By Tonya Sakowicz and Megan Metzger
Wow!! We can say with confidence that we absolutely achieved our goal of Elevating the INA Conference Experience this year. Our conference site selection committee, conference coordinator and workshop selection committees deserve a HUGE round of applause for their outstanding work bringing us the new website, location, vendors, food, speakers, extra activities, a SPA, the LAZY RIVER… and so much more. This year’s conference was, in the minds of many, the best conference INA has had so far. As your incoming Presidents, we have big shoes to fill, but we will strive to continue to lead this organization in elevating all that we do and we are excited about what this coming year will bring. For those of you who could not make it this year, we hope you are already planning to join us next year in our anticipated location of New Orleans!
This past year has seen great growth within the INA and what we bring to our membership and much progress on our goals set last year. We would like to update you, our membership, on what we have been working on, what our progress has been, and what we are striving to accomplish in the coming year.
What have we accomplished in this past year and what is underway?
We have been working on Elevating the INA Conference Experience:
Result?
- Resounding Success! 2018 was a fantastic conference from start to finish
- We are working on some SUPER exciting new possibilities for elevating the INA Conference Experience even further in the coming years and to make the conference accessible to more people than ever before!
We have been working on the Financial Health of the INA:
Result?
- We are in great shape! Members can access the 2017 Profit and Loss Statment in their Member Portal
We have been working on clarifying membership value:
Result?
- We have great new additions to our Member Advantage Program with discounts and specials for INA Members (find them in your Member Portal), a new Facebook group with educational LIVE videos and lots of discussion, regular blogs and social media, new Members Only Webinars
- We have shifted our membership renewal process to an “opt-out” process so now renewal is automatic, seamless, easy for members and far less time consuming for the office.
- We are working on the final details for our NEW Membership Categories: for example, a new, optional membership level for Newborn Care Specialists that are in business for themselves with more benefits as well as NEW Membership options for support groups, business staff members, online recruiters, and nanny employers as well as needed changes to the website to make these members more visible to those searching for their services.
We have been working on solid community involvement around the globe:
Result?
- We have made great progress with our new Ambassador Program and are excited to have introduced 4 new INA Ambassadors who will be helping us spread the word about INA
- We had a representative at Nannypalooza UK this past Fall and gained many new International members of INA and are getting the word out!
- We have new Board Members and Ambassadors that are from outside the US
- We are looking forward to our international location for Conference 2020!
We have been working on salary and tax education and compliance:
Result?
- The 2017 Salary went out earlier this year and we had a record number of responses, including International information. We have had several agencies utilizing this to help educate families already
- With the sponsorship of HomeWork Solutions, Care.com HomePay and GTM Payroll Services, we commissioned an enlightening Tax Compliance Study and are creating a video Q & A that will be added to the INA YouTube Channel. You can find out more about this here and this study is being presented this month to leaders on Capitol Hill.
We have been working on solidifying INA as a leader in Education for our Industry:
Result?
- Moved the INA Basic Skills Assessment, a valuable tool for agencies to assess candidates, to an external platform to more easily meet the needs of agencies and made a change to the pricing to a yearly subscription fee structure.
- Working on the final stages of the INA Newborn Care Specialist Basic Skills Assessment and NCS Credentialing Exam. It is currently in the first run of the testing phase and we are very excited to roll this out later this year.
We are working on responding to requests from our members for more clarity on how things run within the INA:
Result?
- New Ethics Policies and Procedures have been approved by our Board and added to the website
- New INA websites edits are already implemented, and we are continuing to work on more improvements. We are super excited to be able to offer basic information in both Spanish and Portuguese in sections of our website and working to expand this more in the future.
- New changes to further clarify the INA Nanny of the Year process. Throughout the years, and the past couple of years especially, there have been many unfounded rumors of about the NOTY process including that the individual Board Members “rigged” the process. So, we want to clarify for our membership the rigorous and challenging process that our NOTY candidates must go through, to make sure our membership understands that the NOTY selection process is handled completely outside the Board of Directors and to look at areas where it can use improvement.
- We are looking at other areas of the INA where we can have clear, black and white written systems to help our Board Members do their jobs more efficiently and for the membership of INA to have a clear understanding of how INA processes work.
We are excited about what the upcoming year holds in store for the INA and our members and we would love to have you be a part of it! Please consider volunteering to help us with any of these projects or on one of our committees that help handle all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ work that goes on within the INA. As an organization fully dependent on volunteers (even our board is all volunteer!), your assistance and ideas are vital, and we welcome you! For more information on how you can help, reach out to our Volunteer Committee Chair.
Megan Metzger and Tonya Sakowicz,
Co-Presidents