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CHAIRS MESSAGE
In the overall scheme of things, our chapters play a very important role! Through chapter involvement, this provides a great pool of future leaders. Without leaders to continue the overall ATRA mission and vision, we would not be able to thrive as we have done so in our 18 years of existence. Additionally, our chapters have opportunities to provide significant support to our initiatives to advance our profession. Several chapters have contributed to our Advocacy fund and many chapters continue to support our Foundation for research through the annual silent auction. For this, we are very grateful! Without your support our impact lessens. I am continuing on in a second year as the Chair of the Chapter Affiliate Council due to the early resignation of the past Chair-elect Michael Duquette. Michael regretfully resigned due to personal reasons. I wish him the best as he continues to display his support of ATRA through other means. I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to Cathi McMahan the outgoing Secretary from ATRS and GT Thompson as past Board Liaison when he was president-elect. It has been a great learning experience! Thank you for your support! With a new year, came new elections for two new members to the Chapter Affiliate Council Board of Directors. I am pleased to introduced Doug Boleyn of the Iowa Chapter as Chair-elect and Lourdes Martinez of the Gold Coast Chapter of Florida as Secretary. Both bring a strong sense of Leadership skills, insight to the “Big Picture” and a passion to serve this outstanding organization! Our Board Liaison is Melinda Conway Callahan President-elect of ATRA. She brings to the CAC a wealth of experience and sound direction to help keep us on course. It has been a pleasure getting to know these three individuals and I look forward to working with them. Our focus this coming year will be on continuing to provide educational sessions and information to chapter members through ATRA conferences and the website. You will see presentations offered at the Mid-year conference, the annual conference or both. Chapter members are encouraged to participate in these sessions to learn strategies and identify support to assist your chapter with operations. Secondly, we will be working on submitting all relevant materials about Chapter business to the ATRA website. This will be a password-protected section where Chapter Representatives can access information pertaining to Chapter activity. Examples would be items such as the By-Laws Template that is now available to chapters to assist with any By-laws revisions, the Chapter Representative handbook that outlines Policies and Procedures, Grant information and more. One item that we are very excited about thanks to the leadership of Debbie Cook Past president of NETRA and former ATRA board member, is the “Chapter Best Practices” manual. This is a compilation of recommended practices to assist your chapter in its’ continued success. It’s a great reference guide when you have questions about the “How to” or the “What if” in daily operations. Lastly, we will be working with chapters in promoting a “Membership drive”. Our goal is to generate membership-recruiting strategies by including Chapters in this process. We will be providing seed monies to the chapter who develops an innovative plan in increasing ATRA membership. More details about this campaign will be forthcoming. I look forward to continuing to serve ATRA as Chair of the Chapter Affiliate. The CAC Board serves as your direct link to the ATRA Board if Directors in identifying issues or concerns that your chapter may be experiencing. I encourage you to maintain communications with your CAC Liaison Doug, Lourdes or myself. Together we can identify strategies and help keep your chapter on course with the overall ATRA vision. Have a Happy, Healthy Holiday season! Becki Chilcote-McGrath CTRS CAC Chair |