Your new Board of Directors has been busy this summer planning for the new program year. The board officer's and several committee chairs met for an all day orientation and strategic planning meeting on July 19 to get the new program year started. In that meeting, we agreed to continue our focus on some goals we discussed at last year’s planning meeting, such as increasing member engagement, continuing community outreach programs, and focusing on strategic financial planning. The board identified several new initiatives for this year, including:

• Improving retention of membership renewals
• Providing ways to meet the needs of and engaging senior HR professionals
• Strengthening relationships with other HR and business organizations in the DC metro area to provide more services to our membership

The board officers' next task is to formulate their activity plans and budgets with input from their committee chairs. Board meetings will be held the first Wednesday of each month. If you feel any issues should be brought to the board’s attention, please contact either me or President-Elect, Lee Mariano. We welcome your input and feedback.

The programs and professional development team has already been hard at work planning and scheduling the monthly chapter meetings for the program year. These will continue to occur on the second Wednesday of each month starting on September 12, but at a new location: Washington SunTrust Headquarters at 1445 New York Avenue, NW (closest metro stop is Metro Center). See our website at www.hra- nca.org for more detailed information and to register.

Enjoy the remainder of the summer and see you in September!

Lori Golino

COMPENSATION 2007 is a free seminar presented by HRA-NCA to review the major trends and findings included in the 2007 HRA-NCA Compensation Survey Report. The seminar is open to all, but space is limited.

The registration deadline is Wednesday, September 5, 2007.

The 28th Annual HRA-NCA Compensation Survey Report will be released at the end of August. In today's competitive market, you can't afford to be in the dark when it comes to trends in hiring, retention and benefits. HRA-NCA's survey products have been developed by local HR professionals, to meet the specific needs of HR professionals in the Washington metro area. There are 330 + jobs in the survey and over 90,000 incumbents were reported this year from every major industry. Make sure your organization has access to the region's most reliable source for comp policies and practices and salary data.

Register now to the event…

Pre-order the 2007 HRA-NCA Compensation Survey!

Please join us for lunch on Wednesday, September 12th as we kick off our new HRA-NCA program season! We will be talking about those "pain in the neck" employees that make our days longer and have us all searching for new ways to handle them.

Dan Johnson, a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, will address how to deal with problem employees. He will cover everything from the hiring process (how to avoid hiring a problem) to how to terminate the problem employee. Topics will include: Employer Expectations; Evaluations; Complaints and Investigations; Progressive Discipline; The Myth of "At-Will" Employment; Avoiding the Pitfalls of Termination; Severance; and, Anticipating Litigation.

Our attendees will receive 1.25 recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI).

Mr. Johnson, who has 20 years of litigation experience, represents companies and associations in employment and litigation matters. His experience in employment matters includes employment agreements, covenants not to compete, confidentiality agreements, personnel policies and practices, wage, leave and disability issues, discrimination claims (including race, gender, age disability and pregnancy discrimination claims), fiduciary duty claims, wrongful discharge claims, defamation claims and "whistle blower" claims. He also has extensive experience in internal investigations of employee misconduct, as well as EEOC investigations.

The 2007 Washington-Baltimore Metro Area Benefits Survey results are in. Thank you to our participants for making the survey a great success! Order your copy today to have the most up-to-date benefits information in the region. The 2007 Benefits Survey Report is based on the responses of over 270 organizations in the area. The report was co-sponsored by the DC Chapter of Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB) and the Washington Area Compensation and Benefits Association (WACABA). With over 20 topics covered, it is the most comprehensive benefits survey in the metro area. It provides the specifics about the kind of benefits employers are providing and the costs associated with them. The report is packed with charts and detailed breakouts to give you specific and reliable data.

Over the next few months a great number of excellent Professional Development programs our coming to our area. So, whether you are looking for recertification credits or just to broaden your HR horizons check out these SHRM sponsored programs on the What's New section of our webpage.

You may look up these and other members' information in the HRA-NCA online membership directory, using various search categories. Log in through the "Member Login" on the HRA-NCA website home page. Keep your membership record up-to-date so we don't lose touch!

HRA-NCA Welcomes These New Members