APRA-VA Meeting

December 2, 2009

APRA-VA Meeting
December 2, 2009

The Fall 2009 meeting of the Virginia Chapter of APRA was held on Wednesday, December 2, at ChildFund International in Richmond, VA.  Mike Pressendo, the Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Resources at ChildFund, welcomed APRA with a brief talk about the history of ChildFund.

The meeting’s agenda and educational sessions were coordinated by Kathi Johnson and John Thelin, Program Chairs.  The educational sessions included the following presenters:

Chris Pipkins, James Madison University – “Reports, Reporting, and Campaign Readiness” – This session addressed using reporting to communicate campaign information and goals. Pipkins discussed the reporting environment, business rules, how to present campaign information internally and externally, performance reporting, portfolio management, forecasting, and benchmarking.

Page Bullington, Target Analytics - “Current Trends in Prospect Research” – This session provided an overview of the key trends in prospect research, including how internal and external data can be used to enhance fundraising, the benefits of wealth screenings and predictive models, data analysis, and data mining.

At 11:35 Caroline Oblack, Chapter President, introduced Courtney Cherry, of VCU, who spoke about her trip to the APRA International Conference, which was held this past July in Boston. She was the APRA-VA Scholarship Recipient for 2009 and used the scholarship to attend that conference. 

The business meeting was called to order at 11:45 A.M. by Caroline Oblack. 

Officer/Committee reports:
President Report, Caroline Oblack:

• Caroline gave an update on newly expanded APRA membership benefits:
• Complimentary one-year subscription to GG+A’s web-based Donorscape service.
• Reduced pricing for online learning, including 2009 Virtual Seminar replays, complimentary core-curriculum educational sessions, and research tool training.
• APRA International Conference, on-demand – complimentary downloadable audio of favorite sessions from 2006, 2007 and 2008 conferences.
• WealthEngine BP Report – free download.

• Caroline also talked about the APRA Workshop at CASE V, which will be presented December 12-13 at the 35th annual CASE V Conference in Chicago.
• Volunteers are needed for APRA’s online community. Anyone interested can contact jsnider@aprahome.org.
• APRA and AASP (Assoc. of Adv. Svcs. Prof) are working together to develop an online best practice repository. Information can be found at adserv.org.
• MARC is tentatively scheduled for June 23-25, 2010, in Pennsylvania. Anyone interested in volunteering should speak with Caroline.

Vice-President Report, Lisa Cheney:

• Lisa thanked everyone for attending the meeting. She said that during our next meeting we will have scholarship nominations.

Program Chair Report, Kathi Johnson:

• Kathi said that we are running a little behind in our meeting schedule this year (this is actually our Fall, not Winter meeting) and that we will have Winter and Spring meetings in 2010. She also said that we will need hosts for those upcoming meetings.

Publicity Chair & Webmaster Report, Caroline Oblack on behalf of Pamela Harris:

• Pamela was not present, but Caroline spoke on her behalf and reminded everyone how to access the web site and listserv.

Treasurer Report, Lorie Hoover:

• Lori reminded everyone to mail checks to her for chapter membership and meeting fees. 
• She also reported that she can now generate invoices for payment. 

Secretary Report, Nina Naruszewicz and Caroline Oblack:

• Nina was absent from the last meeting and Caroline recorded the minutes on her behalf.  Caroline and Nina presented the minutes from the Summer Meeting and they were approved unanimously. 

Membership Chair Report, Lorie Hoover on behalf of Vickie Black:

• Lorie reminded everyone that Chapter and APRA International memberships are renewed on a calendar year. The Chapter membership costs just $20 per year.

Caroline Oblack asked if there was any new business, and Kathi said that an updated directory of members will be mailed to the membership within the next few weeks.

The business meeting officially adjourned at 12:00 P.M.

The full program ended at 2:35 P.M.