Message from the President and CEO

Dear NFCA Members:

I have completed my first weeks as the NFCA’s president and CEO and wanted to thank all of you who have contacted me with congratulatory greetings and offers of support as we begin our work to enhance the value of the association to its member-societies and to promote the benefits of the fraternal system to consumers, opinion leaders, and public policymakers across the country.

The NFCA Board of Directors has provided me very clear direction on both personal and organizational goals for 2008.  One of my highest priorities is meeting individually with each member-society within the next six months to discuss your views on the fraternal system and to identify ways that the NFCA can develop and deliver the advocacy, informational, and operational products and services that effectively and efficiently meet the needs of its members.  I will be in touch with each of you in the coming weeks to schedule these meetings.

In addition, I will be immersing myself in the issues – operational, regulatory, and political – facing the fraternal system and, in conjunction with the Board, the members, and the staff, developing recommendations to address these pressing matters. 

Later this year, after I have had the opportunity to meet with you and get your feedback and insight on how NFCA can better support its members and the fraternal system, I plan to kick-off an initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of each of NFCA’s major programs to determine whether they are delivering value to the members and the organization.  This “Clean Slate” approach will require us to answer three key questions of the organization:

  1) What are we currently doing that we need to quit doing?
  2) What are we not doing that we should start doing?
  3) What are we doing that we need to do much better?

It is my hope that by successfully completing this project we can adjust the course and operations of NFCA based upon the economic realities and market conditions facing the association and its member societies in the foreseeable future.  Moreover, we will develop effective solutions that provide meaningful services to our members in a cost-effective way and, if possible, generate new revenue streams for the association that can help keep dues down and make membership in the NFCA more attractive to non-member societies.

This initiative will not be easy and it will not happen overnight.  I hope I can count on your support as we work our way through this process together in an effort to create a stronger organization for the future. 

I am honored to serve as NFCA’s president and CEO.  I promise that the entire staff will work diligently with the Board and member-societies to help the organization fulfill its potential.  I encourage you to share your comments, concerns, and critiques of the organization with me by e-mail or phone (630.522.6322, Ext. 117).  Open, honest, and frequent communication between us is absolutely critical to the success of the organization and the fraternal system. 

Sincerely,

Joseph J. Annotti
President and CEO
National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA)