The First Word: Starting Over With Optimum Resources

The First Word
By Phil Russo, CAE
NAFA Executive Director

Starting Over With Optimum Resources

I've always liked the New Year's holiday. I don't really care for all the hoopla that goes with it (or the hangovers or sinking feelings of not remembering what was said or done with whom) but I like what the holiday represents.  I like New Year's because I see it as a second chance of sorts. 

With each January 1 comes a clean slate, a fresh page, a new beginning.  One colleague recently gave it a more modern analogy, saying to me, "the New Year is like re-booting your computer after you've backed up your hard drive.  You're keeping all the good stuff, you've gotten rid of the stuff you don't need any more, and now you're starting over with optimum resources."  I like that image.

There is a great deal of "good stuff" that NAFA is keeping from 2010 (see my December column for a recap).  There is also some stuff we don't need any more that, frankly, I'm happy to have behind us.  Now we can turn our energies and resources to making 2011 the best year possible for NAFA and for you.

One way we are doing that is by conducting a complete "communications audit" over the next few weeks.  One of the goals of this endeavor is to find out how well we communicate with you and how much you "get" our messages.  More importantly, we need to find out how well we listen to you.  As I told the staff when we started this project, it's one thing to talk to someone but it's completely different to actually communicate.  We aren't communicating if we're the only ones talking, or if we don't hear you.

Please be sure to check your mail and email in the near future for a request to complete our communications survey.  As an added incentive, we'll be giving away an iPad to one lucky person who completes the entire survey!

I wish you the best new year and hope you make the most of this "second chance."  As the omnipresent Oprah Winfrey says, "Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right!"

Sincerely,



Phil Russo