Update by the Executive Director
Tim Merriman
April 2008


Advisory Group
We will begin working on the first conference call for the new Advisory Council by late April or early May.

Audit, Budget and Cash Flow
We have decided to have Sample and Bailey conduct the annual audit for 2007. We learned that our bank loans with Wells Fargo require an annual audit and it is late in the year to go through a bid process for this. We will likely pursue competitive bids for 2008.

Bank Service Changes
Direct deposits for payroll are being done routinely. We plan to implement the program that allows checks to be scanned and deposited from the office soon, but the machine provided will not run on Vista software at this time. Wells Fargo is working on a work-around to make this function properly.

BSA Venturing
We continue to communicate with BSA about the MOU we hope to develop.

Business Plan 2008
This first quarter is lagging in sales in all areas. It seems that the overall economy is some of this. Our promotional efforts have been increased and we continue to improve process times for services to improve the quality of member services in all areas.

Greening of NAI
We will be working with several commercial vendors to create website pages for NAI that help members learn how to “green” their facilities and business practices. We hope to develop these over the next quarter. .

Hot Button
This continues to be the best way for NAI leaders to let us know of service failures.

InterpPress
Sales for the year are a little better than in 2007 thus far. We are running out of Personal Interpretation, our first InterpPress book title, and will need to reprint it in May to meet sales demand for it. It continues to be one of our best selling titles. The first printing of the book brought more than $80,000 to NAI over the past five years. All author royalties have been donated back to NAI in this period.

Membership
Membership revenue for January and February 2008 was $75,640, which is lower than the same period in 2007 by $7000. We continue to strategize on how to retain more members who join through the CIG program while also building more commercial and institutional members.

No Child Left Inside
We use NAI Now as a communication vehicle for letting members know how they might support this important initiative.
Staff Changes – Tara Tanner has announced her resignation and will be leaving NAI in a few weeks. She has done an excellent job as membership clerk this past two years.

Training and Speaking
In March I co-taught a CIT course in Yosemite National Park and a CIP course in Hope, Arkansas. I also attended and spoke at the Region 9 meeting in Eureka, CA.

Travel Plans
My upcoming travel may be viewed here.