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EPL Newsletters
September 2007
December 2007
Spring 2008
July 2008 Change of Direction for EPL
The best news
is that our videos continue to get great reviews from our members
who consistently tell us how much they have learned from them and
how it helps them do better at raising their child. We import
post-viewing comments into a database and the output reports are
very impressive. Our quality goals have been exceeded by a wide
measure.
Additional good
news is that we get excellent comments from visitors to our
website, and we have apparently solved the technical problems with
on-line streaming. Further, we get high praise from our members who
like the way we interact with them. We are also proud of our
efficient operational structure, our reliable volunteers, and the
creative ideas we have implemented to offer service.
Our most serious
problem is too few users of our service. We have tried to
increase this by:
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Asking doctor’s offices, hospitals,
social service agencies to offer EPL to their clients
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Making us easier to find on the
Internet
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Pursuing grandparents and adoption
parents as members
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Setting up a gift certificate
program
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Lending videos to agencies for use
with their clients
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Having articles printed in the
media and being on both radio and TV
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Enhancing our website adding
on-line registration and improved layout
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Service enhancements such as giving
a recap of each video and improved surveys
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Internet streaming of some videos
without viewer registration or cost
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Extending our service area from
Greater Cincinnati to the continental US
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Seeking innovative partnership with
local agencies
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Publishing paragraphs announcing
our service in bulletins of several churches
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Using professional services for
brochure design and marketing analysis
Business
Assessment: Despite the above efforts, during the first half of
2008, we have only added two new members and have had no viewings at
agencies. Video streaming has not taken off as expected, nor has it
brought us a single member. During the same period of time, we lost
several members from being out-of-product (we only go up to age 2),
and for other reasons. The decline of total number of people being
served has had a negative impact on both volunteer enthusiasm and
fundraising. It has become clear we cannot continue operating with
a small and shrinking client base.
Next Steps:
Since we can’t keep going as we are, we must change. Our board of
trustees has reviewed options and feels the best course of action is
to continue serving our current members for a while, but suspend
operations such as accepting new members, video streaming, agency
agreements, and fundraising. Instead we will look for the best
nonprofit organization(s) to make good use of our assets. Depending
on how this works out, we might then become a supplier to them, go
inactive, or close. Readers with advice or suggestions on this are
invited to contact us before the end of August. We really value the
support of volunteers, donors, and professionals involved with EPL,
and encourage you to pass your best ideas for our new direction to
any of us listed below.
Dave Roettker (President@EveryParentsLibrary.org)
Nate Henderson (Office@EveryParentsLibrary.org)
Gene Gardner (513) 681-2794
March 2008 EPL
Newsletter
Leadership Transitions:
Our 2008 Board of Trustees has two new faces at the table, Dan
Valerio and Elaine Westrich. (You can read their BIOS are on our
website.) Dan has been elected to be our Treasurer and Elaine our
Secretary. Dave Roettker the Vice President last year, is now our
President. Dave Thorsen has defined a new role for himself and
become our first Assistant Treasurer. Mary Beth Ottke, Mary Kay
Fleming, and Claire Wagner have left the board but remain with EPL
in other positions. Ron Headings has left EPL to serve in a
national leadership position with his denomination. Our web
developer Lee Hite has assumed the presidency of another
organization and passed the keyboard to Tom Strothers our interim
web developer. We are very grateful for the fine work and dedicated
support of these people. The same goes for the other volunteers who
remain in their current roles as we move forward. THANKS EVERYONE
Board Priorities:
Last year, the 2007 Board identified their top priorities as
fundraising, video streaming, and video selection of Preschool
videos. Elaine Dickhoner has become our czarina of fundraising
handling our holiday gift program, our annual report, and currently
mailing some grant requests. We started streaming videos in
September, and now have over a hundred ‘starts’ each month.
Caroline Ndulue has accepted a position of as Director of Video
Selection, and has a list of topics for the preschool age bracket.
With those activities underway, the 2008 board has made marketing
our highest priority. Kindly, Brennan Hill of Intrinzic Marketing
and Design Inc volunteered to help. He has outlined a plan for a
focus group to better understand user reactions to our promotion and
services. Another consultant has outlined a plan to improve the
likelihood of people finding us on the web. We are also looking at
the potential for corporate linkages that could be a win-win for
both organizations and the community we serve.
