As women business owners, we learn to build in fun and rewards for ourselves.  With that in mind, D’ Forman and I arranged to have the mid-year NAWBO planning session at Spa Panega in Arlington.  The Spa hosted us in their lovely conference center on the second floor, where we dined on delicious salads at tables decorated with tangerine colored tulips, and strategized ideas to make the second half of our NAWBO year outstanding.
 
Our first exercise was for each board member to share what NAWBO accomplishments they are most proud of this year and what they want to accomplish during the last half of our year. I would like to share some of those with you.  They are grouped under what we identified in June as our top five goals for the year:
 
Results  
1)                 Achieve financial stability.  This has been achieved by:
 
§         Revenue generated by events such as Springboard, the Golf Tournament and the David Shepherd 8 Steps Workshop.
§         Cost savings achieved by Board members staying within their budgets; a new meeting location that allows us to break even on our monthly meeting; and an electronic newsletter that saves us printing and mailing costs.
§         Simplified accounting procedures and easy-to-read, one-page financial reports with graphs and charts.
§         Recruiting, retention and involvement of Corporate Partners.
 
2)                 Increase the number and diversity of members and corporate
partners.  This has been achieved by:
 
§         A fully functioning Board and healthy committees that involve the membership.
§         Solid programming that has increased attendance of members and guests at meetings.
§         Established membership committees and procedures that make guests feel welcome and involve new members quickly.
 
3)                 Improve internal communications.  This has been achieved by:
 
§         A new electronic newsletter with more articles, new opportunities for members, and increased circulation.
 
§         New and improved membership brochures, such as Why NAWBO? and Introduction to NAWBO.
 
4)                 Increased involvement of members, guests, Corporate Partners, and larger WBE businesses.  This has been achieved by:
 
§         Adding three new Mastermind Groups and learning what it takes to keep Mastermind groups growing.
§         A programming schedule that appeals to WBEs with larger businesses.
§         Welcoming and involving new members quickly.
§         Actively involving more corporate partners, such as IBM and Boeing, on committees.
 
5)         Increase external recognition of NAWBO (as a group) and its
individual members. This has been achieved by:
 
§         Serving as the Launch Partner for Springboard.
§         Publishing an Educational Brochure that lists other educational events in the Dallas area.
§         Expanding the Awards Committee to include awards presented by other organizations.
§         Featured in article in the Dallas Business Journal and  feature stories in Today’s Dallas Woman and the Fort Worth Star- Telegram.
§         Receiving a National NAWBO Healthy Chapter Award in 2001.
§         Local members serving on and chairing national committees – Su King Hand will serve as National Awards Chair and Marilyn Bushey and Gail McDonald serve on the National NAWBO Traveling Training Teams, with Marilyn being a contributor to the manual and facilitator’s guide to be used by the teams.  Marilyn will facilitate the First Timers' Orientation at the National Convention in June.
§         Date and speaker for the Annual Luncheon selected and publicized.  Search made to ensure that the date for the Annual Luncheon did not compete with other organizations.
 
Future Plans  
1)         Achieve financial stability by:
 
§         Continuing to simplify accounting systems by reducing the chart of accounts and generating an accounting checklist.
§         Exceeding attendance and sponsorship goals at the Annual Luncheon.
§         Completing a database of capital resources to be made available to members.
§         Making a profit at monthly meetings.
 
2)         Increase the number and diversity of members and Corporate
Partners by:
 
§         Recruiting more Corporate Partners for committees and increasing the diversity of the Annual Luncheon Committee.
§         Launching the Micro-Lending Program.
§         Setting up a task force, with Corporate Partners as members, to design a survey of our membership to be used in creating a database of information on our members that will be available to our current Corporate Partners and can be used for prospecting for new Corporate Partners.
§         Holding an evening Networking Patio Party in April.
§         Forming a Diversity Committee and creating a master marketing/strategy plan for diversifying our chapter.
 
3)         Improve internal communications by:
 
§         Continuing to improve the newsletter by expanding articles and increasing circulation.
§         Reducing the number of emails sent to members by putting more information in the newsletter and on the Web site.
§         Forming a functioning committee to update “Why NAWBO.”
§         Continuing to work on growing healthy committees.
§         Establishing procedures and nomination archives for awards, both internal and external.
§         Consistently communicating about the Annual Luncheon at monthly meetings.
§         Creating a notebook for the 2002 Education Chair.
§         Writing educational articles for the newsletter.
 
4)         Increase involvement of members, guests, Corporate Partners, and
larger WBE businesses by:
 
§         Building a Mastermind Committee, starting three new Mastermind Groups, and developing a menu of programs to offer the groups.
§         Holding the March Spotlight on Corporate Partners meeting.
§         Involving more Corporate Partners on committees.
§         Providing exceptional seminars at the Annual Luncheon and making the event a success.
§         Starting the President’s Council.
§         Involving members by learning more about their businesses.
 
5)         Increase external recognition of NAWBO (as a group) and its individual members by:
 
§         Applying for the Healthy Chapter Award again.
§         Planning a public relations campaign for the Annual Luncheon.
§         Being a part of the founding of a NAWBO Texas Coalition on Public Policy.
 
With these goals in mind, I asked each board member to creat a collage of what it would look like if they were thriving. (I shared these collages with you at the February meeting.)  This was in preparation for the next exercise:  Strategize ways to make NAWBO thrive.  We divided into small groups and brainstormed for ways to do this.  You have seen some of these ideas in place at the last two meetings and in the January and February newsletters, and you will see more as the year unfolds.
 
We ended our meeting by sipping a little wine; several of us stayed for spa treatments and the others went on their way.  I want to thank your Board for giving up a day from their businesses for you, and to let you know that serving on your NAWBO Board can be fun!