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‘We Look Forward To Working With You’

Don Knox, a Civica Management director, talks about running nonprofits like a business.
“Our Goal Is A 44% Net Profit Margin Per Conference”

Katrina Smith, Civica’s director of events and member services, discusses how conferences can be both profitable and stimulating.
“Activity And Strategic Thinking”

Josh Keltner, Civica director and managing attorney, discusses how nonprofit organizations can best grow.
Thank You

Thank you for the opportunity to present this proposal for full service management of the Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing. We’re pleased to have the opportunity to tell you who we are and how we can help ARIN achieve great things!

NOTE: If you are viewing this response in paper or PDF format, please know that it is best accessed via the Internet at ARIN.CIVICAMANAGEMENT.COM.
What Is Civica?

We are one of the country’s fastest-growing and most innovative association management companies. Civica Management offers sophisticated administrative services for associations, organizations and personalities. Those services include organization management, event management, finance and billing, website development and maintenance, photography and video, business development, and content and inbound marketing.

We are the administrator of a number of go-to associations, including Colorado Lawyers for the Arts, the Colorado Association of Professional Lobbyists, the Colorado League of Legal Organizations and the Colorado Chocolate Guild. In 2012, we added the American Physical Therapy Association Colorado Chapter as well as association clients in Connecticut, Iowa and Kentucky. In 2013, we acquired virtually all of the assets of Caruso Group International, which brought us Home Care Association of Colorado, Oregon Association for Home Care, the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, and the Colorado Nurses Foundation, among other clients. Also in 2013, we were honored to become the statewide headquarters for Camp Colorado, the Colorado Campground & Lodging Owners Association.
Our Team

Don Knox, Director
Don is a management veteran who’s been involved in journalistic and entrepreneurial ventures, both for-profit and nonprofit. Don was business editor of both The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News before becoming a business developer and member of the management team of InsightAmerica, a large U.S. provider of information services that’s now part of global marketing company Acxiom. In 2002, Don founded Law Week Colorado, a newspaper for lawyers based in Denver. While at Law Week, Don volunteered with CoLA, an avocation that led him to focus his management efforts on assisting associations.

Josh Keltner, Esq., Director and Managing Attorney
Aside from making Civica one of the few AMCs nationally with a licensed attorney on staff, Josh brings experience from a wide variety of professional circles. He has extensive training in market research, statistics, and business intelligence. He also holds a Masters degree in cello performance from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and has over fifteen years of experience teaching and performing music. He received his law degree from Vanderbilt University in 2011, and loves, both literally and figuratively, being an advocate for the arts.

Katrina Smith, CMP, Director of Events and Member Services
Katrina brings more than 15 years experience in nonprofit meetings and events management to the Civica team. She has worked as an event planner in the corporate, non-profit and government sectors and has recently renewed her CMP certification. She has experience developing and managing large scale events for 500 to 5,000 attendees. Recent experience has focused on further development of Strategic Meeting Management skills in each key area including definition and structure of events, event approval and buy-in by leaders and stakeholders, procurement and sourcing, planning and execution, financial reconciliation, and data analysis. Katrina holds a Bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Colorado.

Susan Nolte, Director of Accounting And Finance
Susan provides corporate-quality accounting for Civica Group, Civica Management and Civica/Caruso and for its association and corporate clients. Her work gives association presidents and treasurers the critical financial information they need to ably steer their respective organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Colorado State University, and she has 25 years of accounting and administrative experience. Her responsibilities include invoicing, processing payments and paying bills, as well as compiling monthly financial reports. Additionally, she handles the filing of campaign finance reports, sales tax returns, and coordinates the filing of the Form 990 for our clients. She assists with budgeting and ensures that all accounting records are accurate and up to date. She also works on special projects for our association clients. In her free time she serves as treasurer for the Colorado Masters Swim Association a 2200 member affiliate of the US Masters Swimming Association.

Ellen Caruso, Former Caruso Group Owner, Current Civica Adviser
Ellen is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism and has been in public relations, association management and government relations since 1969. She is a registered lobbyist and press photographer and founded CGI in 1980. Ellen began her career in Helena, Montana, where she was executive director for a number of trade and professional societies in her firm, Association Management Services. As an active registered lobbyist in the state of Colorado, she has shepherded several major health care bills through the entire legislative process and through all lengthy and detailed regulatory hearings. At least five times a year she coordinates Congressional lobby missions to our nation’s Capitol. She has studied association management and she works at serving her association clients well. She knows how to help volunteers reach their goals without “burnout” and do the things they find difficult to do. She knows who the experts in the industry are — the members themselves — and she makes sure their expertise is put to good use.

