guided association partners through EPA regulatory challenges, NAFTA implementation, and into the e-business world.
CM Services partners with national and international trade associations to develop, maintain and advance their missions, working to be the best at delivering core and customized services to each association partner. CM Services is one of the first association management companies (AMCs) in the world to be awarded charter accreditation by the International Association of Association Management Companies (IAAMC). Its association partners include the American Fence Association, American Fence Association Education Foundation, the Association of Rotational Molders International, the Automotive Glass Replacement Safety Standards Committee, the Bearing Specialists Association, the Ceramic Tile Distributors Association, National Association of Architectural Metal Manufacturers, the National Church Goods Association, the Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association, the Plastic Piping Educational Foundation, the Pressure Vessel Manufacturers Association, the Steel Stud Manufacturers Association and the Thermoset Resin Formulators Association. To learn more about CM Services, Inc. and its customized, Targeted Partnership Services®, contact the company at (800) 613-6672 or by email at partner@cmservnet.com.
The Business Ledger and the National Association of Women Business Owners, Chicago Area Chapter, have been honoring women executives for 10 consecutive years.
To learn more about CM Services, Inc. and Targeted Partnership Services®, contact the company at (800) 613-6672 or by email at partner@cmservnet.com.
