Two of our big projects are looking for leads from members.  The recruiting committee is following up with those who should be members of the association, and the annual meeting committee is contacting businesses that might want to reach RDIA members through our meetings in October.

Other big projects, the how-to-start-a-diaper-service kit and strategic planning, continue on track.

A lot of RDIA members are giving their time and expertise to build the industry.  More volunteers are always welcome!

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Real Diaper Industry Association
Board of Directors meeting
Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Present: Shirley Murdock, Dave Milligan, Lori Taylor, Shayla Boyd-Gill, Judy Aagard. Regrets: Peter Allen, Leah Carter. Facilitating: Shayla Boyd-Gill. Notes: Lori Taylor. Admin: Rachel Aube.

Called to order at 11:02AM without a quorum.

Board Election. Manufacturer and Diaper Service elections are over. Retailer elections has been repeated because of an unclear ballot that asked for two votes rather than just one. Ballots are due August 18^th.

Annual Meeting. Several potential sponsors are interested. Committee members are looking for more strong leads. Shayla and Rachel will be working on the meeting packet and annual report.

Board Retreat. Schedule is set but still flexible. No field trip scheduled. We will share rides to and from airport.

Recruiting. We need more response from potential recruiters. Lori will sent message out to members again. Dave may consider hand picking a few people and assigning them to help.

Member Discussions. Need to fill in upcoming schedule. Rachel will ask Jakki to talk about Marketing and Consider Cloth. There was no direct feedback about holding the discussion in the evening, though we did have fewer attend than during the last three meetings.

Consider Cloth. We have about 40% of the products we need so far. Rachel has been making phone calls to manufacturers.

Research. We have a potential chair. Leah will speak with this person and report.

Subsidies. If we can’t find someone with the vision, time, and energy to develop this project, we will need to change the presentation scheduled at the annual meeting.

Lori ceded the 12 minutes left for strategy to the diaper service kit.

How-to-start-a-diaper-service kit. Judy had a list of questions to ask, including review, marketing, distribution, cost, payments, supplier list, and laundry report. There was concern about document security.

Adjourned 12:37PM.

Tags: board meeting

As the Annual Meeting Committee works to create a great experience for members and non-members in Las Vegas in October, a lot of annual goal and project activity is coming together.

The Marketing Committee continues to gather together pieces for the next 1000 diaper demo kits for doulas, and the Retailer Certification project will be discussed at the next member discussion webinar.

The new Volunteer Group definitions and strategic planning are also helping us back up and think of the big picture for the association.

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Real Diaper Industry Association
Board of Directors meeting
July 21, 2010

Present: Leah Carter, Lori Taylor, Shirley Murdock, Shayla Boyd-Gill, Dave Milligan, Peter Allen, Judy Aagard. Facilitating: Leah Carter. Notes: Lori Taylor. Admin: Rachel Aube.

Meeting called to order at 11:02AM with a quorum.

Election. Ballots are due Monday and will be counted Tuesday.

Volunteer Group Policy. The ex-board group will be called Real Diaper Advisory Council. The board approved unanimously the Volunteer Groups Policy. Like the first governing board, the first Real Diaper Advisory Council will be appointed then members of the Council will vote on future members.

Annual Meeting. Committee is working on sponsorships. The future planning group talked through the possibilities for a stand-alone meeting, meeting with other organizations, or meetings during major conventions. If we stick to travel hubs, we could move around geographically.

Recruiting. Dave has offered to lead. Members can make referrals to the Recruiting Committee, who will then track leads the way a sales team does. We will continue to encourage manufacturers to invite their retailers to become RDIA members as well. Dave will recruit the recruiters.

Member Discussion. We will move the time and day around in the next three months. Next week, the Retailer Certification Chair will lead discussion on that project. Second topic will be a request for members’ ideas for the strategic planning process.

Consider Cloth. Next step: donations. One the request for donations has gone out, we will ask the members as a whole whether they want to sponsor.

Subsidies. We need a new Chair and quick focus for the project in order to be ready for the annual meeting presentation. The strategic plan could help us determine if this is going to be a priority.

Strategic Plan. Next step: gather stakeholder input. We will talk to members next week at the member discussion, and board members will contribute to the SWOT and analysis this week. We expect to have a final document to share with members at the annual meeting.

Meeting adjourned 12:07PM.

Tags: board meeting

As members of the RDIA we share a common goal—to spread the word and usage of cloth diapers.

Whether you are a retailer, small or large manufacturer, diaper service or a diaper information service, your membership helps to accomplish our unified goal and at the very same time your business is increased as our collective positive influence is felt stronger and wider each passing month!!

Keeping in mind that this is an industry association and therefore increasing our collective sales and market share is of primary interest, we have a plan to bring our position in the “Diapering World” to new levels.

The formula for our organization is working. The membership roles are now 165 strong and growing! We have an opportunity to increase our membership several times over.

THE PLAN IN A NUTSHELL

OBJECTIVE
Double our membership in one year’s time.

WHY
Would increase our ability to advertise, lobby, have trade show presence, educate, and many more worthy and productive activities.

RESULT
Thousands more parents would choose cloth over disposables resulting in increased sales, healthier kids, and a much cleaner environment!!

