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NewsBreak

February 2003    An affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women     Vol. 13, No. 3


You Need a Web Site: So, What Do You Do Next?
Web Site Development Is Topic of February General Meeting
By Theresa Gawlas Medoff

The DPA general meeting on Feb. 4, 7-9 p.m., features a multi-media panel presentation by several local web experts. “You Need a Web Site: So, What Do You Do Next?” will look at all aspects of web page implementation and maintenance, from choosing a domain name and server to designing a site to getting listed on the right search engines.

Our speakers represent different views on the subject. Author, storyteller and DPA member Ed Okonowicz and his wife Kathleen established a website “reluctantly,” he says, in 2001 for their company, Myst and Lace Publishers Inc., which specializes in regional books. Okonowicz will discuss his experiences and frustrations establishing and maintaining a presence on the web and the need to find a qualified webmaster. He also will talk about the site’s advantages in communicating with current and potential customers.

David Barczak together with UD Marine Public Education Office colleagues Pam Donnelly and Tracey Bryant will highlight one of the online expeditions they have developed to help educate youngsters about the deep sea. These three DPA members have won numerous accolades for their web sites, including national first place awards from the National Federation of Press Women. They will also highlight special interactive features that have been incorporated into the site to help visitors learn about the sea by using the web. Their experiences will be invaluable to anyone seeking a highly interactive web site.

The final panelist, Dave Gregory, a computer tech specialist at the UD Public Relations Office, will provide insight and cautions about the technical aspects of web pages. In addition to his work at UD, Gregory builds individual web sites, so he can also offer the developer’s perspective.

The panelists’ talks will be supplemented by a presentation of actual web sites on a large screen monitor, so audience members can see what our experts are talking about.

The web site presentation will be held Tuesday, Feb. 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Room 206 Robinson Hall at the University of Delaware’s main campus in Newark. Robinson Hall is located on South College Avenue, just south of Morris Library, between Winslow Road and Park Place.

There are two parking options. Paid parking is available at the Visitor's Center parking lot on South College Avenue, across from Morris Library. Free parking is available in a large parking lot directly in front of Robinson Hall. However, visitors will need a parking pass. We will have the passes available in Room 206 of Robinson Hall, and visitors will then need to bring the pass back out to their car and put it on the dashboard to avoid a parking ticket. The entrance to the Robinson Hall parking lot is just north of the intersection of South College and Park Place.

Contact Theresa Medoff: info@delawarepressassociation.org

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Spotlight on Ann Marie van den Hurk

A test that changed my life in 1995…

I was a membership specialist at Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council when one of my co-workers, who was pursuing a masters in counseling, asked me to take one of those career tests.

I don’t really remember which one it was. I did it to assist her because she needed willing victims to practice on. I didn’t expect much, but was shocked when the results said my Top career choices were military officer, police officer, teacher, or broadcaster. I wasn’t too attracted to the first three, but broadcaster caught my interest. As I started researching broadcasting, I uncovered public relations. My educational background was in International Relations not communications or marketing. I started reading books on public relations, talking to anyone I knew in the field volunteering on WVUD 91.3 as a program host, and writing media releases for other nonprofits I worked with.

Being shy, I really never thought about public relations or anything that put me in front of people. In fact I was so shy, when I started my volunteer position on WVUD 91.3, I threw-up after the first time on air! Despite this I found that I really liked communicating with people and exposing them to new and different things. I also knew that I wanted to continue making a positive difference by working in a nonprofit. The answer was a career change to public relations where I could combine my talents and commitment to making the world a better place. I’m very thankful that I work for an organization that recognized my strengths and desire to work in public relations. I was given every opportunity to take on tasks related to the field and I was later promoted to Public Relations Manager and then to Director of Communications.

Thanks to helping someone, I was able to find my path in life!

