Thanks Janet for your questions, all really good inquiries.
Yes! we have a board, myself as president, Frank as Secretary and Olga as Treasurer. As the league grows we will add more seats to the board but for now 3 is more than enough. We do not have voting members but we will conduct an annual member survey which will guide our advocacy efforts each legislative year. This way, all members will get the opportunity to put in their "two-cents". I will be lobbying when it's appropriate, I have given testimony in hearings, participated in round tables and walked the halls of the capitol making office visits on many occasions. It's something that I very much enjoy. I also have a standing relationship with a prominent lobbying firm in Sacramento who is our "boots on the ground" at the capitol.
About the directory and our online community. A directory is a standard offering to association members. We have an online member directory for the same reason The Pennsylvania Assoc of Notaries has one, for the same reason the California Assoc of Legal Doc Preparers has one and for the same reason the Louisiana Notary Assoc has one.....it's a benefit to our members. At the end of the day, I want the members that I represent to be successful and an online directory can help members get discovered by the public and possibly more business. My web developer has SEO'd the site to appear in search results when someone searches for a CA notary, again a benefit to our members. And a little known fact that we discovered is that apart from the general public, those searching for notary directories most are...you guessed it...notaries! Appearing in search results will help with awareness and outreach and hopefully will result in more notaries becoming members. However I want to make clear, the CLIN does not compete with Notary Rotary or XYZ or like companies because we're not in the business of selling education, supplies or insurance.
The primary purpose of the league is to represent and promote the common interests of CA notaries, the directory is part of the community platform offered to members. In today's world, you can't just take peoples money. I've tried doing simple fund raising over the past 2 years and what I discovered is that it just doesn't work. People aren't satisfied with simply knowing that their interests are being protected, they need more. I think that by providing an online community where members can collaborate AND get discovered by the public while generating much needed cash flow is a win for everyone involved.
In regards to policy, we like any non-profit, have bylaws which will be available to members once I receive the filed copy back from the state.
To answer your question about partners. Partnering is something that I'm willing to do with any group or business that wants to support the CLIN. Non-profits make grants to other non-profits and businesses make contributions to non-profits all the time. Advocacy costs real money and we need to be able to raise funds from other sources outside of member dues. Also, I'd like to partner with businesses that do sell education, supplies and insurance, for notaries since we don't. Like Not Rot for example, however I don't know who to reach out to but maybe someone here will read this and point me in the right direction.
Last, I've made a significant investment over the past two years giving CA Notaries a voice in Sac. Tens of thousands of dollars if you count my time. The League isn't a fly by night experiment, we're gonna be here next month, next year, the year after that and so on. It's time that CA notaries have a standing voice in matters that affect their interests. For example, the recent push to reclassify IC's into Employees, which just won't work for our profession. Other industries have a representative organizations, like the real estate appraisers and that's how they were able to get an exemption in the most recent worker classification law. We need that same kind of representation and here I am, motivated and willing to do it.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'd really enjoy your participation, but if you don't think a membership to the CLIN isn't right for you, that's ok too. I won't take it personally. |
