President's Corner

January 2012
Nancy Burt
President, Orange County Chapter

I would like to start out 2012 by reminding us of some of our accomplishments in 2011:

• We offered seven hours of continuing education with our speaker-led lunch seminars and provided two roundtable discussions.
• We were able to offer a scholarship for one member to attend EdSymposium in Charleston, SC.
• Our membership increased 25% over the course of the year.
• Four informative newsletters were sent to our membership and associates.
• We participated in our 4th annual Canstruction event and our 20th annual Project Playhouse event.
• Long-time former member Judy Merrill was awarded Honorary Membership.

As you can see, we were busy and we have just as much in store for this coming year.

I am honored and pleased to begin my second term as President of the Orange County Chapter of SDA and am delighted to welcome our newest Board member, Penny Nelson from Douglas Pancake Architects who is taking on the position of Corresponding Secretary. I am pleased that we have four returning Board members this year: Helen Palermo as Treasurer, Cheryl Mathes as Recording Secretary, and Diana Dubich and Betsy Nickless who will share the Co-Vice President position.

I encourage each of you to attend our monthly Business meetings. They are held the first Thursday evening of each month at a member’s office. This is a great way to learn about the inner workings of our organization and to have your voice heard in what we offer in terms of seminars, events and networking opportunities.

Also, please plan on attending our monthly lunch seminars (held the third Thursday of each month) to take advantage of the many tools we have to enhance your knowledge. This year we will be changing the venue for our lunch seminars so please keep an eye out for the e-blast invitations as they will contain all the details.

We have many new educational and networking opportunities planned for 2012 - I hope you will take advantage of these offerings to further your career, enhance your worth to your firm and for your own personal growth. And don’t forget to regularly visit the SDA national website (www.sdadmin.org) for the latest news, forum discussions, webinar offerings, the SDA Market, information on certification (CDFA), and more.

Please see other areas of this newsletter and our Orange County website www.sdaoc.org for further details on dates, times and places of meetings and seminars and plan on attending. I don’t want you to miss out - the more you participate, the more you benefit.

Thank you in advance for your continued support of SDA and I look forward to seeing you at our next event.

Nancy Burt, SDA