Ann Marie van den Hurk has been a professional staff member of the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout for the past eight years. She is presently the Director of Communications. Ann believes in being active in the community and currently involved with the Public Relations Society of America Delaware Chapter, Delaware Press Association, New Castle County Chamber of Commerce Communications Council, Newark Arts Alliance, and Public Allies Delaware Board of Advisors. Ann hosted a the weekly radio program, “A Room of One’s Own” on WVUD 91.3 where she indulged in her love of broadcasting and music for eight years. Her other interests are reading, music, traveling, baking naughty desserts and cooking Indian and Belgian meals for friends and family. Ann received her BA from the University of Delaware in International Relations. Ann was born in the Republic of Ireland. She is married and lives in Newark, Delaware.

Ann Marie van den Hurk
Director of Communications
Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council
501 South College Avenue
Newark, DE 19713
302.456.7170 T 302.456.7188 F
avandenhurk@cbgsc.org

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Media Mavens & Mavericks

  • Watch out! Curves ahead! According to Tara Lynn Johnson, whose article “Doll challenges media images of female body” appeared in the December 27 issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The full-figured Emme doll may have Barbie on the run. Created by the Tonner Doll Co., the 16-inch collector’s item looks more like the real women—moms, teachers, doctors—impressionable young girls see every day and may help them overcome poor body images fostered by the “inhumanely small-waisted” Barbie.
    “Show us more chubby women,” says Tara. “For most of the 1990s and into the new century, emaciated-looking models like Kate Moss were lauded, and size 10 women—many at a healthy weight for their height—felt huge. Hollywood toothpicks like Lara Flynn Boyle and Calista Flockhart make full-figured women like Lorraine Bracco of “The Sopranos” and Oprah Winfrey look positively obese. But Bracco and Winfrey have shown that curvaceous women can achieve success and be respected. We can use their success as a guide and ask for more.”
  • In December Claudia Young and H. A. Maxson published the fifth book in their Magical History Tour Series. William Penn and the Lower Three Counties is intended for a juvenile audience, ages 8-11 and will be used in schools in Delaware.
    Contact: Claudia Young at BayOakPublishers@aol.com.
  • On Sunday morning, Jan. 5, National Public Radio “Weekend Edition” aired, nationwide, a ten-minute story about DPA’s December luncheon speaker Rachel Simon (author of Riding the Bus with My Sister), her sister Beth and the buses they rode. The NPR reporter, Joe Shapiro, rode buses with Rachel and Beth for a day, and then put together a story that includes not only the sisters, but also several bus drivers, including Jacob and Henry (who use their real names). Most of the piece actually unfolds on the buses. If you want to read about the interview, see photographs, or listen to the interview, please check the NPR archives at http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_883647.html.
  • Christine Celano and Kim Burdick are working with Ted Ireland, carver of the Kalmar Nyckel, to produce a book Ted has written and illustrated about the shipbuilding process.
  • Rita Farrell, former Reuters Bureau Chief, Sharon Mittelman, morning news anchor of 1450 WILM New Radio; and Tom Rigatti of WDEL were members of a panel discussing “Professionalism in High Profile Cases” at a December 4 Bar Bench Media Conference at the Wyndham Hotel. Others on the panel were Chancellor William B. Chandler of Chancery Court, retired Judge William Swain Lee and several prominent members of the Delaware State Bar Association.
  • Welcome New Members
    • Clella Murray author
    • Rachel Simon author

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In Memoriam: Frances Daily Naczi, DPA Founder and Charter Member

Frances Daily Naczi, 85, longtime journalist and public relations executive who in 1977 co-founded Delaware Press Women, now Delaware Press Association, died November 14, 2002 of lung cancer in Deptford, N..J. She moved from Wilmington to Lakebridge in Deptford in 1995. Born in Philadelphia, she graduated from Woodbury (N.J.) High School and Mulvey Institute of Journalism and Advertising, Philadelphia. She entered journalism as a cub reporter for the Atlantic City Daily World. In 1939, at 21, she purchased the Atlantic City News and merged it with the Atlantic City Leader to create the Atlantic City Leader and News, becoming the youngest newspaper publisher in New Jersey. According to her son Richard J. Naczi she closed down the newspaper a year later because advertisers withdrew after she began to expose local corruption. She then worked as a reporter for the Woodbury Times (now the Gloucester County Times), and the Camden Courier-Post.

