National Association of Professional Organizers
Washington, DC

Monday, June 4, 2012 @ 6:30pm

Kena Shriners

9001 Arlington Boulevard

Fairfax, VA 22031

The White Elephant Sale , Favorite Organizing Products and Corporate Partners

We’ll start at 6:30 with the our inaugural White Elephant Sale. It’s a great opportunity to get rid of unwanted organizing supplies and books while helping out A Wider Circle, our Community Partner.

The meeting will continue with the ever-popular show and tell of new and favorite organizing products and services. This year we are combining that with members’ recommendations of Corporate Partners. Learn from fellow members what they like and use to help your clients achieve optimum organization.

NAPO-WDC chapter members recently gathered to celebrate our 2011-2012 chapter year. It was a fun evening honoring all those who stepped forward and offered their time and talents to benefit the chapter. So many people to thank – I won’t mention them all in fear that I will forget someone, but I do want to congratulate a few of our outstanding members.

First, I want to honor the winner of the NAPO-WDC Professional Organizer of the Year award, Maria White. Maria collected almost 5,000 pairs of shoes for Soles4Souls, getting the whole chapter and many local businesses involved.

Second, Heather Cocozza was voted by the membership as NAPO-WDC Volunteer of the Year. Heather participates in a leadership role in many chapter activities like BCPO chapter liaison, chapter blog poster, Ask the Expert facilitator and leader of the ever-popular Alexandria/Arlington Neighborhood Group.

We had so many people get involved this year, which strengthened our chapter and its ability to offer education and support to our membership.  If you missed the list of our accomplishments at the party, here it is:

• 10 Enthusiastic new members, for a total of 102 members to date.
• 94 Posts to date on NAPO-WDCs Informative new chapter blog.
• 6 New Corporate Partners, with a total of 14 Great Corporate Partners to date.
• 112 Excited people attended the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference for Professional Organizers.
• 26 Remarkable chapter members and Corporate Partners participated in our GO Month project at A Wider Circle.
•  60 Passionate chapter members attended the NAPO conference in Baltimore.
• 9 years of educational conference recordings with over 450 individual seminars available.
• 8 Incredible Quantum Leap trainers in the chapter.
• 15 Tremendous CPOs in the chapter.
• 3 Neighborhood groups that offer awesome direction and friendship.
• 1 Fabulous book club.
• 8 Dynamic speakers who spoke at chapter meetings.
• 42 Golden Circle members who graciously gave advice at the Ask the Expert tables.
• 14 Energized members attended the new member brunch.

Of course, we’ve just gotten started. Our chapter year doesn’t end until the September 30th. But, with our upcoming summer break around the corner, the timing seemed appropriate to look back on our year.

We still have our “Favorite Things” June meeting scheduled along with a new activity – A White Elephant Sale. Over the summer the NAPO-WDC board of directors will be planning the 2012-2013 chapter year and look forward to starting off strong in September. Don’t worry; you’ll be hearing a lot from us in the interim. Registration for MARCPO (Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference for Professional Organizers) starts in June and don’t miss out on the early bird special pricing over the summer. Book club members will be meeting for the fiction book read in July, and of course, the neighborhood groups will get together. There is always something to do within NAPO-WDC.

If I don’t get a chance at the June meeting, I want to thank you for being a part of a great year for the chapter. Have a wonderfully successful summer and I look forward to seeing you again in the 2012-2013 chapter year.

If you’d like to contact our President, you can email her at president@dcorganizers.org.

Congratulations to the 2012 NAPO DC award winners!!

Perfect Attendance Award – Jackie Kelley (right)

Quiet Volunteer Award – Eileen LaGreca (right)

Social Media Star Award – Kim Oser (right)

Fabulous Freshman Award – Stephen Bok (right) & Tiffany Mensing (left)

Best New Idea Award – Susan Kousek (right)

We Can Always Count on You Award – Silvia Balderas-Saari (center) & Janice Rasmussen (left)

Shining Star Award – Katie Mazzocco (left)

Corporate Partner of the Year – B-Thrifty (wasn’t present) & Shelf Genie (Joe Johnson on left)

Volunteer of the Year – Heather Cocozza (left)

Professional Organizer of the Year – Maria White (left)

May Chapter Meeting a.k.a. NAPO-WDC Awards Bash!

