Expanding Accessibility to NAFA IP Through Chapters and Micro-Meetings

For the past few years, NAFA charged its chapters a fee every time a chapter wanted to use NAFA’s intellectual property (IP) at their chapter meetings. In these cases, NAFA would provide content developed for our seminars, webinars, or other programs, for instruction or training at local chapter meetings. Earlier this year, however, NAFA ended the practice of charging chapters for use of the vast majority of our IP so that we can make that IP more accessible to a greater number of fleet managers.

Now, a full list of NAFA-developed programs is available to every chapter at no charge. These programs, all of which were produced and vetted by either NAFA’s Education Development Committee, NAFA’s Certification Development Committee, or contracted experts, will enable chapters to deliver to their local constituents the most current, best-in-class industry training and education at no cost to the chapter.

The list of programs available to chapters at no charge includes:

• From Unsung Hero to Rising Star: Selling the Value of Fleet Management
• Understanding Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Relations
• 11 Essentials of Fleet Management
• How to Conduct a Fleet Audit
• How To Conduct a Lifecycle Cost Analysis
• Effective Presentation Skills (a 4-part series)
• Enhancing Your Negotiation Skills
• Recognizing & Managing Multiple Generations in the Workplace

The above programs can be led by local experts, or NAFA can help chapters find speakers/instructors. Chapters are responsible for all speaker/instructor expenses, but we provide them with a full turnkey solution for the meeting.

In addition, every chapter now has free access to up to two modules of NAFA’s Essentials of Fleet Management Seminar (EFMS) each year. The EFMS is an 8-module, in-person seminar that typically takes place over the course of three consecutive days and costs $699/person to enroll. Now, chapters may elect to use any two of the eight modules as chapter meetings during the calendar year at no charge to the chapter. The eight EFMS modules, and the broad topics covered in each, are:

• Asset Management - The selection, procurement, use and care, and the remarketing of fleet assets.
• Business Management - Working with leasing companies, automobile dealers, supply or service contractors, insurance companies, and others.
• Financial Management - Analysis of acquisition options, conducting lifecycle cost analyses, fleet-related accounting principles, benchmarking, budgeting, and outsourcing decisions.
• Information Management - Tools required to function in a data-rich environment ("big data") that will enable good decision-making.
• Maintenance Management - Understanding essential vehicle maintenance principals to enable productive communication with in-house or outsourced maintenance personnel, drivers, and management.
• Professional Development - Leadership, ethical behavior, and all aspects of organizational effectiveness.
• Risk Management – Strategies for mitigating risk by focusing on insurance, subrogation, training, and safety.
• Vehicle Fuel Management – Conventional and alternative fuels, sustainability programs, emerging technologies, and federal regulations and laws impacting the second largest spend for fleets.

The above EFMS programs must be taught by an individual(s) with NAFA’s CAFM^® or CAFS^® designation. (If the instructor holds the CAFS^® designation, he/she must have successfully completed the exam for the module he/she is teaching.) Of course, NAFA can help chapters find speakers/instructors.

Along with providing greater accessibility to NAFA’s IP through our chapters, we are encouraging chapters, especially those covering large geographic areas, to support their members through "micro meetings." The idea behind micro meetings is to empower members who live or work in a small geographical area to form their own meetings, under the direction and with the permission of the chapter, but without all the constraints of a larger chapter meeting, such as a hotel contract, registration process, or speaker fees. 

For example, we know of several fleet managers in the Salt Lake City area who are arranging breakfast or lunchtime get-togethers because they cannot attend their Rocky Mountain Chapter meetings, which are most often in the Denver area. Sometimes these meetings have planned agendas, but other times they are free-form format, with the idea that you’ll bring your thoughts, ideas, and concerns to share. In either case, the meetings allow local fleet managers to network, build relationships, and learn from each other.

I hope every chapter takes advantage of the outstanding educational and training resources NAFA is making available to them. And I am excited about the birth of micro-meetings in NAFA. NAFA’s chapters are the lifeblood of the association, so it is important that every chapter delivers consistently high levels of good service to the membership. I believe these two new initiatives will help them do so.

Chapters interested in using any of the above IP should contact Christine Goyette at NAFA Headquarters at 609-986-1047 or cgoyette@nafa.org.

I’d love to know what you think.

Sincerely,

Phil