Name:
Location: Indiana, United States

I became a Professor Emeritus after serving 29 years as a recreational therapy faculty member at Indiana University. I'm a long-time Hoosier, having grown up in Hanover, Indiana. My RT practitioner work was in psych/mental health. After completing my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, my first faculty position was at the University of North Texas. RT has been a wonderful profession for me as I have had the opportunity to serve as an author and national leader.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Idea -- More ATRA Communications Needed

I regularly receive email messages from the Recreation Therapists of Indiana and from a couple of national organizations. I also receive a monthly eletronic newsletter from another organization.

I occasionally receive an email message from ATRA. Usually it is from Thom Skalko regarding some public policy conference call or action. But I wonder if ATRA could not do much more with eletronic communications.

When I was an ATRA officer, those of us on the Board believed we were continually communicating with the members as to what was going on. But we regularly received feedback from members that they felt they were not receiving information on ATRA activities. Now that I am not on the Board I am better understanding the feelings that members had about not receiving information about what is happening with ATRA and within RT in general.

Now that we are able to communicate so easily through eletronic communications, I wonder if it would not be a good idea for ATRA to do more in terms of getting out to the membership. Why not more regular emails to the members? Why not publish a monthly ATRA Newsletter? Or how about distributing a monthly update to the members from the ATRA President?

ATRA has long prided itself on being a grassroots organization. To me being a grassroots organization means regular and open communications among the members. I really do wonder if our national organization is taking full advantage of the means of communications available to us today. What do you think?

2 Comments:

Blogger Mike Sutherland said...

I do enjoy receiving the updates from Thom or Lisa as well as the quarterly newsletters, but I agree that increasing the number of membership "touches" could prove invaluable in both member retention and satisfaction. Maybe if I am elected to the ATRA BOD this fall I can put it in the mix :)

11:17 AM  
Blogger Danny Pettry said...

I'd like to get more emails from ATRA, too.

Danny

8:57 PM  

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