Over 60 NAPO-WDC members gathered on May 7, 2012, for the May chapter meeting which is historically celebrated as our awards night.  It’s a night to mingle with old friends, make new connections and relax while soaking up the chapters’ accomplishments over the past year.  And, of course, find out the winners of the coveted Corporate Partner of the Year, Professional Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year awards.

2011 MARCPO Volunteers

Director of Programs, Pierrette Ashcroft, headed up the planning committee and truly gave attendees a fabulous evening.  The party was held at Timpano in Rockville, MD and kicked off at 7:00 pm with networking and cold beverages.  President Janet Schiesl read out a list of chapter accomplishments “by the numbers” which were collected from many chapter members.  Cris Sgrott-Wheedleton, MARCPO Chair, recognized all of the MARCPO 2011 committee members.

Chapter member, Erin Doland, provided excellent comic relief as our very own professional organizer/stand up comedienne!  Her gentle pokes at the world of professional organizing brought lots of knowing laughs.  OK, maybe there were a few hilarious, pointy barbs in there as well but it was all in good fun!

Erin Doland – Our Comedian for the Night!

Interspersed with segments of networking was the acknowledgement of GO Month volunteers, the Veteran Project volunteers, outgoing board members and the swearing in of new board members.

Several new awards were given out to the following members:  Perfect Attendance went to Jackie Kelley; Quiet Volunteer went to Eileen LaGreca; Social Media Star went to Kim Oser; Fabulous Freshmen went to Stephen Bok and Tiffany Mensing; Best New Idea to Susan Kousek (for the White Elephant Sale being held at the June meeting); We Can Always Count on You to Silvia Balderas-Saari and Janice Rasmussen; Shining Star to Katie Mazzocco.

Finally, the evening’s most eagerly anticipated awards were given out.  B-Thrifty and Shelf Genie tied for Corporate Partner of the Year.  Maria White was named Professional Organizer of the Year and Heather Cocozza was named Volunteer of the Year.

The lucky winner of the drawing for a complimentary NAPO-WDC membership for next year was Andrea Hancock.

Food, fun, an adult beverage or two, and the camaraderie of spending a relaxing evening with NAPO-WDC colleagues, this year’s awards bash had it all.

There are tons of apps to scan documents with your iPhone’s camera. Here are three free ones that only require a steady hand and decent lighting.

Scan Pages converts your iPhone into a mobile scanner.

• Turn any page into a PDF document.
• Advance image processing technology cleans up your scans.
• Combine scanned pages into one PDF file and store in GoogleDocs, Evernote, Dropbox or share by e-mail.
• No registration is required.

Image to Text does just as the name indicates.

• Snap a photo of a document or use an existing image in your photo album.
• The OCR process converts the image into editable text.
• You have the option of sending the converted file by e-mail or to your Evernote account.
• Works best when the image is flat. With some practice you can make it work with books and magazines.
• There is a limit of about 10 pages before a message tells you to try again later.

CardMunch is invaluable at networking events.

• A simple click uploads the information on a business card to your Contacts. You’ll also have an image of the card.
• You can immediately add notes, even before the information is transcribed.
• A team of humans verifies all uploads for accuracy often within a couple of minutes but time can vary.
• For LinkedIn members, you can request a connection or view a full profile within the app. LinkedIn saw the synergy with CardMunch and purchased the company last fall.
• This app is not intended for bulk scanning.

No disrespect is intended to Android or Blackberry users by focusing solely on iPhone apps.

Pierrette Ashcroft, CPO® is the founder of getOrganizedDC based in Washington, DC.

As a Certified Professional Organizer® she provides organizational and productivity solutions to individuals and small businesses that help them succeed. Pierrette uses her knowledge and over 20 years experience as a small business owner to teach clients how to reach their goals through time management, taking control of paper and digital files and incorporating technological solutions when appropriate.