In 1941 she married Joseph J. Naczi, a Du Pont Co. chemical engineer, and they moved to Wilmington, where she became editor of the women’s page of the Wilmington Sunday News. Moving to public relations, she worked successively for Delaware State Hospital and Wilmington Savings Fund Society. She joined First Federal Savings and Loan in 1971 serving as director of marketing. She retired in 1980. During her career she also was free-lance writer for various publications including Delaware Today.

Her book, Without Bombast and Blunder; an Executive’s Guide to Effective Writing, published in 1980, was culled from her experience in corporate positions. Frances was a board member of the Delaware Mental Health Assn., member of Delaware Press Association, National Federation of Press Women (NFPW), former president of the Diamond State Branch of the National League of American Pen Women. She was an honorary member of the National Press Club, Washington, DC, co-founded by her father, Francis P. Daily, city editor of the Washington Times Herald.

In addition to her son Richard, of Westville, N.J., she is survived by son, Peter D., of Annapolis, Md. Her husband and her daughter, Carolyn B. Naczi, predeceased her. Friends may make contributions in her memory to charities of their choice.

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Write with Your . . . Ear
by Dennis Jackson

Listen to what your ear tells you about your writing.

I don't mean merely sounding out words as you wrestle them into shape. I mean, once you've finished a draft, read it out loud to another person, or have her read it back to you. It's here that your ear can tell you so much about your writing.

It can, for example, tell you—

  • If your writing projects a relaxed conversational voice that sounds authentic and human . . . . (Otherwise you might be writing a stilted textbook-y sort of prose that will drive readers away in herds.)
  • If you’re using too many sentences that couple too many main clauses together with “and”. . . (That strains your reader’s ability to comprehend what you’re piling on him. Do you need to partition your thoughts—and help readers—by using more periods?)
  • If you’re providing sufficient typographical cues to help readers negotiate your prose . . . . (Such cues could include white spaces—paragraph indents or space breaks between sections—that could better guide readers through your writing. Perhaps you could help by supplying subheads between sections or by breaking up complicated passages into lists, using numbers or bullets to separate items.)
  • If you’re getting strong rhythms and cadences into your prose . . . . (If you don’t hear those as your text is being read out loud, then you can improve as you revise. You can create rhythm by alternating short and long units. Short sentences can pack a punch. Look to see if you’ve used any. If not, deploy some, especially in crucial spots. Then, check the words at the ends of paragraphs. If you aren’t getting key words into those emphatic end positions, chances are good that you aren’t developing strong cadences. Without rhythm and cadence, your writing may fail to project a compelling “voice” to readers.)
  • If you follow this process—of listening to your writing—you’ll find it easier to revise. Learn to trust what your ear tells you.

Dennis Jackson is co-editor with John Sweeney of The Journalist’s Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories.

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“But I’m not creative!”
Page Design for Non-Designers 101
by Pam Nichols

The Dollar Bill Rule. If you put a dollar bill anywhere on your page, it should touch at least one graphic element (thankfully for us writers, this does include heads, pull-out quotes, subheads).

Not to be confused with the One Biggest Element Rule. Graphic elements shouldn’t be all the same size. The reader’s eye doesn’t know where to land and start reading.

BUT, then there’s the Have One or More Points of Entry Rule: so the reader has more than one chance at sTopping to read before turning the page!

Good White Space vs. Trapped White Space Rule. Are your gutters so big that they are trapped white space?

The Alphabet-and-a-Half Rule. This has to do with optimum column width. Too much width is too intimidating to reading. Too narrow is too annoying and tiresome for the reader. Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijkl (this width is optimum)

The Easy-to-Read-Comes-Before-Pretty Rule. Text wrapped around art or photos? Text set in color? Font impossible to read in large doses?

This rule is a corollary of the Remember-You’re-In-the-Junk-Mail-Business Rule, which recognizes that what we write, design and send to people was probably not solicited and is headed for the recycling bin unless we can sTop them.

Top Left to Bottom Right Rule. How does your eye travel across a page (if you
live in the Western World!)? What happens when you put a big picture on the bottom of a page? What’s the best spot for important items? What’s the best spot for unimportant items? What happens when you put big, important items at the bottom right?

