The NIOA Board members are working hard to prepare for the 2010 conference in Clearwater Beach, Florida. We know that there are budget concerns for many agencies, travel monies are few and some agencies are not providing funds for training.
We also believe that this conference is the finest conference available for PIOs to hone their skills, receive new insights to help them improve themselves as PIOs and therefore benefit their agencies, and of course, to build networks with others that can help when help is needed.
As past NIOA Presidents have done, I am providing a letter for members to share with their chief or administrator to help show the value of the annual training conference. Please download, print and present it to your leaders so that they might better understand the overall value of this conference.
We look forward to seeing you in Clearwater Beach.
Today I attempted to send emails to new members. In many ways, this attempt failed. It has been a practice for some time that the president of the NIOA send a letter of welcome to the newest members.
I have found over the past year that more than half of the emails that I attempt to send to new members are rejected by the receiving agency for various reasons. The most common reason is that the email address on record simply doesn’t exist. Executive Director Lisa McNeal tells me that much of the handwriting on the membership application forms is very hard to read.
The second most common reason that messages are returned is that the recipient agency requires that emails be “whitelisted” before acceptance. Some organizations automatically reject email addresses not in their accepted list.
This situation does not exist solely with new members. Much of the correspondence that the Board of Directors sends is bounced back to us. We have looked at several ways to better communicate with members, but we need to ask the following:
Be sure that your information is accurate and up-to-date. Find your info in the member directory (password protected section). If anything at all needs to be corrected email the changes to Lisa McNeal at nioa@comcast.net. Be sure to put your first and last name in the message so that she can find your record more easily.
Enter the email addresses of the Board of Directors and your regional director into your whitelist. You are missing key messages throughout the year if these cannot get through your postmaster system.
We want to help you get value from your membership. If you are not in the communications cycle, it is possible that you are missing some great information about your organization. Thank you for helping us communicate with you.
I found an article this morning on Tech Dirt that I found to be very interesting. Perhaps you will find it interesting, as well. This blog post compares print and online journalism. They are most certainly similar, but of course, they are not the same. I’m not surprised that some comments include words such as “rumor” and “factual” when they discuss the merits of one form of journalism over another. It also didn’t surprise me to see that there were comparisons such as “real-time processing” and “batch processing.”
The comment thread includes good conversation about the concepts in the article. I enjoyed the quick remark by one writer who said, “I guess you get the journalism you pay for…”
You might find this article interesting. It also includes video (not necessarily work safe) from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
The NIOA board members have worked hard this year (and continue to do so) to prepare for the 2009 conference in Nashville. We know that there are budget concerns for many agencies. We know that travel expenses are tight and that some agencies are not providing funds for “extra” training.
We also believe that this conference is the finest conference available for PIOs to hone their skills, receive new insights to help them improve themselves as PIOs and therefore benefit their agencies, and of course, to build networks with others that can help when help is needed.
In past years the NIOA presidents have presented a letter for members to share with their chief or administrators. This letter helps to show value for the annual training conference. I have provided a letter for you to use, this year, as well. Please download, print and present it to your leaders so that they might better understand the overall value of this conference.
As we move toward the Nashville conference we must also prepare for a new year for the leadership of the NIOA. Nominations for Secretary and also for Vice-President are being accepted. The deadline for submissions is fast approaching.
Here is a quote from VP Marlee Boenig as it appeared the March/April 2009 issue of the NIOA News:
With the conference comes the important matter of electing officers. At this year’s event, we’ll be holding elections for Secretary and for Vice-President. The NIOA Secretary serves a two-year term, while the Vice-President serves a one-year term as VP, followed by a one-year term as President and a one-year term as Immediate Past President.
If you’re interested in running for either of these positions, you MUST declare before June 1, 2009. A Letter of Intent, a short biography and a photograph must be submitted to your Regional Director [or any member of the executive board] and Don Kelly, our outstanding NIOA News Editor, before June 1. This allows the membership time to get to know the people running for office so they can make an informed decision at election time.
Now is your opportunity to get involved in the NIOA. If you’ve been waiting on the sidelines for the perfect moment, here it is. If you’re not interested in running for office, that’s perfectly ok. Instead submit an article for the newsletter, make a worthwhile suggestion to improve our organization or encourage someone to join that isn’t already a member. There are tons of ways you can support the NIOA. Just find your place and help make the NIOA even better.