Video Streaming: We have just
completed our sixth month streaming videos in partnership with
CETconnect. With this new video delivery method, Lee Hite, our web
developer, and Bill Neus, our new database manager, have helped us
build an Internet system for collecting viewer comments. The new
system requires less cost and time to operate. About ninety percent
of our members elected to switch from phone calls to the Internet
system for feedback surveys and video ordering. We were smiling
until we noticed that the members who switched to the new system
reduced the number of videos requested or became inactive. We need
to give some thought to a response to this unanticipated effect.
Day care and agency use
of EPL videos: Did you know that
EPL has a plan to lend complete or partial sets of videos to local
agencies for their use with their clients? Group viewing can then
be followed by a discussion of the subject, perhaps with an expert
on that topic in attendance. We like this plan as this enhances the
learning process. Offering a pizza or other snacks help to increase
the number of people participating. If you are associated with an
agency that might like to explore this type of partnership, send me
an email and I will forward our generic agreement for your
inspection.
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Fall/Winter
2007 EPL Newsletter
Our on-line service:
The number of videos we are streaming has increased and we have
made it easier to see them. Our on-demand videos were always
available without password, registration, or fee, and now, viewers
do not need to disable their pop-up blockers to watch a video.
Further, we now have free summaries available for all but one video
(and the last one is in the mill). Check us out by going to
www.4epl.org and click on the "See Video List" page.
Fundraising:
An innovative "Holiday Wish List" for creative ways to support EPL
is being mailed to more than 600 people. If you did not receive this
mailing and would like one via an attachment to an e-mail, just
request a copy in an e-mail to
ExecDir@EveryParentsLibrary.org. (Please put EPL as the first
word of the title to insure that your message doesn't get blocked by
the spam filter.) We are grateful to Elaine Dickhoner and her cadre
of cordial colleagues who have made this happen.
Making EPL available through places
of worship: As a new marketing initiative, we now offer to send
editors of church bulletins a series of copy-&-paste paragraphs they
can use to let congregations know of our service. An explanation of
this and a few sample paragraphs can be found on our website by
clicking on Newsroom / For Churches. All readers of this newsletter
are encouraged to invite your church leadership to consider this
opportunity.
Links with
other agencies: Another new feature of our website is a page of
links to other organizations. (Click on Links on the menu at the
very top of our home page.) If your agency or church would like to
be listed or consider a reciprocal link just let us know via an
email to
Webmaster@EveryParentsLibrary.org
Give the
gift of EPL service: Did
you know that EPL now accepts memberships from anyone in the
continental USA? Participants can interact with us by phone or using
our new Internet survey/ video ordering system. With Christmas near,
an EPL membership could be a thoughtful and much appreciated gift.
You can download an application from our website. Send it in to
receive a tastefully done gift package.
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September 2007 Every Parent’s Library
Newsletter
Videos
On-line: We have just begun an exciting new facet of our service
by offering free, on-demand streaming of some of our parenting
videos on the Internet. This service expansion has been established
in partnership with our local public television station, CET. Papers
were signed, video permissions were obtained, supplemental Web pages
were designed and downloadable summaries prepared. If you have a
high speed Internet connection, you can check it out by going to
either www.4EPL.org or
www.CETconnect.org in the Kids & Family section. We are
streaming five videos now, and we expect to add Dental Health,
Toilet Learning, and Selecting Day Care videos running in the next
few days.
Streaming
videos expands our service base from Greater Cincinnati to
worldwide. This means we can deliver our valuable material to many
more people for considerably less cost. In conjunction with this we
have updated our viewer survey questions and setting up a database
to manage the information. In addition, this service opens doors to
new partnerships and new publicity methods. This is an exciting
chapter in our growth story.
New
Volunteers: Elaine Dickhoner, owner and senior mediator of The
Conflict Management Group, has joined our fundraising team and is
already finding new opportunities for EPL. We are grateful to have
her leadership, energy and commitment.
Nelly
Grinfeld, a freelance writer and editor, has volunteered to
contribute her talents in those areas for public relations and/or
grant writing. Her skills are welcome!
Bill Neus
is on board to design an Access database for viewer feedback that we
will seek from online viewing of our videos. This is another needed
skill!
