NCCA planning meeting

10 June 2005

John, Sue, Joan, Carmen, Susan, Carl, Mandy

Possible topic - Joan

• Joan is attending a 3 day class on Using Consulting Resource Group's Assessments
• This is a possible topic for the June meeting
• JK/ Possible activity: "Showcase" - outreach to community, get publicity for NCCA
• ST/ Echoes of the Taste of Coaching - that wasn't very successful in 2003
• JK/ "Wonders of Woman" conference last February, I sold lots of books
• We could do a "Coaching Salon" room
• Or we could be a sponsor of the conference
• In 2006, it's the first Saturday in March

Focus for the year - Susan

• Open up group to allow everyone to join, even if not ICF member
• CM/ Concern about people acting as coaches without having gone through program or getting a credential
• MK/ Focus more on outcomes rather than process
• JK/ Visibility for the group?
• SG/ Why not advertise in the paper? I also have some contacts who know about media outlets
• CM/ So one of the things is for us to become more visible, and where
• SG/ Both for coaches in general and for the public
• CM/ It also gives credibility for coaches to be a member of an association

Decision: CM and JK will be co-directors of fun

Sponsorship

• JK/ We should get a corporate sponsor for the organization
• Purpose: connections to companies, additional visibility, get money
• HP, Agilent, New Belgium, ?
• JK/ I did a press release for a Business Women's event, sent it to all the papers, it got nowhere
• MK/ We have to be cautious to not be seen to be promoting any individual
• SG/ We need to be more proactive about developing contacts at the papers

Visibility

• JS/ Last year we were working on the KRFC coaching radio show, but we ran out of energy to pursue it
• CD/ It's a lot of work!
• JS/ It was a call-in radio show, do laser coaching
• CM/ What are the desired outcomes? Increase visibility/knowledge of coaching, get visibility for each of us coaches
• SG/ I have a person who is a virtual assistant and was interested in being an affiliate of the group
• CD/ We have that already set up - look at the member policy page on the website
• SG/ Do we allow non-coaches to come?
• CM/ I think we should allow them to come and check it out
• CD/ Why do they want to come? SG/ If they're interested in a topic. ST/ Currently we allow anybody to come for 6 months without being a member. SG/ So we should advertise all events as "open to the public."
• JK/ Who's going to ICF con this year? Joan and Carl
• CM/ I get very disappointed by the lack of numbers at the meetings
• MK/ Too frequent?
• ST/ Out of this discussion we had last year: Wide diversity of situations and preferences. Every year we've had this discussion. I spent a lot of effort on outreach to coaches, and it didn't make a big difference.
• CM/ People are busy. SG/ So that means midday is a bad time? JK/ But for some coaches, prime time is the evenings.
• CD/ I believe that busy-ness is really code for insufficient ROI. We need to deliver more value to the membership.
• JK/ We've been fighting this forever. We need to focus on moving ahead with activities we think are valuable.
• SG/ How do we make it so coaches don't have to be members of ICF?
• JK/ If we offered CEUs that would make a big difference. We have to get presenters who are ICF accredited, it costs them $300 per year. CD/ It would be appropriate to charge for the presentation. ST/ The ICF manual had a form for applying for CEUs for meetings, it didn't appear to be required to have an ICF accredited presenter. But we would have to apply well in advance, perhaps submit an entire year's worth of topics.
• JK/ Maybe do one half day thing a year that has CEUs?
• SG/ Would coaches get CEUs for participating in Coaching Salon? JK/ No, CEUs are for learning, not teaching or delivering coaching.

Action items

• SG/ Start advertising meeting besides just e-mailing members. I have list of different press areas. Easiest way would be to divvy up responsibilities so that each person could do one. CD/ It would be good to have a script or training on how to effectively do this. SG/ I made contact with a person at the Bullhorn, it worked pretty well. JK/ I tried to get the main person at the Bullhorn to let us have an article on the coaching organization, she said "not now." JS/ There was an article in the Collegian on coaching, they don't just service students.
• CM/ We had a "coaching corner" in the Healing Path, we had 2 coaches answering questions. It planted seeds, we didn't get anything else out of it. JK/ We (Business Women) take a full page ad in the Healing Path, and all our members got ads for $18 a month.
• JK/ I'd love to break into a column in a paper. CM/ Lloyd does the Practical Psychology column. MK/ The challenge is to not fall into it becoming an advice column. It might better to publish a conversation, even if it's made up. CD/ Like the Career Builder insert in the Coloradoan? MK/ The conversation approach seems to be very useful and attractive for people.
• MK/ What about finding out about an official column position, commit to a year?
• ACTION: JS to contact Kirsten, and Greeley Tribune person
• JK/ Interesting topic for the meeting, how do we get this going?
• SG/ Let's do JK's assessments topic in June, 30 minutes
• CM/ And brainstorm on visibility topics
• ACTION: SG to bring media contact information.  And also ask Pat to come or send us advice/guidelines
• SG/ Meeting at Bobbie's farm?  ST/ Late afternoon best? 2:00 on....  SG/ Do it on a meeting day. ACTION: ST to contact Bobbie.
• JK/ Can also have another meeting at my place
• Let's do at Bobbie's, we haven't been there

Agenda for meeting on 23 June

• Intros [Should be forward-focused, what are your goals for the year]
• Announcements
• Fun Activity
• Joan's presentation
• Visibility for the NCCA
• Closing [Everyone's commitment, what are they willing to do to promote NCCA]