ABANA Chapter Liaison Letter
April 2001
The often asked question, "What does ABANA do for me for my 45 bucks -- or more-- a year?" This letter will focus on two things that ABANA will do for you in the future.
ABANA's Member Services committee is currently working on two (actually, more than two, but for now I will talk about only two) new programs that have the potential of giving a whole lot of assistance to the chapters. Here they are.
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It seems to me that it was Mark Twain who said, "The ABANA chapters will correctly do all of the things some of the time, some of the things all of the time, but not all of the things all of the time." Being inspired by the wisdom of Mr. Twain, we decided to develop a new program that will let all of the chapters know about some of the things that some of the chapters are doing right.
We have thought this program through only in general terms-no particulars yet. It would work something like this. We will identify 10, or so, crucial aspects of a chapter organization, such as the structure of the board of directors, educational program, etc. Then, seek out those chapters that are successfully administering one or more of these crucial aspects of their chapter organization. The final step would be to send this information to all of the chapters for their use. We need to share our blacksmithing skills and our administration skills.
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The second new program is a combination of communication between ABANA and the chapters and recruitment of ABANA members. We are just starting to think this program through, so I can give you only a thumb nail sketch.
Participating chapters appoint an ABANA-chapter representative, to be known as The Rep. The task of The Rep is to give the chapter members the latest information about ABANA and to hear the questions and comments and to relay this feedback to the Member Services Committee. The big deal about this program is that it is one more way for ABANA to communicate with the chapters. But mostly, it is an opportunity for persons to speak their piece and to be heard by ABANA. Communication is a two way street. If this is going to work, we must give The Rep the tools and the support to do the job-this is the part that will take some good planning on our part.
The Rep, speaking at every chapter meeting, and keeping ABANA in the awareness of persons will hopefully result in an increase in ABANA membership.
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Let me know what you think about these new programs.
Bob Fredell, Chairman
Member Services Committee
3500-45 Ave. So.
Minneapolis, MN 55406-2927
(612) 721-2298
fredell@frostbit.com
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