:: News and Events
Upcoming Current News is on our Home Page -- here is resource info if you missed other meetings.
News and Event Follow-up From our Bi-Monthly Meetings
October 22, 2008
Thank you Phyllis Wilkins and Kate Merchant from the Clark County Chapter of the American Red Cross. We were delighted with everyone's participation in our Disaster Readiness meeting. And the questions were great. Although a little nervous about turning you loose with your staff with those emergency tubes -- not sure some of our EDRT'ers are quite ready for "whistle management".... Some of you have us worried!
We had 14 people for lunch this month and lots of fun. Thank you Doug Drake and Personal Counseling Service, Inc. for the hospitality and for making room for all of us.
If anyone is in need of preparedness materials from the meeting, let us know. We discussed various types of disasters we might encounter with our organizations as well as the importance of having redundant paper lists and systems in various locations, the importance of SHARING information that is in your head with trusted staff and board members....the "Drop Dead" file or file drawer. Also the idea of staff drills and planning ahead for different types of events. All of it was excellent.
Click here for some information on the solar / crank radios. What a cool gadget.
Welcome, welcome to our new participants Ed Koffenberger with Noah's Ark, Rita Sasse from FCYSB and Luke McConnell from ICC.
Your December assignment is to NETWORK with another agency. Please make a lunch appointment, go to someone's holiday party, learn about each other.
Bring your stories to the January meeting -- best story wins a good PRIZE -- I promise. So we want stories. Funny ones. If no funny story, then tell us what you have learned.
This month we celebrated lots of great happenings with our participants >>>>>>
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We celebrated lots of positive events with our participants -- here's the latest list:
Pat - Cross generational program success with elders and youth
Steve - New funding application available for nonprofit orgs with the Harrison County Foundation
Kate - the winds stopped and they have only had a few fires this month
Michelle - emergency food stamps were readily available for people after the storm
Christine - Operation Santa is gearing up
Rita - a client received her high school diploma and was finally able to go home
Phyllis - grant for military families will soon be available to the community
Richard - shared some "dark" humor he saw on www.Despair.com for comic relief
Keith - celebrating a new building move
Ed - celebrating many people who attended a recent fundraiser planning meeting
Mark - organization got through a recent fire crisis, their census is up, Christmas baskets underway, feels blessed by relationships
Luke - celebrating agency growth - RSVP program moved to another building, gave them more room in current admin building
Doug - adopted by a major corporation for building repairs and exterior clean up projects
Laura - celebrating that their building project is complete
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August 27, 2008 in Harrison County - We had a cozy but lingering and thoughtful group for our meeting in Harrison County. Welcome to Linda Codey and Pat Pernicano, our two new participants. Thanks for everyone who stayed to debate and clean up. Thank you Gil Betz, COO of Louisville Metro United Way for a wonderful presentation on “Imagine Opportunities United”
Collaborations & Strategic Partnerships. And thanks also for Evelyn McPherson's hard work in the background to have some wonderful goodies sitting there waiting for us at the meeting after our drive.
The Harrison County Community Foundation facility is truly state of the art...if you haven't been there yet, drop by and say "hi" to our new colleague Steven Gilliland. Apologies to all for the Google Map debacle. We have learned our lesson on map linking! But all that made the trek now have  EXTRA BRIGHT gold stars for proving your tenacity and coming anyway! What a great group of folks we have... (And what would we do without cell phones!) |
Thank you to our participants -- we had 12 committed folks. Gil's presentation was large scale for some of us but all of our surveys indicated that everyone "learned something" this time. That's great! One person on their survey commented that they would like to see more ED's present. Another person would like everyone to bring materials and business cards to share about their programs. Another person would like for us to post a "needs" list. So, if you folks have needs, send them, we will post them on the Collaboration Board. And finally, someone asked us to keep the meeting to an hour. Not sure we can accommodate that since we only meet every two months, do want to allow some time for natural networking. But we will try to provide better directions next time so we can run a more efficient meeting -- sorry for the late start this month, but we are learning as we do this pilot program.