Since 2010 Pierrette has served on the board of directors of the Washington, DC chapter of NAPO. She has been featured in the Washington Post and on News Channel 8.

 We are all at different stages in our businesses and have unique goals for our companies.  This workshop, cleverly titled “KICK-BUTT BUSINESS BOOTCAMP,” aims to help us take our businesses to the next level. That will mean different things to different people, but what we are ALL striving to do as business owners is the same… IMPROVE OUR BUSINESSES!

To some of us, improving our business might mean acquiring more clients and making more money… to others it might mean hiring people to work for our company, and/or gaining greater exposure.  To some improving our business might mean developing additional streams of income, while to others it might mean narrow our niche.  Yet for some, improving our business simply means creating more ease and efficiency while staying a small, one-person company.  All of these areas are ways to IMPROVE and all will be addressed at the KICK-BUTT BUSINESS BOOTCAMP!

Most of NAPO-Baltimore’s monthly chapter meetings’ programs focus on improving your client skills, BUT at this 3.5-hour workshop you will be given the chance to improve your skills as a BUSINESS OWNER of a professional organizing business.  Plus, it was created by a professional organizer, specifically FOR professional organizers, so you will be getting answers to your business questions that are customized to you and that go far beyond what you can get from general business support services (community college classes, networking, SBA, SCORE).  You don’t stumble on this type of industry- specific class every day, especially one that you have the option to attend live & IN-PERSON.

Here is what you will learn in this motivational and informative 3.5 hours:

• Create a strategic plan for growing operations
• Determine the right business model for you
• Determine your Unique Selling Proposition
• Identify your Target Market and Ideal Client, and how to market to reach them
• Be perceived as an expert in your area
• Delegate and outsource to employees or subcontractors (including organizing assistants, virtual assistants, etc.)
• Create your Profit Pyramid
• Create multiple streams of income, leverage and repurpose your content, expand your delivery methods, offer options at multiple price points, create packages and value-based pricing, and give clients a menu or suite of services
• Develop Strategic Partnerships and engage in Joint Ventures
• Establish a Board of Advisors
• Draft an Operations Manual
• Focus on your unique areas of brilliance within your business
• Learn how to work on your business, not just in it

The presenter of our Bootcamp is also a big deal!  If you haven’t already heard, it is Lisa Montanaro! She is a NAPO member who is a very popular NAPO Conference speaker, highly successful in our industry, and is an attorney, so she brings another set of skills and information to the table when answering business structure and development questions.

Sign-up today to take advantage of the EARLYBIRD price break! (ends May 21st!) Share this opportunity with your own networks and we hope to see you there!

This is a paid advertisement. Advertisements on NAPO-WDC’s website, blog, social networking sites and/or any other technological outlet do not imply endorsement of their service or product.

Monday, May 7, 2012 @ 7pm

The Tribute Bash: A Salute to NAPO DC Volunteers 2012

7:00 pm – $20 per member

Mark your calendars for Monday, May 7 at 7 p.m. and join fellow NAPO-WDC members, the board of directors and Corporate Partners at Timpano in Rockville for a lively evening of networking and appreciation.

Some very notable updates to our awards night:

• There will be a great selection of delicious hors d’oeuvres. You’ll receive a coupon for one free beer or glass of wine and there will be a cash bar all evening. Soft drinks are gratis.

• This year we are expanding the awards given to our members in recognition.

• The price has dropped tremendously (NAPO DC will be covering more than half the evening’s cost – thank you NAPO DC!).

You will not want to miss NAPO-WDC’s award ceremony where Professional Organizer of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Corporate Partner of the Year will be announced. In addition, this is the evening where one lucky member will win a free NAPO-WDC Membership for the 2012-2013 chapter year!

You must pay in advance for this event by sending a check for $20 to the NAPO-WDC Treasurer, 5593 Malone Ridge Street, Unit 7106, Alexandria, VA 22312. Checks should be made payable to NAPO-WDC. The deadline to reserve your seat is April 27^th, 2012. Watch your email for an Evite.

Please direct questions to Pierrette Ashcroft at development@dcorganizers.org.