Laurie Weber / Executive Director
laurie@saiaonline.org

Laurie has worked with associations since 2002.  Starting out in a Membership Director role, she quickly learned what it took to run an association.  Before she started in the association world her experience started in Human Resources after attending University of Missouri – Kansas City.  After working in human resources for 4 years, she decided she wanted to do something that was more creative, and moved on to Marketing Director of a local indoor soccer team.  After the team folded in 2002 she moved into Robstan.

Weber’s experience includes customer service, membership recruiting and retention, marketing, meeting planning, budgeting, strategic planning and leadership skills to fulfill the association’s mission.  Her interest include any activities outside or on the water and spending time with her 3 year old Cash.

Sara Schorr / Director of Member Services
sara@saiaonline.org

  Meet Sara - Click here for Video
 

Sara grew up in the radio industry in Kansas City. Her mother was a local radio personality and she began helping out at radio station and fundraising events as soon as she could walk.  She quickly realized that she loved helping those in need and continued to get involved in several community events.

After her freshman year at the University of Kansas, she got a call from the Promotions Director at her mother’s radio station and was offered a job in the promotions department. That summer job turned into 5 wonderful years of planning promotions and events until she received a call from an Agency Partner at a media buying & planning agency in Kansas City whom she had met several times at station events.

Sara moved into the agency side of the media world in 2008 and worked with several  clients across the country including several healthcare systems, Kansas City attractions, retail shopping districts, banking and retirement communities helping them create, budget and implement strategic marketing plans over several advertising mediums. 

When the opportunity to work with the SAIA, Sara jumped at the chance to work for an Association with such a meaningful mission and utilize her skills in communications, event planning and marketing. She is looking forward to meeting and working with everyone involved with the Association!  Sara married her husband, Brian, in October 2011 and they have a 6-year lab named Tequila who keeps them very busy.

Michael Logan / A92 Secretariat
michael@saiaonline.org

  Meet Michael - Click here for Video

Bio Coming Soon

DeAnna Martin / Operations Administrator
deanna@saiaonline.org

DeAnna has been in the customer service business for more than 12 years. She brings accounting, financial and managerial expertise to the SAIA.

DeAnna grew up in a small town in northwestern Missouri. In her recent job, she worked as a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security. While working there, she met her future husband, Beau. Married in October 2010, the couple moved to Kansas City, Mo., where they now reside with their two pets. In her spare time, she enjoys camping, fishing, reading, watching her favorite sports teams and traveling with her husband.

Granville Loar / Director of Education and Training
granville@saiaonline.org

Granville comes to SAIA with 15 years experience in the banking industry and seven years in association management. A former assistant vice president with UMB Financial Corporation in Kansas City, Mo., Loar brings experience in a number of areas, including retail branch management, branch design, layout and construction, retail marketing, products & services collateral design and implementation, training and development, data security and disaster recovery. He also served as general education manager for Micro Center Computer Education in Overland Park, Ks.

Past association management includes work with both professional societies and specialty construction associations as executive director; including education and curriculum development, event planning, day-to-day association management and board/committee training and development.

A certified facilitator and developer for Carlson Learning Systems and Development Dimensions International (DDI), Loar specializes in adult learning theories, learning styles, performance management, leadership/management development, project management and team building. Loar is also a member of the American Society of Training and Development. He attended the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Loar also has been involved in volunteer coordination efforts for the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Lyric Opera, and Theater League for the last 16 years. A native of Kansas City, he currently resides in the South Kansas City area.

Ken Bowman / Ombudsman
ken@robstan.com

Ken has been a small business owner since April Fool’s day in 1977, when he started a marketing/advertising agency.  In 1985 Ken was approached by one of his clients to see if he would be interested in assuming the management of a construction trade association.  Ken met with the board of directors of the Sealant, Waterproofing and Restoration Institute and at that meeting, the board unanimously agreed to hire Ken’s company to become the association’s management company.  From that pivotal meeting over twenty five years ago, the Robstan Group was formed and it now specializes only in managing associations…and SWRInstitute is still one of Ken’s clients!  Currently, the Robstan Group manages nine national/international trade associations and has a staff of 27 people.

Ken’s educational background includes two undergraduate degrees in psychology and sociology plus he successfully completed his post graduate work in clinical psychology. Additionally, he completed several senior level marketing programs developed by area colleges and university’s geared towards marketing professionals.  He has been married to Sharon for almost 37 years and has two boys and three grandchildren.  Ken’s interests include his farm and trying to keep his old Jag running.

Greg Plough / Webmaster
greg@robstan.com

Greg has been designing Web pages since 1995, and maintains over 1000 pages of small business and ecommerce web sites. Greg works primarily with the following internet technologies: ASP, CMS, CSS, HTML, Perl, and Java.

Greg attempts to gear clients toward Content Management Systems which gives clients more control over their sites by enabling them to make changes and edits without the use of coding. During his time in the US Navy from 1990-94, Greg read an article on the "new fad" sweeping the nation – The Internet. He knew then that he would be part of what is now a revolution.

Education: Greg received a Associates in Applied Science in Computer Programming from the Maplewoods College in Kansas City, and holds the following industry certifications: CompTia A+ and Microsoft MCP.