Another tax season has passed, and soon we will have our last EVEPC membership meeting of the season as well.  We've had a good year. 

Membership:

Our membership ends the season at 80 estate planners, and our average meeting attendance is over 50...so I believe we are providing value to you during our breakfast meeting programming, as our planners are using their memberships and attending.  

Presentations:

We enlist fellow professionals as volunteers to cover the topics we want to address, and so it can be challenging finding professionals willing to take the time and effort required to put together presentations for our council.  The professionalism and knowledge I have encountered this last season was outstanding.  Thank you to each speaker who agreed to come forward and share your talents with our group!

Our program line-up was more varied by topic, presentation, and speaker style than we have had in years' past, as we experimented with some “outside of the box” ideas.  The evaluations over the year were consistently more positive than negative, with lots of ideas for next years' Board to improve upon.

Technology and Membership Benefits:

We incorporated significant technology advances this last year, including moving more of our administrative functions onto this website.  The shift to a web based membership management system allowed us reduce some manual processes, and shifted some focus to adding membership benefits and providing membership visibility and EVEPC presence in our market.

For example, we are encouraging membership use of website features like the on-line membership directory, and your ability to post your photo in your profile.  We have also been experimenting with meeting and membership value surveys from an electronically generated source instead of solely using the traditional paper and pencil methodology.

Financials:

We also had a successful season financially.  Some of the technology effort is already paying off.  With no additional revenue sources this past season, we still reduced our guest fee amounts and offered our continuing meeting sponsors a discounted price, while keeping our membership dues at the same level as the last 4 years. 

We retained our administrative service provider and covered all expenses associated with producing our meetings in a fiscally responsible way.  It appears we will end our season with at least a break even result, as well as some savings cushion in the bank.

Board and Leadership:

I want to be sure and thank Judie Rettelle for her leadership and contributions through this last season as Past President. As this is a working Board, many thanks to Greg Furseth for stepping into President/Program chair, and to Melinda Nelson for stepping into the dual Secretary/Treasurer role, for your next season.  Mark Moritz and Ryan Boyer, have agreed to remain on the board, and I want to recognize them for their help and ideas last season.  John Scibek will be stepping off; many thanks for sharing your knowledge and time, John!

We are looking for 1-2 new board members to step forward for next year.  Anyone interested?

2012/13 Program Line Up:

Greg and the board are already working on next years' program topics and speakers right now.  If you have ideas on either, send him an e-mail soon!  We did receive feedback from quite a few members in February, THANK YOU!

New Membership Recruitment:

Remember that people you think might benefit from learning about our friendly group can self-enroll on our contact list, so that they get the membership invitation next June/July. 

We will hold our last Board meeting of the season after our May breakfast meeting, and will be reviewing the tentative program schedule, the final numbers, and the plans for next years' budget, dues, sponsorship fees, guest fees, and speaker bookings.  At this point, we are not anticipating any change in venue, price, or other membership items.

Marketing Collaboration:

EVEPC is again collaboratively marketing our joint programs with the Planned Giving Round Table of Arizona.  Please see their recent Press Release about their June 13th Summer Forum.  While EVEPC will next meet again in September 2012, this reminds me there is still much going on in the Valley of the Sun ahead of some interesting electoral activity and resultant tax legislation we are sure to see next Fall.

Best,