Here are a few key points from Gil's presentation concerning their process they went through with forming a regional back office shared service model called UPIC:
- Project began as a way to automate process, save labor costs, reduce errors, eliminate paper and unnecessary redundancy, and improve organizational productivity.
- All of the organizations that merged their back office process wanted "real time" access to information, in standardized formats that would improve "best practices" and improve customer satisfaction (donors), and open future opportunities for shared functions
- UPIC started in 1998 between Lexington and Cincinnati offices, then a Super Region staff team was formed. They studied the issue, founded an independent 501 C 3 in 2001. The founding members were: Cincinnati OH, Indianapolis IN, Columbus, OH, Louisville, KY, High Point, NC and Toledo OH
- Project scope impact represented improved service to 750,000 employee donors and consolidation of processes related to 6700 separate donation campaigns.
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Key structure:
- Shared Decision-Making,
- one vote per partner no matter the org size,
- ownership agreements and by-laws in place,
- formal business advisory counsel.
- Treated this seriously like any other business merger.
- ROI: some goals on ROI were exceeded, some items were trade-offs financially but needed to happen for long term business health of all partners. One great result is that they became a leader in the practice of developing collaborative business models and forming a "virtual office"
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Accomplishments:
- common pledge card formats and processing (reduced printing and processing costs),
- standardization of technology and platforms,
- joint procurement agreements for software,
- enhanced hosting services for members,
- consolidation of IT services for all chapter members
- Keys to Success: (what does it take to pull this off!)
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Culture Keys
- Open and honest communication
- Trust and cooperation among partners
- A belief that increasing operating efficiencies is important
- A focus on increasing community impact
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Operation Keys
- Voluntary participation and cost sharing
- Key functional pieces: Payroll, HR, Windows Platform & IT, Helping Employees use "Self-Service" practices on repetitive office procedures, Bidding on Banking services
- Openness to sharing and adopting "best practice" techniques, even if it means changing the way we have always "done it"
- Using senior staff as "partners" in shaping direction
- Using volunteer business executives to validate strategy and best practices
- Gill also mentioned their use of "Steward Central" -- when we can locate that link, we will post it here.
Thank You Barbara Sexton-Smith
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We had a wonderful group turnout for our "Cutting Edge Fundraising Tips" training with Barbara Sexton-Smith on June 18, 2008 in Floyd County. She also gave us the motivating kick we all needed about how to stay positive and affirmative with our development efforts even during tough economic times. Thanks again to IYI for sponsoring our lunch and Terri Lynn's for the wonderful food.Here are a few tips some of us took away from the meeting from Barbara useful to our work with others:
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"Success is a state of mind you achieve by enriching the lives of others!"
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To be successful in donor development you need to use an interest-based leadership style where you match your own interests and needs with those interests and needs of your donors.
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Set your own table for success by knowing your NUMBERS inside and out. Get jazzed about your own goals and development numbers and do it and do it until you are successful.
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Make sure that you are solving the right problem on any given day and stay close to the people you feel you need to be close to be successful.
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Have a mentor and be a mentor.
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Don't ever think you are too good to clean the toilets or fold the t-shirts - servanthood as a leadership tool.
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Leave the world better than when you found it and always have a greater vision. Make sure you have a personal mission statement.
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Find ways to connect your recipients with your donors -- don't hide your program away.
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Never ever feel sorry for yourself.
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Make sure you know you are asking on behalf of other people -- not that you are asking for donations for yourself -- make sure to always be conveying the story of your program recipients.
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What is EEEE-DRT?
What you missed at our first meeting at Kye's in Clark County...our kick-off gala.....
Click on the slideshow to enlarge it
Quotable Meeting Quotes:
These glasses, I can see, but I can't read.
What is EEEEE-DIRT?! I had to come find out!
I'm doing the impossible with the unwilling...
I was raised to make a difference.
I run an agency with an unfunded mandate and I'm on call 24/7.
Executive Directors are cool people and I like hanging out with cool people.
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