ANFP is celebrating and recognizing holidays/observances and month-long celebrations throughout the year. To learn more about these observances, please visit our Facebook page, DEI webpage, and check out eNews, which will include links to our toolkits and other resources as well as other significant holidays. This month ANFP proudly recognizes:

March 1-31: Women's History Month
March 21: World Down Syndrome Day

Although its only February, chapters are already gearing up for the months ahead. Some chapters are planning milestone anniversaries and spring meetings, others are training their incoming officers and preparing for the new volunteer year. While preparing for the months and year ahead, it’s always a good idea to regularly review your chapter’s strategic goals, evaluate initiatives and best practices to ensure we meet our goals as well as our members’ needs. However, before adjusting our plans and practices, we encourage you to take some time to understand our members’ needs with feedback provided from the ANFP Membership Survey, which was distributed to members in November of 2025. This information helps us understand what we may be doing well and what we need to improve, and how we need to do so, which will affect our planning for the year ahead.

Chapter Meetings – We surveyed members and asked if they had attended chapter meetings in the last 5 years. For those that did not attend (66%), here are the top 3 reasons for not attending:

1. Scheduling conflict
2. Location
3. Cost
   

Consider This: Chapters may want to explore alternate options to address these concerns and accommodate more members including hosting a virtual or hybrid meeting (or series of webinars), rotating your location throughout the state, surveying members on their preferred dates/time of year/date pattern.

Reasons to Attend – Of the members that responded to the survey who are attending meetings (33%) here are top 3 benefits:

1. Affordable, quality education
2. Networking opportunities
3. Opportunity to earn CEs
   

Consider This: Each of these benefits are great motivators to entice attendees and for chapters to use when promoting meetings. Be sure to highlight these benefits as well as others in your marketing materials.

Chapter Offerings – Overall members were mostly satisfied with chapter offerings, including educational meetings, networking and volunteer opportunities, communications, and member recognition.

Consider This: Chapters can use this information as a springboard to dig deeper into how we can improve satisfaction in these areas or explore new chapter offerings members may be interested in. Chapters may wish to conduct a mini-survey that focuses on offerings and ways to improve overall satisfaction or ‘test the waters’ on potential, new offerings.

Thank you to all chapter leaders that completed the member satisfaction survey and provided feedback on how National can also improve. Chapter leaders will receive a follow-up, mini-survey in the coming weeks, along with the summarized results specific to chapter involvement as highlighted above.

ANFP is celebrating and recognizing holidays/observances and month-long celebrations throughout the year. To learn more about these observances, please visit our Facebook page, DEI webpage, and check out eNews, which will include links to our toolkits and other resources as well as other significant holidays. This month ANFP proudly recognizes:

Happy New Year to all our Chapter Leaders! We are excited for the new year and all the changes that come with it. We know our chapters will continue to focus on recruitment, retention, and expanding professional development offerings for our members. Part of building professional skills is stepping outside our comfort zones. One of the ways we can do this is through serving on a committee or board at the National level. Serving as a chapter leader provides experience and gives us a great foundation to serve at the National level and can further our own professional development while supporting ANFP’s strategic and chapter goals.

• Benefits of Serving at the National Level – As serving at the chapter level offers many great benefits, there are also unique benefits when serving on a committee or board. Committee and board members develop skills that transfer to their professional and personal lives, expand their networks, and get the opportunity to meet and work with a diverse range of members and industry partners, as well as learn the ‘nuts and bolts’ of governance at the National level.
• Mentor & Learn from Your Peers – When serving on a committee or board, you can bring your own unique experience, expertise, and perspective that can be of great use to fellow members and contribute to achieving the organization’s goals. And vice versa, as you will stand to learn much from your peers from their own experience and perspectives as well.
• Challenge Yourself – Committee and board work are great opportunities to increase your self-confidence by learning something new, sharpening your existing skills, and gaining insight into topics or areas of interest you may not have otherwise been exposed to.
• Earn CE – Volunteers earn CE for work they are already doing. As a chapter leader and/or committee or Board member, you can earn up to 2.00 (GEN) CE per year.
  

To learn more about the available ANFP committee and board opportunities, criteria, and expectations, or to submit your name for an open position, please complete the following application.

Join Us! Leadership Happy Hour

We hope you’ll attend our monthly Leadership Happy Hour call that takes place on the first Tuesday at 2:00 PM CT of every month. Look for the invite and registration link in your inbox!

January’s call will take place on Tuesday, January 6 at 2:00 PM CT. Click here to register. Debbie Eck, Professional Development Manager, will join us to discuss how we can build partnerships with colleges/universities and program directors to promote ANFP.

ANFP is celebrating and recognizing holidays/observances and month-long celebrations throughout the year. To learn more about these observances, please visit our Facebook page, DEI webpage, and check out eNews, which will include links to our toolkits and other resources as well as other significant holidays. This month ANFP proudly recognizes:

January 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

As we come to the close of the calendar year, many of us use this time to reflect on what we have accomplished as well as what we would like to achieve in 2026. Members often have professional goals in mind including advancing their careers or expanding their knowledge and experience as it relates to their jobs. One of the ways to do this is through our ANFP Mentorship Program. Launched in September of this year, the ANFP Mentorship Program has brought together seasoned professionals and new members, as well as those members who have some experience under their belt but are looking for some additional support and guidance as they navigate mid-career challenges. If you’d like to share your knowledge, experience, and wisdom with other life-long learners as well as learn from your peers, consider becoming an ANFP Mentor. We will be accepting new mentors and mentees in early 2026. Learn more about the program and how to apply.

Mentor Benefits – Being a mentor offers many benefits for your mentee as well as yourself:

• Sharing your knowledge and experience
• Helping new/prospective members shape their career path
• Applying/sharing unique skills and abilities
• Giving back and a sense of fulfillment
• Gaining new perspectives
• Supporting inclusion and equity
  

Servant Leadership – As a mentor, you are practicing servant leadership that demonstrates to your members, your colleagues, as well as your current and future employers, that service to others is at the forefront of your leadership skills and the positive impact and influence you have on others.

Be a Sounding Board – We know our members face unique challenges within their roles and often struggle to find time for self-care and work-life balance. A large part of mentoring is being a sounding board for mentees by providing encouragement to take care of themselves and find work-life balance so many of our members seek.

Create a Sense of Belonging – Mentors have often weathered many storms and have done so gracefully through teamwork, collaboration, and sheer determination. Mentees (and mentors) can benefit from this through shared experiences, so they feel we are ‘in this together’ and gain a sense of belonging within a community of individuals facing many of the same challenges.

To learn more about the Mentorship Program, including time commitment and expectations, please click here.

If you are interested in being a mentor for fellow and aspiring CDM, CFPP’s, please complete the following application.

All new mentors will be asked to complete a brief online course to help navigate and optimize their time spent with mentees.

Congratulations to the following Chapter Champions:

Michigan ANFP

Learn more about becoming a Chapter Champion HERE.

Join Us! Leadership Happy Hour
We hope you’ll attend our monthly Leadership Happy Hour call that takes place the first Tuesday at 2:00 PM CT of every month. Look for the invite and registration link in your inbox!

ANFP is celebrating and recognizing holidays/observances and month-long celebrations throughout the year. To learn more about these observances, please visit our Facebook page, DEI webpage, and check out eNews, which will include links to our toolkits and other resources as well as other significant holidays. This month ANFP proudly recognizes:

November 1-30: National Veterans and Military Families Month