Jamison Policy Renewals To all NAPP members who have an existing professional liability insurance policy with Jamison: when you renew your policy please be sure to expressly request the NAPP discount. It is not automatically included in your renewal paperwork. It’s worth asking because you may save about 15% over your existing rate, provided you attend their online webinar.
Marketing The postcard mailing campaign to new practitioners on the PTO roster is now in its 7th month. While this has not yet translated into a significant increase in membership registrations, it has significantly raised awareness of NAPP's existence among new practitioners. In other marketing news, Richard Kirkpatrick has put together a 1/3 page ad design for us to run in the Journal of the PTO Society and other trade journals to build brand recognition for NAPP. See the design here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7222ukcnflrywrl/Print%20Ad.pdf?dl=0
Website Update The marketing committee and board of directors is concerned that the outdated nature of our membership software and website is hurting our recruiting efforts. NAPP has formally asked CapHill to update our membership management platform and revamp our website to improve the membership experience. While most of the work will happen behind the scenes, do let us know if you encounter any glitches in the membership information. This process may take a few months to complete. Frustratingly, this will also delay the rollout of the new forum solution, but I believe this course of action will ultimately yield the most robust, affordable, and friendly user experience for our forum participants.
Pre-Announcement for AMC 2018 It’s still not official, but we’re getting really close to an official announcement of our AMC 2018 schedule and agenda. Among the ideas being contemplated is a patent drafting workshop the day before the beginning of the official conference, which would allow the rest of the conference to be targeted at the more experienced practitioners. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, tell Alex now or you'll have to wait another year.
Local NAPP Meetups Progress continues on our efforts to encourage local meetups among NAPP members and anybody else interested in patent prosecutions. In addition to the Boulder-area meetups organized by Mike Carey and the Houston-area meetups organized by Lee Eubanks, Bill Campbell is arranging meetups in the Los Angeles area, Genna Hibbs will be organizing meetups for Chicago, and Anne Fahrni is putting things in motion for Atlanta. These meetings are generally informal affairs aimed at encouraging discussion between patent practitioners, who are super-cool people that are actually interested in the work you do even if they might be kind of introverted. Consequently these meetups are easy to organize: just coordinate a time and place with somebody else, pick a discussion topic, and invite the other members in the area to show up. If you're interested in being an organizer, please contact Dan Krueger or Mike Carey and we'll get you set up.
Local NAPP Representatives On a related note, we're putting together a list of folks who are interested in representing NAPP on a local level. Basically, this means we'll ask you to make a few phone calls each year to welcome new members in your area to NAPP, and to respond to phone calls from local members who have questions or are interested in connecting with the local community of patent practitioners. This role and the meetup organizer role are excellent opportunities to become a networking "hub" in your community. In the interim, the welcoming phone calls are being made by Dan Krueger and Mike Carey.
Seattle Strategy Meeting The board of directors, along with selected committee representatives, held a strategy meeting in Seattle this month. We've put together a three-year plan, which has been circulated to the committee chairs and is undergoing final comments and revisions in preparation for formal adoption in this month's board meeting. (The plan will be published once adopted.) Representatives of the AMC committee also toured conference facilities suitable for hosting AMC 2019 in Seattle.
Transition from Rolling Renewals to Common Renewal Date NAPP currently uses a rolling renewal system in which members’ renewal dates are set on the anniversary of their initial membership registration. After much discussion, the board has voted to eventually transition to a common renewal date for all members, so as to facilitate budgeting and event planning over the calendar year. The details and timing of the transition still need to be resolved.
Welcome to NAPP If you know or encounter the following new members on the forums or at a local event, please be sure to welcome them to NAPP. We’re glad to have them on board! Joe Guy (Hendersonville NC) Eric Hanscom (Carlsbad CA) Bryant Lee (DC) Zach Olah (Rockville MD) Tom Omholt (Aurora IL) Mat Perrone, Jr. (Algonquin IL) Scott Sanderson (Denver) Mario Varela (Houston)
|