The Two or Three Fonts Maximum Rule (one for headlines, one for text, for example, so reader can easily distinguish headlines from text)

NEVER USE ALL CAPS FOR HEADLINES RULE! Many words of all caps are hard to read.
Don’t Capitalize Every Word In Your Headlines Rule. (you’re asking your reader to bob up and down, plus you’re not using caps for meaning) Don’t capitalize every word in your headlines. (See?)

While we’re on headlines: Use action verbs in headlines; tell what’s news; avoid “headings.” Think: if my reader only reads the headline, will they get the gist of the story? This is hard!

Centered headlines are wimpy. Flush left headlines are seen as stronger (plus they are easier on the reader who doesn’t have to jump back and forth from the center to the left).
Use spot color or second color for graphics, NOT text. Another example of “less is more.”

Always use photo captions. It’s an opportunity to communicate. People read captions, even (no, especially) if they know who the person in the photo is.

Proofread, profread, proofreed again. And then ask someone else too proofread to. (catch that?) What does proofreading have to do with design? It doesn’t matter. Your reader only knows that it’s all communication.

And finally, the Somehow-Figure-Out-When-You-Can-Break-These-Rules-Rule. Actually, this one isn’t so hard. The first rule is readability. If you can break one of these rules and your piece can still be easily read, well organized and understood, go for it.

Note: Pam Nichols, dir. of communications, Delaware State Education Association, is a non-designer if there ever was one. She thanks innumerable printers, colleagues and designers for what they have graciously shared their expertise with her over the years, patiently explaining that what she learned about preparing papers for college had nothing at all to do with organizational communication.

Contact Pam Nichols: Pamela.Nichols@dsea.org

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Some Things to Consider When Hiring a Graphic Designer
By Christine Celano

Everybody benefits from good design and good design is good business. Whether your client or firm is developing a simple brochure or full-blown book or catalogue, good design is an important part of the communications process.

It is important to determine whether your communication needs require a full service agency, a small firm, or an independent designer. A full service agency usually offers a broad compliment of services in house, which may include research, writing, video and web production. Small firms and independent graphic designers usually have a pool of favorite writers, photographers, and programmers or may be willing to assemble an appropriate team for your project. By looking carefully at your budgets, work culture, and general communication needs, you may determine the kind of design service your company needs. However, if you're still in a quandary about who to hire to design your company’s visual communications look at both. Here are some thoughts about that process.

Look around. Ask your friends and colleagues in the business for referrals. Designers get a good chunk of their business this way.

Interview. A portfolio pretty much shows the designer's ability to tackle problems and get solutions. The work demonstrates a level of skill, craftsmanship, ability to have a job well printed or produced, and the designer’s imagination with concepts and ideas. You should be the judge as to whether the designer’s style and approach is suitable to your needs. Whether the range of work in the portfolio is sleek and sophisticated, upbeat and funky, or intelligently corporate, the work should be clear, thoughtful and designed appropriately for its audience.

Listen. Ask questions about the pieces in portfolio. Sometimes a sketch book or story board details the process of a particular project. This helps you to see how ideas are generated particularly with logos and symbols. Does the designer articulate ideas clearly and in a positive manner?

A good designer engages the client in the process, listens and interprets accurately. Originality and innovation are key to the success of the work, while clarity and intelligence are paramount for effective visual communications. By engaging the designer in the project in its infancy, trusting your designer’s talent and ability to keep the job on task and on budget you can enjoy a healthy business relationship.

Ask for a written proposal. A designer’s proposal outlines the scope of work, the steps necessary to complete the project, and the budgets for all phases of work including design, materials and production. While price often determines the final choice, it is important to consider the relationship that you are about to enter. Ultimately, the relationship will last longer than the first printed piece or web site design. As the relationship builds, your designer helps to shape the identity of your business .

Remember: Everybody benefits from good design and good design is good business.

