Day 1

Day 2

Day 1, Thursday, Oct. 28

1:45-2:15 PM
Registration

2:15-2:30
Welcome and Introductions

2:30-3:30
Best Practices in Advancement Services Organization
The application of critical information to effective business decision-making lies at the heart of advancement services. How information is developed, tracked, recorded, analyzed and reported can make a world of difference in how our work is planned, structured and valued. In this session, we will look at ways to structure the advancement services operation to apply skills, highlight achievements and create opportunities across the team.
Presenter: Jon Thorsen, Director of Advancement Services, The Nature Conservancy, and Chair, Best Practices Initiative, Association of Advancement Services Professionals

4:00-5:00
Database Selection and Implementation from the Dark Side
Few words can strike as much terror into the heart of an advancement services professional as conversion. Yet, the selection and implementation of a new information system, while requiring a considerable financial and human commitment, can change the way your institution does business. We can learn a great deal speaking to our counterparts at other institutions, but this panel will feature a different approach, building on the much broader experience of our systems vendors. Explore the most effective approaches to system implementation, as well as common mistakes that our vendors see being made over and over again that we, with appropriate planning, can avoid.
Panelists: Scott Fendley, Principal, SF Consulting; Ken Keefer, Director, Higher Education, Blackbaud Higher Education; Carol McConaghy Thorp, Customer Engagement Manager, SunGard Higher Education; and Jeff Shy, President, Affinaquest

5:00-6:00
Networking Reception

6:00
Workshop Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own

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Day 2, Friday, Oct. 29

7:30-8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast/Roundtables

8:30-9:30
Data Standards vs. Business Rules
Let the battle begin! In many institutions, the desire to get a specific result with your data can create a rat's nest of issues in coding and standardizing data. Take the time to establish business rules that support your daily operations while providing you with the means to effectively mine your data and report on advancement. Involve your stakeholders in these conversations to successfully manage expectations and guide your advancement operation toward a data-centric model.

9:45-11:00
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• Making Alumni Directories Work for You
  Does your alumni directory work for you, or does it all too often seem that you are working for it? Learn how to maximize the return on your institution's investment by strategically planning the time and effort you put into your alumni directory. Explore the reasons for producing the directory, available options, new trends in alumni directories and the best practices in producing the directory.
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered...Working with the Postal Service
  Long past are the days when a partially addressed letter would still reach its recipient. Everything we do in development operations is a collaborative effort, and this relationship is no different. Learn about regulations regarding nonprofit mailing rates as well as changes in the USPS requirements for address hygiene-particularly for NCOA and CASS certification.

11:15 AM-12:30 PM
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• Data Privacy & Confidentiality
  How secure is the data we manage? What safeguards have we put in place to ensure that sensitive records are handled with sensitivity? Discuss some of the basic features of confidentiality, including ways to design and deploy data privacy standards while implementing the technical processes that allow people to follow the standards and still get their jobs done.
• Records Retention and Document Imaging
  The effort to maintain, store and access paper documents buries many institutions under a mountain of files. However, electronic records also need our attention and require retention and disposition schedules to avoid costly liabilities associated with legal and public information requests. Consider how document imaging and an electronic file management system may provide a resource for easing the burden of our expanding world of information.

12:30-2:00
Lunch On Your Own

2:00-3:15
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• Social Media: Opportunities and Challenges
  Social media provide institutions with a vast array of opportunities to engage with constituents and collect data on their interests, involvement and behavioral heuristics. Many within your institution are already using these tools in a variety of ways to connect and maintain relationships. Our challenge is to create a cohesive social media engagement model that will optimize resources while supporting a consistent and integrated communications strategy across the organization.
• Boot Camp: Employee Systems Training
  Do the staff in your advancement operation feel as if they are in the stressful environment of basic training when learning your information system? Few of us have professional trainers at our institutions to do any kind of training, so more often than not training on our advancement information systems may be included among our own "other related duties." This session will examine the reasons for training, the impact that different learning styles can have on training, techniques and documentation for training, and how best to ensure that your training is effective in supporting the advancement effort within your institution.

3:30-4:30
Disaster Planning...Just in Case!
We're all familiar with the adage, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Your organization may already have a very formal disaster planning policy in place, but nothing that specifically addresses how to handle things from a development/advancement perspective. Join us as we look at some very basic ways to plan for the unexpected. We'll discuss topics like list extraction during/after an emergency, event cancellations, and creating a simple document that outlines a plan of action for your department. Please come prepared to share any ideas you have with the group.

4:30-5:00
Faculty Firing Line and Conference Wrap-up

5:00
Workshop Adjourns

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