Chapter of the Year Award – NAPO Chicago Spotlight

The Chapter of the Year Award is bestowed to a NAPO Chapter, which, by its achievements, goes above and beyond to further the ideals and mission of NAPO. This Chapter provides its members with opportunities to develop leadership skills, prioritize camaraderie and support between and for members, and participate in community outreach projects by utilizing its professional and corporate members’ talents. This award recipient is selected by the Awards & Recognition Committee.

The Chicago Chapter of NAPO was the distinguished winner of the Chapter of the Year Award for 2020. What made the Chicago Chapter stand out amongst their peers to earn this award? Here is some insight, as provided by then Chapter President, Anita Birsa.

Your statistics well reflect your efforts to secure and retain all levels of membership. What do you consider your most successful process for this area? What do you consider your biggest challenge in this area?

Our members represent a wide array of experience in NAPO and our industry and that presents both opportunities and challenges. We’re fortunate to have active veteran members, including two founding members of our chapter. We also have members entering our industry or in the early years of establishing their business, including our first Student member. Our many members who are already established in their business represent different niches and specialties therefore needing different types of education and support. 

An on-going priority for us is providing opportunities for everyone to engage with the chapter in a meaningful way that offers value wherever they are in their in their career. In our planning, we think about creating pathways to inspire growth; in education and skill development and also growth in chapter involvement and volunteer service. Our members also really value the networking and supportive connections in our chapter and the variety of members we have means we’re always learning from and being inspired by each other!

70% of your meetings, listed on your nomination submission, were CEU eligible. Was this a result of CEU consideration being strongly included in your approach for program planning? What are other factors you consider?

Our professional development programs are informed by on-going member feedback from program evaluations and an in-depth annual survey. CEU eligibility and BCPO requirements have proven in these surveys to be a priority. We also factor in trending topics in our industry. We try to offer a balance of both organizing and productivity training as well as business development topics. Our Professional Development Director works to ensure our programs offer learning and inspiration for members at all levels and creates programs in variety of formats to support different learning styles and interactivity. She also works with our BCPO Liaison to ensure enough CEU opportunities for our Certified Professional Organizer® members. We promote the NAPO University courses to provide more basic initial training, and also build on NAPO U topics for more specialized chapter programs. We also consider how our programs complement the NAPO specialist certificates that many of our members are achieving.

Your application referred to “onboarding” processes for members and your Board. Can you elaborate on those processes?

For new members, the process begins when they first attend a chapter meeting (either as a guest or brand-new member). We leverage our chapter culture of hospitality and collaboration with specific touchpoints and communication goals. This is a dynamic way to engage guests and new members, make them feel welcome and make sure they meet chapter leaders. Our new member survey helps us learn more about how we can support them, and their interest in volunteer roles and chapter service.

In our quarterly New and Prospective Member call/webinar, the discussion is focused on drawing a clear path to success that’s built on the progression of skills and professional development offered in our chapter and NAPO. This has improved the rate of members progressing from provisional to professional and also new members becoming active in volunteer roles.

For board members, the process is more layered and complex. After chapter elections our officers begin one-on-one transition and training meetings and our May board meeting is an overlap of both outgoing and incoming officers together. We also plan a full day board retreat and use an outside facilitator to create a focused strategic planning process. We incorporate training and techniques learned at NAPO leadership forums. This year we modified our in-person retreat day to online sessions with pre-read documents and follow up homework. With the help of our facilitator’s productivity expertise, we were able to complete our virtual board retreat with a finished chapter Business Plan and Top Priorities, as well as individual board member quarterly Action Plans for the entire 2020-21 term. And because we are a digital chapter (all of our resources and documents are electronic) our board training also includes significant technology orientation.

Your number of Business Partner members is impressive! What is your Chapter’s approach to outreach with Business Partners in your area, and how do you stay engaged with them?

We enjoy an especially robust Business Partner program. We draw from a large metropolitan area and have very engaged chapter members. All our Business Partners are personally referred by our members and we thank each of them for the referral with a $25 gift card presented at a chapter meeting. We also make a point of including our Business Partners in all our chapter business and social activities. Annually we host a Business Partner Expo where our business partners set up booths to engage and educate our members about all of the helpful ways they can assist our businesses and clients. In addition, we feature each of our BP members through mini presentations at each chapter meeting through the year. It doesn’t hurt that our Director of Business Partners, Elaine Quinn, has been in the role for an impressive 10 years!

About the Author: Pam Bowers is the current Chair of NAPO’s Awards and Recognition Committee. A member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter, Pam is the owner of Chaos Pros, LLC and has been a NAPO Member since 2007.

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