With two new Presidents starting out the month after the 2004 House of Delegates, business planning began with both The Georgia Nurses Association Board and the Georgia Nurses Foundation Board conducting separate facilitated assessment processes. The final reports resulting from those processes were utilized to formulate task forces to further evolve concepts and goals.

The GNA Board under the leadership of Linda Easterly, along with input and advisement received from the District Presidents at the November Retreat, commissioned a Hedgehog Task Force to research and address critical success factors to meet certain objectives by GNA’s 100^th anniversary in 2007. As CEO I am a member of this task force. The GNA task force was lead by President Linda Easterly. The other members were Kathy Shaw-VP, Wanda Jones-Treasurer, Kay Gatins-Secretary, Betty Daniels-Chair of District Assembly, and Kay Hampton-Director of Strategic Planning. The work of this task force was predominant in regard to time allocation this year but the results of that time and effort are some of the most productive work I have seen the organization accomplish in several years. External national research along with our own internal statistical research was provided to support the need for change and position the organization for the future.

This year GNF celebrates its 25^th Anniversary. Congratulations! The GNF Board, under the leadership of Lynda Nauright, also participated in facilitated assessment to identify   organizational strengths and weakness of the Foundation.  Critical action priorities in support of the Leadership Initiative project were explored.  A demonstration project was envisioned, and four university/service partnerships were approached by GNF Board member Tim Porter O’Grady to participate. The goals, objectives, and funding will be further explored with these partnerships and GNF leadership.

STAFF MANAGEMENT   

The senior management staff team continues to be the same with some turnover in administrative support roles. SPAC, which is one of GNA’s non-dues revenue programs, has grown significantly this year while maintaining the same staffing levels. To maintain appropriate service levels we will need to assess what will be necessary in the way of staff as we maximize this program. With the new structural changes adopted by the recent GNA House of Delegates, my entire staff structure will be assessed and adapted to the new structure. One consideration will be how long both the old and a new system will need to simultaneously be supported through transition. GNF’s financial resources available to support staff services will be dependent on further project funding approaches. The part time accountant will be reducing her work week hours further for life balance priorities so a part time bookkeeper will be hired to support that area.

During the leadership assessment and strategic planning processes, GNA/GNF Board & Staff Leadership identified the need to bring professional focus to the Marketing & Communications needs of the organization by adding a new staff position.  Several other state nurses associations have recently done the same. After researching what skills could be anticipated within potential candidates, I reviewed 200 resumes and interviewed 17 candidates. I made an offer of employment to my first choice and she has accepted.

Our new Marketing & Communication’s Director for GNA/GNF is Jodi Weber. Jodi  visited with us during the recent GNA Convention & GNF Annual Meeting. Her official start date of October 31 began with an orientation at the ANA headquarters in DC followed by meetings of the Center for American Nurses and the ANA Constituent Assembly meetings.

In her previous Marketing & Communication role with the Children’s Forum in Tallahassee, Florida, Jodi demonstrated her skills with:

Pioneering new projects & programs, the development of long-term strategic plans for new business development, media relations, branding, grant writing, marketing and publicity. She has presented communication workshops & training statewide to industry professionals, and brings legislative and advocacy experience. Prior to joining the Children’s Forum, Jodi constructed an alumni fundraising program for Thomas University where none existed before that helped lay the foundation for a multi-million dollar capital campaign and a 50 year anniversary celebration event. Jodi has three undergraduate degrees and an MBA.

Her volunteer work includes Hospice of Southwest Georgia, the Humane Society, and the Thomasville Community Resource Center.

Jodi’s coursework includes “constituent relations” in an e-world, branding effectiveness, graphic design, group communication, donor relations and stewardship and public relations theory and design. She has been involved in the production of a variety of television commercials and a documentary. In addition, Ms. Weber served as a small business strategy consultant and a focus group consultant. She earned her bachelor's degrees in communication, history and art from Mercer University as well as a Master of Business Administration. She brings to the team creativity grounded in market research, proven strategies and strong business principles. I know you will join me in welcoming GNA’s newest staff member, Jodi Weber.

ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT.

The CEO position is held accountable to anticipate the need for and to provide timely, accurate analysis, information, direction, and support to the officials and governing bodies and clarifies, facilitates and communicates the integrity of the roles, rights, and responsibilities of the organization’s leadership, governing bodies, members and staff. The CEO works closely with the Boards and other volunteer leaders on the development of long and short range goals.. With all the GNA structural work proposed for the House of Delegates, this has been a predominant theme for multiple committees including the Hedgehog Task Force, GNA Bylaws, Nominations and Finance. GNA staff has shown great commitment to help serve as effective liaisons between the hedgehog proposals and the independent work of the other structural units so that knowledge based decisions could be made related to their own work. 

FOUNDATION MANAGEMENT

Administrative support was supplied related to GNF Board meetings and committee meetings and responding to special projects like the silent auction, creating exhibit support materials and purchasing pins to sell for scholarship fundraising.

The Georgia Nurse Alert System took center stage for staff this year related to GNF.  The Department of Human Resources grant was renewed for the fourth year.  Hurricanes Katrina and Rita precipitated the deployment of GNAS volunteers. Simultaneously there was a major surge of RNs who registered to volunteer during the disasters.  GNA staff worked closely with DHR providing rapid turnaround in processing these new volunteers so they would be available to respond to the urgency caused by these incredible events. There are currently 1400 registered disaster volunteers in our database.

