Update by the Executive Director
Tim Merriman
May 2008


Advisory Group
We will hold our first Corporate Advisory Council meeting on May 27 at 1 PM MDT. All but one of invited participants have expressed interest in participating.

Audit, Budget, and Cash Flow
Work on the annual audit has begun and will continue through June. The final report will likely be available in July or August.

Bank Service Changes
We are finding Direct Deposit to work well for payroll. The check scanning system is still not working because the software does not run on Vista operating systems. Russ is working on a workaround using one of our older PCs.

BSA Venturing
We have a draft MOU with BSA Venturing to consider at the upcoming June Board Meeting.

Building
We have changed our national office building maintenance from a part-time employee to a commercial cleaning service. They will clean the building twice a week at an amount of cost we were paying for one cleaning a week.

Business Plan 2007
Membership is lagging in income to date, but deferred member income is better than last year showing a little growth for 2008. Ad sales are lagging. Certification is doing very well and showing strong growth for the year. 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. We will conduct an annual giving campaign via email in late May, the first effort of this kind we have made.

Greening of NAI
The new Member Directory will be on-line, not in print, as a “green” effort. It saves a substantial cost in the budget as well. This on-line directory will allow members to update their information on their own. We hope to have it operating by June.

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

International Conference
The Third NAI International Conference in Korea was well attended with 165 from 20 countries. All revenue and expenses are not on the books yet but it appears the event will break even.

Sales
Store and InterpPress sales for the year are lagging a little behind those in 2007 thus far. Our certification workshops are later this year than last year and many of our book sales are at these events. We expect the sales to pick up over the summer with CIG courses being held. The 2nd Edition of Personal Interpretation is at the printer and will be on sale by June 1.

Membership
Membership revenue for the first four months was $102,207, which is lower than the same period in 2007 by $6600, but deferred membership income is about $11,000 ahead of the same date last year. The combined numbers indicate some member growth. We continue to strategize on how to retain more members who join through the CIG program while also building more commercial and institutional members.

Staff Changes
T ara Tanner has left NAI for other opportunities and we have put a temporary freeze on rehiring due to lagging income indicators. We will watch incomes through the summer and rehire when the situation improves.

Training and Speaking
In April I co-taught a CIP course in Fort Collins, represented NAI at the National Council on Public History meeting in Louisville, KY, and gave a keynote at the Jaeger Foundation leadership meeting for Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources in Columbia, MO. Laura Diane Moore and I spent a full day at the American Association of Museums annual conference in Denver to recruit exhibitors for our trade show.

Travel Plans
My upcoming travel may be viewed here.