Monthly Archives: September 2011

Calling All Leadership Volunteers!

Do you serve on a nonprofit Board of Directors, or would you like to?

Do you have questions about what is expected of you?

The City of Bloomington Volunteer Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Nonprofit Board Certificate Program. This certificate will be offered to individuals who complete a ½ day seminar consisting of four one-hour sessions.  These sessions cover the regulations, legal responsibilities, financial and fundraising obligations, and ongoing activities involved in serving as a member of the Board of Directors of a nonprofit organization in Indiana. Each of the four sessions includes opportunities for discussion as well as hands-on workshop activities.

Nonprofit Board Certificate Program

Date: Thursday, Oct. 20 from 1-5 p.m.

Cost: $25 per person

Location: Council Chambers of City Hall (8th and Morton St. Bloomington)

To register: Go to www.bloomington.in.gov/volunteer

Mail payment to: City of Bloomington Volunteer Network PO Box 100 Bloomington IN 47402

If you have questions or need an invoice: Contact Bet Savich, Director, City of Bloomington Volunteer Network at 812-349-3472 or volunteer@bloomington.in.gov

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Benefits to businesses of their employees joining nonprofit boards:

  • Nonprofit boards provide a learning environment to cultivate leaders, including the ability to think and act more strategically. These skills will transfer back to your work place.
  • your business or corporation’s name will be extended out into the community through professional networking
  • employee morale, retention and recruitment will be enhanced by the opportunity for board service
  • your employees will contribute critical business expertise to a local nonprofit organization which also contributes to both the quality of life and the economy. These skills include finance, mergers, public relations, human resources, law, real estate, accounting, and other core areas.
  • In addition to the practical skills which your employees contribute, they will also focus their time and attention on the organization’s mission and vision, and how to achieve it. This will carry over to their thinking about your business.

The Volunteer Network’s Purpose in bringing this training to the community:

  • To provide individuals from businesses, from the professions, and from the general community who currently serve or are considering serving as volunteer members of a nonprofit board of directors with a strong grounding in the roles and responsibilities involved with such service.
  • To provide interested nonprofit organizations with an excellent resource for potential new volunteer board members – individuals that have demonstrated interest in nonprofit board service as well as the knowledge needed to be an effective board member
  • To strengthen and transform the Monroe County nonprofit landscape by elevating the performance of its governance teams.

The program will answer questions such as:

–          How do I find out what will be expected of me?

–          What should I expect from the organization?

–          What are my financial and legal responsibilities?

–          What authority do I have – and do others have?

–          Will I have to raise money?  If so, how do I go about it?

–          What questions should I be asking if I’m asked to serve on a nonprofit’s board?

–          How can I make a significant and positive impact on the organization – and on our community?

Requirements:

  • Completion of the four hour Nonprofit Board Certificate Program
  • Completion of an “Areas of Nonprofit Board Interest” questionnaire (given during final session)

Each individual who completes the program may opt to be included on a list available to organizations which are actively seeking board members. After 12 months, individuals who wish to continue to be listed must participate in a free one-hour workshop which provides updated information on nonprofit regulations, the opportunity to share board experiences and the opportunity to update your questionnaire.

This program is supported by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Bloomington Monroe County Alumni Association, NonProfit Alliance of Monroe County, and United Way of Monroe County.


Elizabeth D. Savich, Director
City of Bloomington Volunteer Network
volunteer@bloomington.in.gov

What the Heck is the Durbin Amendment…and how does it affect my business?

Joe Willett, Bloomington Area representative with Chamber member Infintech, helps to answer some questions that local business owners may have surrounding the Durbin Amendment. Although this amendment is supposed to lower fees on debit/check card transactions – there’s still a question:
Will Your Business Get 100% of the Federally Mandated Debit Card Fee Reduction?

Let’s hear from Joe:

You may have recently heard about the passing of the Durbin Amendment through Congress. The Federal Reserve recently issued its final ruling on interchange, or swipe fees on debit card transactions. In a nutshell, this amendment will force the banks to lower interchange fees on Visa & MasterCard debit/check card transactions to near nothing, but not every merchant accepting Debit Card transactions will benefit from this historic interchange fee reduction.

What’s an Interchange Fee?

An interchange fee is the charge assessed on a merchant every time you swipe your debit or credit card. The fee varies widely, depending on the card and the merchant, and is levied to offset the cost of fraud prevention and processing the transaction. Fraudulent charges on a debit card are relatively small, so they command lower swipe fees; signature cards have the largest swipe fees, since they often have the highest credit limits.

What does this amendment mean for consumers?

Banks have already factored in the loss of interchange revenue, and many are levying new fees on checking accounts, raising minimum balance requirements, and ending debit rewards programs. Credit card swipe fees account for 65 percent of the total interchange costs, so the savings from debit swipe fees are unlikely to be noticeable for consumers.

Although this law, effective October 1, is going to reduce the cost to process debit/check cards, it does not necessarily mean that savings will be passed to you as a merchant. Many processors will be the only recipient of these margins, and whether the merchant pockets the savings or if the credit card processor pockets the savings will be determined largely on the type of pricing model the credit card processor has a particular merchant set up on.

The Chamber invites  you to learn more:

To learn the facts about how the Durbin Amendment will impact your business’ bottom line, register online for a no charge webinars that Infintech is hosting that will help guide you through the complicated process of understanding the Durbin Amendment and its possible impact on your business.

Wed, Sep 21, 2011 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM EDT

Register Here!

To speak directly with the Bloomington Area Infintech Representative, Joe Willett, please call 812-568-6397 or email Joe at joe.willett@infintechllc.com