|
AHP Mid-Atlantic Regional News
It was good to see so many AHP Mid-Atlantic members at the AHP International Conference in San Francisco. I was especially pleased to meet all the enthusiastic first-timers at the Newcomer’s Reception at the conference. Most of us took advantage of the three-hour time difference and easily rolled out of bed in time for our 7:30 a.m. regional breakfast. It was gratifying to hear positive reports from Jo Capozzi and David Flood about successful efforts to increase annual fund giving and membership. Bridget Murphy, CFRE, was on hand to tell us about roundtable efforts for the past year and plans for the upcoming year. Steve Meyerson, CFRE, gave a wrap-up report on the educational, financial and social success of the 2003 Regional Conference in Alexandria. At the Awards Breakfast at the International Conference, our region won an award for being the region with highest number of institutional memberships, and we also exceeded our membership goal for the year. Congratulations to Membership Chair David Flood for leading us to have such a successful membership recruitment and retention year. Also in San Francisco, AHP President Bill McGinly hinted of a coming heightened effort to create more local opportunities for AHP members to get involved between regional and international conferences. Keep an eye on the AHP Web site for details in the coming months. Sheree Parris Nudd, FAHP, who is co-chairing the 2004 Regional Conference, paired with her AHP Southeast Region counterpart and conference chair Russell Harris, FAHP, to get us excited about the conference which will be June 27-29 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The sunglasses, beach balls, and travel guides they handed out started us thinking about fun next summer. Most importantly, the unfolding plans for an excellent docket of speakers and programs will be a great draw for this joint effort with our friends in the Southeast region. Also, please remember that the support of our sponsors is essential for us to have a financially successful conference. A financial success heightens our ability, at both the regional and international levels, to offer the type of programming that AHP members have come to expect, so if you have the ability to influence a potential sponsor, please let me know. Our new 2003-2004 AHP Mid-Atlantic Region cabinet is in place. Please click on "Regional Cabinet" page to see the names of those serving and for information on how to get in touch with them. I am proud to report that the AHP Mid-Atlantic Region now has two leader-elects. Paulette Roberts, FAHP, is now chair-elect of AHP and Rick Bragga, FAHP is now director-elect of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Rick will become Regional Director beginning on October 1, 2004 at the International Conference. Rick has a long history of serving our region in various capacities. After a several-year hiatus to consult for a national firm, Rick returned to our region at INOVA Health System Foundation where he is Director of Development at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. Certification, whether as a CFRE or FAHP (AHP Fellow) is becoming an increasing priority. The certification process will help sharpen your knowledge base, and when you become certified it will help enhance your personal professional status as well as add credibility to you, your institution, our region and the profession of health care fundraising. In the spring newsletter column, I challenged uncertified AHP Mid-Atlantic members to join me in the quest for CFRE status. Although I received a couple of nice e-mails from current CFREs offering encouragement, nobody else was willing to go out on the public limb with me. I completed the paperwork in the spring and took the exam in July. And passed. It wasn’t that bad. As long as you prepare a bit and go into the test with the mindset that there are going to be some questions with what may seem like multiple "right" answers and that you’re not going to score 100%, you will probably pass the first time. If you need to take it over, your grade will not be sent home to your parents and your allowance won’t be cut. So don’t worry -- just jump in and go for it. For those of you starting out in your fundraising career, I encourage you to check the cfre.org Web site. You can download documents that will help you keep a running log your educational and professional accomplishments, service and coursework. Believe me, this will be easier than trying to assemble five years of data by going through your old files. Let’s get some more Mid-Atlantic Region AHP members certified this year. Merv Webb, FAHP, our region’s certification chair, and AHP Vice Chair for Education & Ecertification Doug Smith, FAHP (also from our region) will be watching to be sure we do our best. Tom Paullin, CFRE
The synergy is already evident with two regions coming together to plan a regional conference in Myrtle Beach for June 27-29th, 2004. Chair Russell Harris, FAHP (Southeast) and Co-Chair Sheree Parris Nudd, FAHP (Mid-Atlantic) are harnessing the expertise and creativity of members from both regions to put on a stellar conference. They are currently accepting proposals for seminar speakers/presenters.
The goal for the AHP Mid-Atlantic Region’s 2003 Annual Fund is 252 gifts totaling $23,673. This represents a 3% increase over last year’s success. Before the international conference, our 2003 Annual Fund total stood at 239 commitments totaling $26,983 ($16,065 in cash and $10,918 in pledges). Our average gift is a robust $112.90. Our largest commitment of $1,700 was pledged in May from a generous New Jersey supporter. Thanks to the impressive recruitment efforts of David Flood, our regional conference boasted more than 30 new members who did not receive IDC’s original mailing. To help these members understand how important membership can be the AHP Mid-Atlantic Region initiated a special correspondence with a personal invitation to join the fund. The fruits of the invitation may not be realized for quite some time, but the educational benefits were certainly not wasted. Special thanks go to IDC for their important mailing and telemarketing efforts, to CCS for challenging us all to raise more, and to Nicole Sutton at the AHP Foundation who continues to facilitate our efforts with much enthusiasm.
Never content, but pleased, AHP Mid-Atlantic Region membership remains strong at 567 members, which is 10 members higher than the annual goal we set for 2003. It is anticipated that ‘Adds’ will outpace ‘Deletes’ for the second half of the year, as proactive networking with current members to mine new prospects will continue. Specifically, in September, an e-mail ‘member appeal’ with response form will be generated to all AHP Mid-Atlantic region members to seek their feedback/recommendation regarding member recruitment. This worked very well in the first half of the year through a letter appeal. The hope through e-mail is that this medium will make response that much more convenient, while also prompting feedback on all topics related to their membership. Beyond mining for new members, ultimately, this should also assist us in donor retention. From feedback received, a call will be placed to follow-up with both current member (to thank and/or respond), and to the prospect to introduce a packet which will be ordered for them through Yvette Perry and the AHP staff. In closing, Yvette and the AHP Staff should be commended on their enthusiastic support of membership activities in our region.
|
