It is with such pride that I am stepping away from my leadership role on the board of Heartland Coaches Association, Kansas City’s Preimer coaching organization. One of my goals was to build an organization that would continue past my time as President 2007/2008. It continues to be strong and gaining strength with the help of all those involved. The idea was to create a place for coaches to come together as a community and support and grow as individuals and as professionals.
It seems like such a short time ago but in reality it was late 2006 when Sheri Mortko (an awesome coach and true friend) asked if anyone was willing to step up and take over organizing the meetings of a small band of coaches who were committed to supporting each other. Today is my last day of a 3 year journey of leadership within the coaching profession and community here in Kansas City. Following is a summary of this years progress from our current President Deb Amandola.
Dear Chuck
As we conclude the year, now is a good time to look back and celebrate our accomplishments. This has been a busy year for the Heartland Coaches Association. The Executive Board and many people have been working hard on several initiatives that can be leveraged into 2010 to keep HCA a sustainable and vital organization for coaches in the greater Kansas City area.
This year we focused on the “Five P’s” including People, Process, Programs, Promotion, and Prosperity. Starting with People, our membership has grown this year to 76 up from 48 last year. Member renewal dates are now on the individual’s anniversary date rather than all at the same time each year. This will spread out our chapter income and eliminate pro-rating membership dues.
Also, we have now launched an initiative to develop our chapter leadership. We paid the program fee for our president-elect to participate in the ICF International Conference. We also rallied as an organization to help Marilyn O’Hearne be re-elected onto the ICF International Board of Directors. Seven of our members attended the ICF International Conference in Orlando in December.
Our chapter processes have been refined and improved. These include: automating our financials on QuickBooks, beginning on-line pre-registration for monthly programs, and conducting our second annual member survey. The results of this year’s survey gave us data to use in the Executive Board’s strategic planning session on November 20. The biggest improvement is the upgrade to our website! This has been an organization-wide effort and required us to look at our processes. When fully functional, the website is intended to be a member resource for you.
Monthly programs this year were designed to address your needs in three categories: Developing your coaching business, developing your coaching skills, and developing your personal skills. We will continue with this focus in 2010. Additionally, each program had a reaction survey which was used to improve and to focus on your needs. Locations for monthly programs are being explored to meet the needs of our members.
Promoting HCA is one of our key objectives. Most of our monthly programs were in the Tuesday Kansas City Star Business calendar. Other promotional events included: HCA members answered phones for the KCPT pledge drive in April. We expanded our presence in the not-for-profit world selecting two for coaching service grants: Waysides Waifs and Unity World Headquarters.
Prosperity has flourished this year. Some things contributing to this include the increase in membership, the increase in dues, control over food costs on monthly programs, and fine tuning financial processes. We are excited to tell you HCA is positioned for long term sustainability.
I want to express my appreciation to the 2009 Executive Board for a job well done! Dean Long, President- Elect, Janna Rust, Treasurer, David Winans, Secretary, C.W. Russ Russo, Program Director and Website Manager, Devon Plumburg, Membership Director, and Chuck Franks as Past President. Thank you Team!
We all look forward to a prosperous 2010 and invite you to help us make HCA the premier coaching organization in the Kansas City area.
Warm regards,
Deborah Amandola, President 2009
Giving back to your profession is not only a noble thing but also an opportunity for growth which can not be matched.
I’m looking forward to being able to get involved with some other efforts now that my commitment as ended. I know I’m a better person having contributed and belonging to such a great community.
What are you doing that will help you grow as a leader, a team member, and a person? I want to know, please share.