Video
review handouts: Thanks to several volunteers, we now have
one-page recaps of the key learning objectives for twenty-five of
our thirty videos. We are working to make it 100%.
Next
level of topics: EPL very much needs help with selection of
PRESCHOOL videos. We need an overall coordinator, volunteers and
professionals for specific tasks including locating and screening
tapes for quality and content. Please contact volunteermgr@
everyparentslibrary.org if you would like more information about
this role. This is a very important step for EPL’s continued ability
to serve families.
Giving
lists:
General Electric doubles the contributions of employees and retirees
who donate and then register their gift to be matched on the GE Web
site.
Anthem
Blue Cross and Blue Shield provides a 50% match for employee
donations made during its annual campaign.
EPL again
is on the Combined Federal Campaign of the Cincinnati Metro Area,
the list of agencies for which federal employees can designate
paycheck withdrawals for donations. Our CFC donor code is 8737.
For more
information, please don’t hesitate to contact the office at (513)
791-8434 or Office@EveryParentsLibrary.org.
Claire
Wagner
EPL public relations
From
our President:
Having
recently been made a grandmother for the fourth time, and expecting
grandchild number 5 within a few weeks, I have spent some time
reflecting on my sense of purpose, my role as grandmother, and what
kind of world it is that my grandchildren will live in as they
mature. That can be both a wonderful and a terrifying reflection!
There is
more and more research available about the importance of
grand-parenting in the world today, and I feel blessed to have the
opportunity to be a loving and positive influence in these little
people’s lives. I want to help keep them safe and model for them
what it means to be a loving, caring and responsible member of this
wonderful world. Yet, it can be daunting when I think of all the
challenges that we currently face and that they will potentially
face as they grow.
This is
one reason I feel drawn to the work of EPL. Our mission is “To
empower parents to raise healthy, competent, respectful and
responsible community members.” If we can do that, we can help shape
a world that will be more forgiving, more open, more caring and more
collaborative. In short, we can help co-create a better place for
our children and grandchildren in which to live.
My
experience is that it is truly gratifying to work with the dedicated
and talented volunteers that make up the EPL organization. We NEED
MORE talented, caring and responsible volunteers to help us reach
our goals. I hope you, too, will reflect on how you can make the
world a better place for your children and grandchildren and
consider sharing your energy, time and talent with us to achieve
that end. Please contact me, Mary Beth Ottke, at 513-742-5808, if
you feel moved to influence the development of future generations
and would like to join our efforts.
Mary Beth
Ottke
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Status
28 January 2007
Newspaper Article:
Mr. John Johnston, a writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer, has
prepared a story about Every Parent's Library. His work will be the
feature story appearing in the front page of the Life section. The
publication date is anticipated to be Monday January 8, however it
is always possible that another story linked to an event or date may
preempt the EPL story at the last minute. You may want to be on the
lookout for this article, see the pictures, and consider our current
wish list.
NEW EPL Website: Mr.
Lee Hite, our web developer, has completely redesigned the look and
feel of the EPL website. The new site features a much more appealing
front page and other features to enhance our image to viewers.
Comments received thus far include: "... it rocks! Job well done!,
Charlotte", "... it’s quite impressive, Mike," and "Looks very nice
and appealing. Jami". So, take a look at www.4EPL.org, and enjoy our
new, more global image. THANKS to LEE.
NEW Service Delivery
Method: We have lent videos to five local institutions so they
can use them directly with their clients. A total of 89 videos have
been placed with these organizations. We are eager to assess the
viewer numbers at these locations so we can determine if this new
program should be slowed, maintained, or expanded.
Video Streaming: With
53% of U.S. adults having a high-speed Internet connection, and the
number growing rapidly, we believe it is time to consider getting
our videos on-line. Both legal and technical challenges must be
overcome. Nevertheless, we are starting to explore what it takes to
become a global rather than local provider of parenting videos.
These are exciting initiatives that could propel us forward much
faster than we had previously envisioned.
HOME TOWN HERO Nate
Henderson, our Program Manager, has been featured in a story in the
Enquirer a few weeks ago! You can read the story and see a color
photo of him at
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?ID=/20061023/NEWS01/610230396/1056/COL02
Congratulations, Nate!
Gene Gardner, founder
681-2794
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