As the Board of Directors, we are putting a new emphasis on the recruiting committee whose duty will be to follow up on leads for perspective new RDIA members.

As members of this new team we will follow through on an individual basis with the ( soon to be ) new members, making sure that they are comfortable and up to speed on all things RDIA. From service opportunities to initial paperwork to benefits / perks of membership and just giving them a friend to be able to call with a question or idea.

We plan to put together a simple spreadsheet that will help us to ensure that each prospective member is treated with the prompt and personal attention. The committee will consist of members from all membership catagories which will help us to better relate to each new member on his/her own terms.

Ok, there are two things that are now needed to get this ball rolling.

1. Members to fill committee positions.
2. Referrals for RDIA prospects

If you have a small amount of time to give to the cause and you have basic computer skills and you do not mind answering questions via phone or email, come join with me!

As for referrals, this is up to all of us as members. We all know someone else in the industry that is not part of the association and probably should be. We will be creating a referral form that can be submitted electronically. These referrals will then be personally and carefully followed up on all the way through the membership process!

If we all bring just one new member to the RDIA this coming year, our membership will double! Creation and support of this new committee can help to make that happen!!

Please volunteer for the committee today by contacting Rachel at info@realdiaperindustry.org

And for all of us—start thinking of the business associates that should be part of the RDIA

Thanks very much for your support of this most worthy and mutually beneficial call to action.

Dave

David H. Milligan
Bambino Mio (Manufacturer)
Member, RDIA Board of Directors

Tags: Members, recruiting, volunteers

We are doing well lately noticing where there are gaps and filling those in. We made a minor clarification to the bylaws and had a first look at two potential new policies: one a basic conflict of interest policy for board members and the other a volunteer group policy that clarifies the roles of committees and other groups.  This last policy also creates a group for former board members—a group we have yet to name, though we’re starting at some version of “Advisory Council.”

We’ve also been working to streamline communications to be sure that we don’t overload busy schedules of our members with too much information at one time. A communications survey will follow soon as part of our strategic planning.

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Real Diaper Industry Association
Board Meeting, July 7, 2010
Conference Call

Present: Leah Carter, Lori Taylor, Dave Milligan, Judy Aagard, Shirley Murdock, Shayla Boyd-Gill, Dennis Frederick. Facilitator: Leah Carter; Notes: Lori Taylor; Admin: Rachel Aube.

Meeting called to order at 1:02PM ET with presence of a quorum.

Election. Ballots were mailed Monday from Victoria, British Columbia.

Interim Members. We have worked on the idea and the details of Jr, Start-up, or Interim members since last year. We thought this would be a bylaw change sent to members, but our attorney advised us to keep this under the non-voting Associate Members section of the bylaws. We will approve the details as a policy.

Clarification of Directors. The attorney also drafted a bylaw change last Fall to clarify that directors must be the member on record for their member business. Since this is a minor bylaw change, the board voted to approve. Updated bylaws.

Conflict of Interest Policy for Board. The new 990 tax form asks whether boards have a Conflict of Interest policy in place. It is good practice, so we have a draft policy written with the 990 intentions in mind. We will vote next meeting.

Volunteer Groups Policy. Looking for a model policy for an alumni group for former board members, we found a model that will help us clarify roles and governance for all of the committees and groups. In addition, we have drafted a policy that specifically sets up an Advisory Council for former board members and Emeritus Board Member status to be used rarely. We will vote on this next meeting.

Annual Meeting. Registration is up, schedule is posted. Volunteer and sponsorship documents are in ready. Nearly everything is in place, and we are just adjusting now. We are ready to invite members to register for the annual business meetings October 14-15 in Las Vegas.

Future Annual Meetings. Since we have discussed not meeting in conjunction with the ABC Show in the future, we need to assess our options. We could meet during other trade shows, with other associations, or we could meet alone. We should also consider going to Canada. If we set up a 5-year schedule, we could rotate.

PR Update. We have a first draft of the member press release. The focus on the three Rs works very well. We will work to update the second half.

Member Communications Survey. There is general support for a survey of members to be sure that our communications reach them the way they want to be reached. This can be considered part of the strategic planning.

Consider Cloth program. The Marketing Committee has made two requests: that we continue distributing Consider Cloth diaper demo kits to childbirth educators for the coming year and that we take kits to the Lamaze conference. There is interest in continuing sponsorships. The board voted to approve the program and attendance at the conference for the coming year. Requests for donated products will begin this month.

Diaper Service How-to Kit Update. One of the most valuable parts of the old NADS kit was “Modern Diaper Laundry,” an analysis of the chemical rationales for laundering. It needs revision and update.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:46PM ET.

Tags: Board

What is going on in the cloth diaper industry?

• Who bought a laundromat a year ago?
• Who just moved into a new 5000 square foot store?
• Who is celebrating a 10th anniversary?

You know you want to know!

Find answers on the cloth diaper business news feed.  Our home page has a mini version of the feed in a cool sidebar gadget like the one below.

All RDIA members are welcome to send press releases, announcements, and big news to info at realdiaperindustry dot org.  For more details on news feed guidelines, use your member login to the RDIA website and check out the member media tools page.

Tags: member benefits, member news