Growth and Education Top Priorities

Today, Feb 2004 by Moran, Frank

Board Sets 2004 Goals

For the past two years, TAWPI has enjoyed growth in its membership, an array of new product offerings and financial stability. In order to continue this success, the 2003 TAWPI Board of Directors focused on identifying, prioritizing, and implementing a number of strategic initiatives. In March 2003, the Board completed an analysis of the association's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Building on that process, a board subcommittee analyzed the results and identified specific areas that the association should focus on in 2004. In October, the board (including 2004 newly elected members) approved theses areas of focus and discussed each in detail.

Your TAWPI Board has made the following initiatives top priorities:

GROWTH

The Board recognizes that TAWPI's success, and the value to its members, increases as the organization grows. Each new member offers a new resource, and each new product or educational opportunity is an added benefit of membership. Therefore, the Board has made growing the association its top priority, with the goal of increasing the number and types of product offerings to the association's constituency.

EDUCATION

TAWPI's membership surveys consistently show that education is a top benefit of TAWPI. In light of the pace of changes in regulations, technology and business practices affecting our member's industries, this is little wonder.

On the regulatory side, in just the past year, we've seen:

The Check 21 Law and its impact on payment processing,

The Sarbanes Oxley Act, and its impact on records management practices,

HIPAA Laws and The US Patriot Act and their impact on information security practices.

Technology changes have been just as pronounced with improvements in:

Data Capture,

Character Recognition,

Information Storage and Image Archiving,

Data Transmission and security.

Work processes have likewise been shifting affecting:

Business Process Automation,

Distributed Capture,

Domestic and Off-shore Outsourcing.

Fortunately, these are complementary goals. TAWPI has shown that the best way to attract new members is to offer focused educational opportunities. These take many forms to meet the different learning styles and schedules of the members. Whether it's the daily updates on the TAWPI Website, a telephone seminar, one of the many regional conferences and workshops TAWPI sponsors, or the biggest education opportunity of the year, the TAWPI Forum & Expo, there is a wealth of information available. This will in turn attract new members, and contribute to TAWPI's growth.

At the intersection of these goals are the members themselves; for as they are the beneficiaries of the Association's success. The larger TAWPI becomes, the more education it can offer its members; the more education it offers, the larger it will become. The Board is grateful for the membership without whom these goals would be both impossible and pointless.

With education being the primary area of concentration, new initiatives related to certification will escalate. Information Capture workshops will be held throughout the year to encourage general knowledge of the industry and to help professionals understand the scope of the ICP certification program. Information Capture training materials will be available for organizations to license for internal use-with or without trainers!

By Frank Moron, Board Chair

Frank Moran is Chairman of TAWPI's Board of Directors. he can be reached at Bowne Business Solutions 617-742-7800 ×2312.