Christine Celano is a freelance designer and also teaches graphic design at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. She was formerly at University of Illinois at Chicago and Yale School of Architecture. Her publications include MIT Press’s Design Issues Number 9. Vol ll, Typographic Visualization of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Christine’s clients include the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art and the Delaware Museum of Natural History.

Contact: Christine Celano: ccelanogd@earthlink.net

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Lise Monty Named DPA 2003 Communicator of Achievement

Lise Monty has been named Delaware Press Association’s 2003 Communicator of Achievement. Lise is External Affairs Manager for the Delaware Art Museum. She has held that position since 1994. She is in charge of marketing, communications, tourism, community outreach and visitor services. She is also the author of Images of Delaware, a 1998 coffee table book with photographs by Michael Biggs.

As editor of Delaware Today from 1987-1994, Lise won three prestigious national awards for the magazine’s general excellence from the William Allen White School of Journalism; University of Kansas; and the City and Regional Magazine Association. Prior to joining Delaware Today, Lise was a freelance writer for The News Journal. Earlier in her communications career, Lise was the first woman Bureau Chief for Fairchild Publications, Boston, and worked as Tokyo correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily.

Contact Lise Monty: Montyleary@aol.com

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Whipping Writer’s Block
By Dennis Jackson

Like Bunyan’s Pilgrim, you’ve reached a place where the Straight Way is lost: you’re face-to-face with the Dreaded Writer’s Block. But you might find your way again, if you:

  • Take a stroll, a drive, a shower, a furlough from your desk. Many writers claim they get more writing done while they’re NOT writing. As Anne Lamott says, your unconscious cannot work when you’re breathing down its little neck. Give it space.
  • Skip writing the first part first. Start writing stuff in the middle, first.
  • Write a letter to a friend. Typing is typing. Writing is partly a physical act, and once you start
    . . . you’ve started.

Fire the Muse for being late. Lower your standards for the day. Remember, no pastry chef ever suffers “Pastry Block.” He just has to keep squirting cream into the cream puffs. Just keep squirting words onto paper. Something sweet might happen.

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Book Review: Good Things in Small Packages
by Kim Burdick

Milton’s Guide to Self-Publishing and Marketing
by James Milton Hanna.
Cherokee Books, Little Creek, Delaware. 1998. $6
ISBN 0-9640458-5-0 31 pages

I know James Hanna’s poem “The Writer” (see below) will strike a responsive chord in the heart of every DPA member. His booklet, “Milton’s Guide to Self-Publishing and Marketing,” makes the decision to self-publish much easier. Based on his own experience, Hanna leads us step by step through the process of self-publishing, including how to submit a manuscript to an agent.

Once you get over the pain of rejection, get mad! Jim did—and now has ten books on the market in a number of countries!

Self-publishing is often a very good idea for books that appeal to a limited niche market. Books about Delaware history or biographies of little-known people of local importance, church histories, and family genealogies often fit in this category. Although your Topic may be perfectly suited for a small or highly specialized niche market, major publishers are looking for books with a broad mass appeal.

Jim walks the reader through the process of obtaining a Library of Congress number; an ISBN and bar code. He discusses types of binding, thoughts on designing a cover, and how many copies to print. He suggests several printing companies that do a workmanlike job at a small cost that can make your book look “real.” He also gives practical advice on marketing and getting your books into the stores.

I highly recommend this book to any aspiring author, previously published or not. It is practical, sensible, and useful. Read it, use it, and weep no more!

Jim Hanna may be reached at 302.734.8782
Visit Cherokee Press on line.
Available also from Burdick Associates.

Contact Kim Burdick: KimRBurdick@aol.com

The Writer

I create in my mind, a gem of great price,
I write with great effort a masterpiece, I think.
I edit mistakes so glaring as to hurt my ego,
I re-edit until in my mind’s eye perfection
Stares back at me.
I mail.
I wait, wait, wait, wait....
An eternity later comes a letter.
With trembling hands I open,
only to find a rejection, rejection, rejection.
Oh, how painful to be rejected,
Whether it be love or writing.
To the trash can or to the file cabinet,
That is the question?
Like a bolt of lightening, that strikes without warning,
The answer glares at me.
I will self-publish.
Now no rejection slips to cause a frown on my brow.