180 RNs registered in the Georgia Nurse Alert System were put on “alert status” and 69 were placed on deployment rosters performing such tasks as triage of evacuees at staging areas, triage at mega-centers and secondary triage at shelters, care of medically needy in shelters, referrals and monitoring of chronic diseases such as hypertension & diabetes. Lessons learned: At the initial phase of operations, there were more nurses than requests. As we all know FEMA was not functioning at the levels it should have been. Non- coordinated medical staff showing up independently added to the confusion because they had not been properly screened and verified for licenses and credentials. This is why we recruit volunteers year round so all of that work is done in advance of an emergency.  Some nurses in the GNAS pool were unhappy that they were not called upon and that is understandable. We all felt the need to do something to releave the pain and suffering we were witnessing. As the event wore on however, the pool of available volunteers began to dwindle, which required an even greater amount of time for the call team to find enough volunteer staff to fill requests. As we all know, the FEMA disorganization was a national disgrace. At all times it was imperative to the GNAS team that safety of the volunteers be paramount before sending them into harms way.        

LABOR RELATIONS

This has been a active year for Labor Relations.  The National contract for the VA’s was finalized and regional training related to the contract was conducted in Atlanta this fall. The UAN provided steward training for the Atlanta VA and the Augusta VA at headquarters this summer.

The California Nurses Association (not an affiliate of ANA) and their National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) have been stirring up trouble all over the country trying to build a national labor movement beyond their own state borders. While I continue to monitor and remain vigilant to negative consequences of this, I personally feel that devoting too much energy to panic and anxiety is self defeating for our organization. We will continue to keep you informed.  

CONVENTON

Special thanks to Peggy Batastini and Wanda Jones, Co-Chairs from District 3, for “picking up the ball” and bringing it over the goal line for the 2005 Convention in Columbus.  Pre-planning got off to a shaky start (including the host hotel loosing its flagship name mid stream).  All is well that ends well and that would not have been possible without the loyal commitment of Peggy and Wanda.  I hope you will thank them when you see them.

Simultaneous to organizing the 2005 Convention, Sylvia and I have also been working on preparations for the GNA 100^th Centennial to be held in 2007 in Savannah.  We have made two site visits and met with the fantastic local co-chairs Eunice Bell and Diane Hinely and their enthusiastic local planning group. There is no doubt that the 2007 event will be a meeting like no other!  It is going to be a fabulous party you will not want to miss.  The dates are now locked in. Mark your calendars for the Thursday, Friday and half day Saturday prior to Labor Day .  We will be at the five star Westin Resort. Come. Bring the family. Stay over the holiday!  A centennial is a significant accomplishment for GNA and we hope that everyone will be there to celebrate.  With the 2005 HOD passing the one-member/one-vote structure, every GNA member who comes can vote!  Instead of having a House of Delegates, the organization will now have “Membership Assemblies.”

Help us think about GNA leaders of years gone by, find them and invite them to the 2007 Centennial Celebration (August 30, 31 & Sept 1, 2007) in Savannah so we can make sure they plan to come. You know they would love to hear from you and we would love to see them.

The GNA House of Delegates also passed a new bylaw that moves the House of Delegates to a biennial event.  As a result there will not be a House of Delegates meeting in 2006.  

FINANCE/BUDGET

Revenues are up and expenses are down! This is a good thing. Membership numbers are on a slow decline. This is not a good thing. The MBNA affinity credit card revenue that the organization has enjoyed for more than 10 years was significantly less this year.  This trend is true for all of the state nurses associations which is an indication that the credit card industry has gotten more competitive.  We plan to have MBNA applications on site at the Convention.  At no cost to you, you can personally help get the MBNA royalties back up by getting one of the GNA credit cards.

It is important to be reminded that most of our financial stability does NOT come from membership dues. It comes from SPAC (Southern Performance Assessment Center) and it is this program that gives GNA the wherewithal to do so much more than other state nurses associations can by their reliance predominantly on membership dues only.  As such, GNA staff must focus on ensuring a very good, well thought out business plan ensuring the growth and development of this program. We often refer to this as staff’s “invisible work” because our members don’t understand how much staff time must be dedicated to this for the sake of the organization’s stability.  Dr. Hatmaker manages this program and the CE program (another non dues revenue program.)

COMMUNICATION

Technology to support continued advances in communication is high on our list and vital to the positioning of the organization.  New this year were the web enabled town hall teleconferences to present the Hedgehog presentation to the membership prior to the HOD.  Now if we could just figure out how to get people to show up or call in we would really get excited!

For staff development, GNA staff participated in the three part audio series on Conflict Management presented by the Center for American Nurses.  GNA staff also had an off site staff planning session with the theme of “Excellence in Service in an Environment of Competing Demands.” We have learned that we are one of the only offices left in the world where a real person answers the telephone rather than one of those frustrating automated attendants!!!!  That’s OK; we love to talk to our members…

Another responsibility of the CEO is to know (along with the GNA President) what is going on at the national level. The national ANA structure now has three different national governing bodies and as a result has three different national governing council meetings throughout the year of which I attend. They are – The ANA HOD & Constituent Assembly, the UAN National Labor Assembly and the Center for American Nurses Governing Council.  This year GNA also hosted the first “ANA & You” Continuing Education program at GNA headquarters in the spring.

ANA President Blakeney asked me to participate and I have been participating in a special task force with their executive leadership to address national organizational challenges. 

The South Carolina Nursing Summit hosted by their Chief Public Health Nurse invited me to present at their meeting convened to help establish a disaster preparedness program modeled after the Georgia Nurse Alert System.

GNA was featured this summer in the national magazine called “Association Management” with an article profiling the hedgehog’s progressive work to prepare the organization for the future. 

The new Georgia Society of Association Executives President has asked me to chair their “Advancing the Profession” task force.  

Researching and trend analysis related to the association industry has been a primary function that I continue to provide to GNA/GNF leadership to help ensure that the organization can make knowledge based decisions that are in the best interest of the long term stability of our organizations. A special focus for the future will be the development of web-based communities of practice for our members.