The NEDRA Board held its monthly operations call on Friday, May 27. This was the last such call for outgoing members Tara McMullen and Mary Taddia, who will be greatly missed. It the first board call for the two new board members we welcomed into the fold, Tim Wilson and Bill Gotfredson.

Other subjects discussed included programming, sponsorship, the upcoming APRA virtual business meeting and the upcoming board retreat, which will take place in June.

Read on for more information!

The Boston Globe says there is "clearly sorcery at work" in the kitchen of Tiger Mama. Join your fellow development professionals for an informal get together to see what all the buzz is about at this self-sponsored event. 

Talk shop and network over tiki drinks at one of Boston's most talked about new restaurants. This get-together is open to all; NEDRA members and non-members are welcome!

What: NEDRA Night Out

When: Thursday, June 9th at 6:00 pm

Where: Tiger Mama, 1363 Boylston Street, Boston

Cost: Self sponsored. The restaurant will provide individual checks.

RSVP: Please click here to RSVP

Thanks to those who attended the 2016 NEDRA Conference in April in Portsmouth! It was great to see so many NEDRA members and colleagues come together to listen, learn, and connect.

We hope you have visited the 2016 Conference Presentation Downloads and Attendee List page on the NEDRA website to download and/or print the slides from the conference. If you haven't, there's still time! The period for accessing handouts ends on Monday, June 6th at 5:00 pm.

Reminder that the downloads require a password that you received  in a conference email from April 8, 2016. Please contact office@nedra.org if you need the password.

APRA International will be holding its fourth Virtual Business Meeting on July 14th at 1:00 ET (12:00 CT). Attend for updates on APRA's Strategic Plan, the "We Are APRA" campaign, the 2016 Member Needs Assessment, highlights on Prospect Development 2016 and more.

Last year more than 200 prospect development professionals attended and many were active on Twitter using the #APRABus15 hashtag.

Visit APRA's website to register for this year's meeting and join the @APRA_HQ conversation on Twitter.

In an article from the Summer, 1993 edition of NEDRA News entitled "Justify My Staff," Barbara Gunvaldsen describes the process Colby College went through to determine how many research staff they would need to meet their campaign goal--and to convince decision-makers to hire two new staff members.

She found that "the Development operation, as a whole, was ignorant of--not indifferent to--the ramifications of its own increased work load." 

Have you used similar (or different) methods to justify hiring new prospect development members for your organizations? And do you feel your organization is not aware of the affects of an increased workload?

Justify My Staff - Barbara Gunvaldsen.pdf

If you're a new NEDRA member or a long-time member who hasn't poked around our website for a bit, you may have missed our members-only compilation of useful sites here: http://www.nedra.org/members-only/research-resources. 

Check it out and comment below with any additions or other suggestions!

Are you going to APRA's Prospect Development in Nashville this July? Are you seeking a chance to meet or assist fellow colleagues? Consider volunteering! 

APRA needs three types of volunteers at this year's conference:

1. Hospitality desk volunteers - sign up for shifts that fit your schedule! You are not expected to be a Nashville expert or local! You'll have all of the resources you need at your fingertips at the hospitality desk.

2. APRA Talks - both set up volunteers and volunteers to live tweet the experience.

3. Hall guides - during breaks, provide a friendly face to help your colleagues navigate the conference area!

Sign up on the APRA website here.

If you have any questions, you can reach out to Lindsey Nadeau of George Washington University who serves as this year's Prospect Development Volunteer Co-Chair. 

The NEDRA board would like to extend thanks to everyone who attended this year's Annual Conference--#NEDRAcon2016--on April 14th-15th. It was a great success because of all of you! We hope that attendees enjoyed the conference and gained valuable insights into trends, learned best practices, and made some great networking connections.

It was clear that our keynote speaker Laura Schroff did some research of her own to make her message relevant to all of us in prospect development. We think she wove an invisible thread of generosity and compassion that continued throughout the conference, one that we hope you've taken back to your day-to-day life.

Read on for more about the conference, and the rest of the NEDRA News!

NEDRA's 29th Annual Conference, #NEDRAcon2016, welcomed a crowd of 213 at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside in Portsmouth, NH on April 14th-15th. Thanks to the hard work of the Conference Committee, co-chaired by Amy Begg and Lisa Foster, we enjoyed another hugely successful conference with 18 excellent educational sessions, networking opportunities and more!

On Wednesday before the conference started, Amy Begg and Amber Countis put a group of new researchers through the paces at our third-annual pre-conference Research Basics Bootcamp. The conference itself began on Thursday morning with an inspirational keynote by Laura Schroff, a best-selling author and former ad executive. Laura shared the story behind her book An Invisible Thread. Thirty years ago she was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan with a busy and demanding life. One day she passed an 11 year old panhandler on the street. She kept walking when he asked her for change but something pulled her back to Maurice and she invited him to lunch. These strangers, 2 people out of 8 million, developed a remarkable friendship that changed both their lives. Laura deftly weaved the work of NEDRA members into her message and copies of her book brought in by local bookseller RiverRun Books sold out after her talk.

At lunchtime on Thursday, APRA President-elect Jill Meister and Dan Lowman of GG+A, a NEDRA Platinum Sponsor, welcomed attendees to the conference. There were also several lunchtime roundtable discussions on topics such as News Alerts, Twitter IRL, Starting a Prospect Development Career and more. 

After the nine educational sessions offered throughout the day, iWave sponsored a lively networking reception at the Thirsty Moose, which was followed by group dinners at nearby Portsmouth restaurants. Then a rather large group of attendees found themselves at the Daniel Street Tavern for some karaoke and karaoke-watching.

Friday, the excellent educational programming continued with presenters like Michael Quevli and Marianne Pelletier sharing their knowledge and experience. After lunch on Friday the Annual Business Meeting took place with NEDRA President Suzy Campos sharing highlights of the past year, announcing the slate of next year’s board approved by our first-ever online election, and recognizing outgoing directors. Treasurer Lisa Foster also gave a report on NEDRA’s finances. You can download the 2016 Annual Meeting Presentation on the NEDRA website here. 

Then the recipients of this year’s Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship and Helen Brown Group-NEDRA Scholarship were announced as well as this year’s Ann Castle Award winner Dina Zelleke!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the conference this year! If you haven't yet done so, don't forget to fill out your conference evaluation, sent by the NEDRA office on April 18th. We value your input on these surveys, because it will help us make sure that next year's conference is even better! For those of you who didn't make it this year, we hope to see you at next year's conference or at one of our programs throughout the year.

Our heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who helped make this year's Annual Conference such a success! 

To everyone who served as a speaker, panelist or panel moderator, round table host, session host, Conference Committee member or in any other capacity to help plan and run the conference: thank you! 

And thanks to all the volunteers who make the work of NEDRA possible throughout the year!