Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/52434
125th AFA ANNUAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 29 TO OCTOBER 1, 2011 IN DENVER, COLORADO National Vice President Margaret Schmitt — The American Fraternal Alliance meeting in Denver provided a wealth of information and guidance. The workshop on governance provided statistics about the five most successful fraternals in the country and spelled out things we can imitate, especially in regard to sustainability and leadership. Another workshop presented three keys for building a prosperous fraternal society: adapt to a changing world, use a disciplined approach to new solutions and leverage our unique advantages as a fraternal society. Other workshops and presenters shared marketing ideas and helpful tips for using social media and other forms of technology to reach our members and potential members. One of the most powerful messages of the conference is the importance of helping people understand what a fraternal society IS, and the many advantages of membership. We fraternals 30 are values-based and inclusive. We are careful with the member's money and return the profits to members and their communities, parishes and dioceses through programs like the NCSF Hearts and Hands and the Diocesan Communications grants. National Secretary Patricia DeNys — I find that attending the AFA (formally the National Fraternal Congress of American) annual meeting expands my knowledge of the fraternal system. The workshops I attended were: "Secretaries/HR (human resource)"; "What consumers really think of fraternalism" and "Making the right technology investment." Learning how to evaluate systems and make the right choices for your society. The secretary session discussed compliance issues and that services are available for keeping up to date compliance issues. The workshop on what consumers think was given by a marketing company that did a survey of people that had no relations with fraternals. It was interesting to hear what they thought about fraternals. We are a well-kept secret. Making the right investment in technology showed what is available in computer programs for fraternal societies. National Treasurer Jon Mocol — The American Fraternal Alliance meeting in Denver was very educational and gave us the opportunity to bond with our peers. I attended a board institute, which was very informative about the way in which fraternals operate as well as what we as Board members/ Executive Officers need to do to make our organization successful. We also learned about how to evaluate and understand the statutory accounting statement. The conference brought us to conversations about how do we as fraternal societies collaborate with our counter parts and what can we do to help one another with sharing processing costs, product development or other ideas that will benefit the collaboration, but we need to be careful in this process as well that we do not want to collaborate to where we lose our identity. Another session talked about how we can embrace technology. We need to think about using technology to communicate with our agents and our members, which is more economical than going out and visiting them one by one and you end up getting a more consistent message as everyone is hearing the same presentation. National Director Rosalie Pyle — One of the workshops presented at the conference was entitled "What Consumers Think About Fraternals." Non-members have little to no awareness of the meaning of "fraternal." The term is viewed as vague, negative and seems to imply exclusivity. Other terminology such as "lodge and courts," furthers this thinking. National Catholic Forester