Happy New Year from your NIOA Board of Directors! We wanted to update you with the changes that have just taken effect as of January 1st and give you a summary of what occurred at the Board and Business meetings held at this year’s Annual Training Conference in Reno-Sparks. We know not everyone is able to make it to the August conference so although the minutes for both the Board and General Business meetings have just been posted to the NIOA website, here are the highlights.
First of all, in August the Board presented to the membership a Vision Statement and set of Core Values for the Association, which it had crafted and adopted earlier in the year. These two items are intended to give members – new and existing – a clearer understanding of what the NIOA stands for and why it exists. They read as follows: Vision Statement: The NIOA exists to serve the needs of public information officers, through education, networking and ongoing training opportunities. The Core Values for the Association: Professionalism, Ethics, Education, Networking. The Vision Statement and Core Values have now been added to the by-laws.
Deadlines for Dues and Voting Privileges
Speaking of changes, at the Business Meeting in August the Board announced several important deadlines set in regard to payment of your annual dues which may impact your ability to vote in NIOA elections or on other items presented at the conference.
1 ) All dues must now be paid by February 1st each year in order for members to be able to vote during the conference Business meeting.
2) Additionally, if a Regional Director’s dues are not paid by February 1st, they will be replaced by the Board.
3) Finally, any new member joining the Association on or before May 1st will still be able to vote during the conference Business meeting. Those joining after this date will not be eligible for voting privileges that calendar year.
These changes took effect January 1, 2009. Executive Director, Lisa McNeal, sent out invoices for dues in December. So please start looking for your invoices in the mail and if you have not received them by now you need to notify us or we will not know you didn’t get them.
Running for office changes
Other changes to the NIOA’s election process have also been made. Nominations will no longer be accepted from the floor at the Training Conference. Anyone who would like to run for an office must declare their intention by sending an email to the Board (either to Executive Director Lisa McNeal, or Secretary Andrea Summers) by June 1st. Setting this deadline will give the Board an opportunity to ensure that the candidate is in compliance with by-laws in terms of membership status and conference attendance.
The by-laws state “Any person wishing to run for office must have been a regular member in good standing for three consecutive years, including the year of the nomination and must have also attended at least two NIOA conferences in a five-year period, including the year of the nomination, in order to be eligible.”
Changes for Regional Directors
Additionally, if a Regional Director position becomes vacant because they win an election (as was the case for former Region IV co-Director and now VP Marlee Boenig), or because they no longer feel able to fulfill their duties, a new Regional Director will be selected at the discretion of the Board. That post must now be filled by October 1st by the Vice President. The Board met with the RDs at the Training Conference and discussed several items with them.
1) Board meeting minutes will now be emailed directly to the RDs so that they may distribute them to the members in their region and improve the overall flow of communication within the Association.
2) Recruiting new members continues to be a challenge, but Lisa McNeal has bundles of extra newsletters for the RDs to distribute upon request as a recruiting tool.
3) The RDs will now be required to fulfill the following duties at the Annual Training Conference: Assist ED Lisa McNeal as requested, help the Board when requested by agreeing to introduce speakers, assist the Secretary at the Business Meeting with the distribution and counting of ballots for elections, and meet with the Board to provide a status report of their activities during the year.
Recruiting and Marketing
While we’re on the subject of recruiting for and marketing the NIOA, let me update you on what has occurred in the past year and a new partnership that we hope will help. In the spring of this year, Lisa sent out 7,500 brochures – to all PIOs in law enforcement agencies in Nevada, Arizona and in surrounding cities with 50K + population, hospital lists, and the California PIO Association to promote the conference. 5,000 postcards were produced for distribution and recruiting by the RDs and Lisa wants to do another 5,000 to mail to Safety Source. Lisa also reports that there is an NIOA membership application form on the website. Interested individuals need only print it out, fill it out, and mail it in!
Through a trade agreement with Law One… an online law enforcement website…we received a banner ad on their website. The NIOA also sent letters to Police Chiefs nationwide promoting the NIOA and encouraging them to get their PIOs involved. The Board also looked into buying IACP and Fire Chief mailing lists as well as magazine ads; however, this was far too expensive so the Board opted not to pursue it.
The Board also agreed to form a partnership with the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR). The proposal came from LETR through Past President Don Aaron. They offered several opportunities for both of our organizations to cross promote themselves including: The LETR agrees to promote the NIOA within its membership, provide NIOA opportunities to promote itself within the organization, and encourage its PIO members to join NIOA. In turn, NIOA agrees to encourage its member agencies to get involved with the LETR and activities that promote and support Special Olympics, and provide the LETR with the opportunity to promote itself to NIOA members. Immediate Past President Mike Tellef will act as the NIOA liaison from the Board to LETR.
In early December, our President Rich Palmer posted a note to the new website announcing a new partnership between the NIOA and the Performance Institute’s – Social Media for Government conference. In exchange for the NIOA promoting the upcoming conference among its members (which we have on our website already and will through future email blasts), they have placed our logo front and center on their conference page, will provide 10% off tuition for anyone who hears about the conference through the NIOA, is placing our logo on their brochure cover, and is placing a full page NIOA add in the conference guide! Hopefully this will be a win-win for both organizations in terms of additional training and cross organization promotion.
New website unveiled!
Finally, we’re so pleased to unveil our updated website to you! It looks clean, sleek, modern, and best of all, all the information you need is easy to find. Props and many thanks go out to our website team: President Rich Palmer, website guru Kevin Krepinevich and newsletter editor and Past President Don Kelly who works tirelessly to support the NIOA in a variety of ways. Thanks to you all for taking on this major project.
Well that’s it for this time. The Board starts planning your August conference in Nashville at its January 17th Board meeting. We’ll post the meeting minutes soon after. But why not mark your calendars NOW for the NIOA 2009 Annual Training Conference, August 23 – 26 at the Nashville Downtown Hilton! If you have suggestions for conference topics or speakers…start sending them now…all ideas are welcome. Thanks for all you do. Best wishes for a happy, productive, safe and sane 2009!