-=> Quoting Pat Stiehm to Juli Gordon <=-
 PS> Good!  Anything you cluld share would be helpful.  Thank you for being
 PS> up front.  I guess the question is why?
        Several reasons actually.  Because we were not for profit
everyone on staff was a volunteer.  Because there was a lot of work to
do with people who were volunteering their time in many cases in
addition to a full time job we saw a high turnover.  This is to be
expected.  But while you are small and building it takes a lot of energy
to sustain high turnovers.  Secondly, being non profit you need to show
proof that you are being publically supported.  We were supported by
large organizations but mostly on a "physical donation" that is to say
for things like cellular phones, medical supplies etc instead of
monatary that would help cover the overhead expenses.  Although, the
overhead expenses were minimal (operated out of our house and no one
being paid staff) the organization still needed money in order to do
mailings, pay for p.o. boxes etc......  Our organization NEVER charged
victims for our services (which was the population that we were serving)
so we relied exclusively on public support monetarily.  This was
something that we were just now seeing even though the community was
behind us with physical needs.  Thirdly, my family (husband, daughter
and myself) started experiencing medical problems that took more of my
time not to mention that my daughter is just now starting to crawl and
is needing more of my time and attention that I felt like the I was not
able to be the wife and mother that I wanted to be and for me this is my
first priority.  With all of the above, my husband and I decided that it
was time to close the doors.
 
 PS> The kind of organization "we" are planning is a kind of trade
 PS> association.  I have a corporate sponsor, who will cover the initial
 PS> costs.  We will be doing a verity of thinks and to a large extent are
 PS> still in the planning stag.
 PS> We have planned to use all of these, except media.  Our industry group
 PS> is small and spread out all over the country.  Media would not be
 PS> effective.  We also have an initial national meeting scheduled for
 PS> next March in New Orleans.
        It sounds as though you are on a good track.  I also understand
why you are being a bit vague in what you will be specifically doing in
your organization while you are in the planning stages.  I respect your
privacy.  Although I am not in the not for profit business anymore, I am
now selling Avon to help bring in a bit more money so am still doing
that self employment thing and will continue to be talking in this echo
so I hope we can talk more.
        One suggestion that I might have that we found useful is to
really network.  We found that so many other organizations that were in
our field were very territorial and that their thinking was one of "us
against them".  When we encompassed them with what we were doing and
invited them to join with us in a mutual goal (ie to elliminate
violence) we were able to educate ourselves and network with others.  We
also encouraged (highly) the continued development and education of our
board members and staff wether it was just going to a seminar or
listening to a speaker or going to a self defense class anything that
helped continue the education of what we were trying to help others
with and we kept track of all our folks education in our logs.
Juli
... SUCCESS is a journey, not a destination!
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