Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

July/August 2001

Spotlight on Great Plains/Pacific BiRegional Conference
Leadership Training Session: Success Is Not An Accident
by Shari Bratt, Nebraska DDS and Ken Forbes, Oregon DDS

Spotlight on Great Plains/Pacific BiRegional Conference

Leadership Training Session: Success Is Not An Accident by Shari Bratt, Nebraska DDS and Ken Forbes, Oregon DDS

THE CONFERENCE STARTED ON May 2, 2001 in Boise, Idaho with the presentation of a Leadership Development session. Dan Morris and Ken Forbes, both of Oregon presented the leadership training session and offered the following six items for consideration:

1. You’re not in a contest.
2. The only thing you need to prove is that you are teachable.
3. Eighty percent of success is just showing up.
4. You are incomparable.
5. Focus on progress, not perfection.
6. Measure your progress step by step.

The morning was spent reviewing the structure of NADE, exploring the process for making decisions, and exploring the roles of the various members of the board and the committees. This included specific discussion of the democratic process used by the Board of Directors and walked through how an idea from a single member in a local chapter can blossom through the chapter discussion into a regional issue and eventually become a national resolution.

Part of the morning involved every participant taking a different role in the organization, reviewing the charges associated with it and sharing that with the other participants. The NADE President, current and former Board members addressed questions that came up about roles and functions. These activities were all aimed at providing attendees with a better understanding of the NADE organization. The activities also directed attention to information contained in the Chapter Services Handbook and reminded us of how important it is for all chapters to have access to this tool. Soon it will be on the NADE web site and up-to-date information will be readily available to all.

After lunch the focus shifted to some of the nuts and bolts of performing the leadership tasks in the chapters. We reviewed a time-line based on major annual events and the activities that need to occur at the chapter level for each of those events. This led to various discussions, primarily in the areas of fund-raising and membership recruitment. Brainstorming on each of these issues provided attendees with successful ideas of the various chapters. In the area of fund-raising some of the best practices include: Auctions, both silent and live auctions with an auctioneer; Food Sales, if these involve minimal expenditures for the chapter, they can be good money-makers; Raffles, with donated prizes these can result in big bucks and lots of fun as well; Garage Sales have been good fund-raisers for some chapters.

Training has been used as a money-maker with the chapter sponsoring an off-site training on work-related issues. Book Sales have been lucrative for some chapters and have been used in a number of innovative ways including taking the books, that don’t sell, to a paperback exchange and then raffling the resulting book coupon(s). Coffee Days, where a chapter sponsors coffee for the office, works really well when not competing with cafeterias or other authorized vendors in the same building. Car Washes are popular spring and summer events but should be scheduled to avoid all the other car washes. Finally, Pop Can Collections are a slow but sure money-maker - good in those states with a bottle return law. In the area of membership recruitment and retention, there were some very creative and some downright scary concepts aired. The following list attempts to capture the flavor of the suggestions. One excellent concept was to open doors of communication with the DDS leadership to see if there would be any conflicts with unions and also to request full or partial membership funding from the DDS leaders. Bribery was mentioned as an effective tool. This included lower prices for events if the person is a NADE member and partial rebates on membership fees.

Combining membership activities with the National Disability Professionals Week was a good way for some chapters to get the word out in a positive and effective manner. A clue from one chapter was to focus on new people and get them involved early. Invite nonmembers to meetings so they can see how we deal with critical issues that affect the visitors as well as DDS staff. One chapter representative pointed out that they have been very successful by focusing on Support Staff and extolling the virtue of belonging to an organization that is nationwide and provides incredible networking opportunities.