“What is a Sustainable Organization?”
by Gayle Lopez, President, 2010

Dear ChemPharma® Professional Association Members,

Sustainability appears to be all the “buzz”. To understand how it applies to CPPA, we need to understand what it means. According Wikipedia, sustainability is defined as:

The capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

To apply these concepts to CPPA, sustainability could mean the ability to endure or maintain the wellbeing of the organization while remaining diverse and productive over time. In other words, we need to evolve to meet the needs of our members.

The CPPA Board of Trustees 2010 mission is to be to redefine the CPPA Value Proposition so that it resonates with all members, regardless of their employment status. We need to bring value to members that are full time employed, self-employed consultants, under-employed, and in-transition. For example, we are asking every chapter to have regular evening events or socials so that our landed members have a better way to stay connected and participate in CPPA.

By focusing on the needs of our diverse membership we are confident that we will be able to increase membership and develop a more sustainable organization. I wanted to share with you the initiatives we have underway to help us achieve this goal:

Enhance website functionality to enrich users’ experience
Create a more robust program offering to increase new member and member retention rates
Improve communication modes and tactics with membership and public to support image and messaging
Promote Chapter “Best Practices” to provide consistent and enriched programming
Increase level of member volunteers to support leadership development and succession planning

While it may seem like a lot to accomplish, we are confident that we can accomplish our mission with the support of our valued members. We will be benchmarking other successful professional organizations to gain insight and will be reaching out to you with a variety of targeted surveys so that we can make sure we identify and meet your needs. We look forward to hearing from you.

Good networking.

Gayle Lopez
President
ChemPharma® Professional Association

P.S. Hope to see you at the National Spring Meeting on May 13 at the Princeton, NJ Marriott. For more info go to www.chempharma.net