JMH 1998

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Starving for the Marvelous
by Jean Hull Herman
ZeBooks Livingston, Montana. 2002 $15
ISBN 1-58630-112-8

DPA member, Jean Hull Herman, has recently been accepted as a Delaware Humanities Forum Speaker’s Bureau member for 2003. She has published a book of 54 poems, 116 pages. Includes the four winners of DPA 2002 DE contest. You will enjoy: “Starving For The Marvelous,” “Anthropomorphically Speaking” and “Fireworks: Girl, Talk!”

The endorsements include this from Gerald Zipper (producer of plays not only on Broadway but also in Central Park, cultural Commissioner of New York, also poet and playwright):

“No poet in America has provided us with a more consistent and eloquent flow of poignant and exciting lines than Jean Hull Herman. I have read, and looked forward to, for the past several years, to her poems appearing in MÖBIUS and other fine poetry magazines, and now we have the pleasure of seeing a number of them in her new anthology. It is truly a great treat for the poetry-reading pubic and for poets like myself.”

Ace Boggess, Associate Editor of The Adirondack Review and author of The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled, writes: “These poems tinker with modern ideas of what poetry is. Sometimes playful, sometimes profound, they are one-hundred percent human (even when she writes in the voice of satellites and frogs).”

Order directly from Jean at P.O. Box 7544 Talleyville, Delaware 19803-0544 $15
 

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Pulitzer Prize Winner Judith Miller to be 2003 Conference Headliner
Committee Notes: Now’s the Time to Join in the Fun
By Katherine Ward, Director, 2003 Communications Conference

In the September issue of NewsBreak, we published a list of many of the exciting events the Program and Tours Committees have put together for our Brave New Media World conference to be held at the Wyndham Hotel, Wilmington, September 4 - 6 but, in case you haven’t heard, we will be featuring Judith Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and senior writer for The New York Times, as the keynote speaker. Ms. Miller, author of several best selling books, including the fascinating but sobering GERMS: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War, will speak on Friday, Sept. 5, at 8:00 a.m. Following her talk, there will be a reception and book signing before the morning workshops begin.

If you haven’t yet signed up to work on a conference committee, I urge you to do so now. Below you will find a list of the committees that would benefit from your time and assistance. Please call the director of whichever committee appeals to you and say you’ll get on board.

  • Logistics Committee: Susan Dods 302.778.1682 or sdodswrite@aol.com
    The Logistics Committee is the key to the smooth operation of the conference. Conference participants must have 1) adequate transportation on the tours and any events that require moving people from one place to another, 2) good directions for movement in the hotel and 3) A/V equipment available and working for speakers, workshop facilitators, panelists and at all other meetings during the conference. If you’re an organizational whiz, this is the committee for you.
  • Hospitality Committee: Pam Finkelman 302.992.9043 or psfink@attglobal.net
    The Hospitality Committee will insure that our guests feel welcome while here and are planning for a Hospitality Suite where people can meet and talk, get information about where things are located in Wilmington and find brochures about attractions in Delaware and neighboring states. The Hospitality Committee will work with the Logistics Committee to staff the registration desk, the bookstore, the silent auction and, of course, the hospitality suite. Soliciting items for the goodie bags to be given out as people register is the next big task, so if you know of businesses or merchants that might have some items that would be suitable or that have a Delaware twist to them, or you simply are willing to make phone calls, please contact Pam right away.
  • Sponsorship Committee: Kim Burdick 302.477.0339 or KimRBurdick@aol.com
    Raising funds to cover conference costs over and above what the registration fees encompass is the main focus of the Sponsorship Committee. Perhaps you know various organizations, businesses or individuals who should be contacted. If you are willing to make phone calls and help write a few grants, this is where your time and effort will make a real difference.

If you’re a new DPA member, I encourage you to look at serving on a committee as a great way to get to know your DPA colleagues. Whether new member or longtime supporter, you’ll enjoy working together to produce a conference of national stature and ensure a great experience for everyone involved.

Contact Katherine Ward: 302.655.2175 or KatWard1@aol.com.

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