Fred Caruso, CAE, Former Caruso Group CEO, Current Civica Adviser
Fred is an author, speaker, trained group facilitator, and seasoned association executive who brings focus, energy and leadership to group challenges as he helps bring out opportunities previously unseen. A certified association executive for more than 30 years, Caruso has worked with dozens of boards of directors as association CEO and staff director at the local, state, regional and national levels. Most of his career has been devoted to the management of priorities for several groups at one time. The author of two books and numerous articles on associations and association management, Caruso has studied group phenomena and association dynamics worldwide. While all groups have similarities, no two are exactly alike. Fred retired in 2010 from the former Caruso Group International, now part of Civica/Caruso, after 42 years in the association management field. Since retiring, he has concentrated on
his writing and publishing career from his offices in Colorado and West Cork, Ireland. Since 1977, he has written and published four books, two on the role of trade and professional associations in society, one on Montana history and a personal memoir, “Born Again Irish,” describing how a near-tragedy led to a New Yorker of Italian descent falling in love with Ireland.
Our Key Strengths

At Civica Management, we thrive on the growth of our clients, and we look for every avenue to add value and life to an organization.

For example, Civica began management of the Colorado Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association in January 2013. Since then, we’ve moved the chapter from 68 to nearly 1,000 fans on Facebook (as of 5/20/13) — and it is now the most ‘liked’ APTA chapter in the country. On Twitter, APTA Colorado became the No. 1 state chapter in just one month and now has 1,631 followers (up from just 200 in January). Lastly, we built two websites for APTA Colorado and passed 10,000 page views after being live for only two months.

Civica also played a pivotal role in the Bonfils Stanton Foundation’s efforts last year to develop plans for an online “arts hub” serving residents statewide. Those efforts culminated in a three-year $900,000 grant, announced Jan. 23, 2013, from the foundation to Colorado Public Radio.

On behalf of its clients, Civica uses current technology to stream selected conference sessions live to members throughout the state who are otherwise unable to participate. This has provided a new level of value to the members of these organizations at little or no cost.

Our client conferences and events consistently return positive net income to the associations due to effective marketing, planning and negotiating by our team. We have more than 15 years’ experience in nonprofit event management and use online event registration systems for our association members.

Chapter development at Civica is a priority and strength. We have developed chapters for volunteer lawyers for the arts (VLA) groups in four states over the past year. We are now working to develop chapters of National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds (ARVC) into adjacent states. We have managed chapters of national associations, created chapters and managed multiple sectors of national organizations as well.

Imagination is great, but experience means much. We have plenty of both and we have the longevity to back it up.

Don Knox is in his 28th year as a manager, journalist and communicator, his 16th year as an entrepreneur and his 13th year running nonprofits.

Katrina Smith, CMP is in her 15th year as a meeting professional and event coordinator. The past 5 years have been spent working for three nursing-based associations.

Susan Nolte is in her 25th year as a finance and bookkeeping professional, with 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.

Josh Keltner, a 2011 Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt, brings legal experience to the in-house team and specializes in legal issues that affect non-profits and trade associations.

Ellen Caruso, a Civica adviser, formed Caruso Group International in 1980 before selling it in 2010. She has been a registered lobbyist the entire time. Civica acquired Caruso Group earlier this year.

Fred Caruso, CAE, the retired CEO of Caruso Group and also a Civica adviser, was Colorado’s first CAE — Certified Association Executive — and one of the first CAEs in the country.
How Civica Can Help

“Our membership is stagnant, decreased a little last year.”
The APTA Colorado Chapter has seen steady membership growth during its years being managed by Caruso Group and now by Civica Management. APTA Colorado has also implemented extensive social media and outreach activities under Civica Management which have resulted in increased conference participation and member connectivity. The Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care boasts a market penetration rate of 98%, which has held steady through the recent economic downturn. The Home Care Association of Colorado has recently developed a membership marketing and outreach committee under the new management of Civica.

“ARIN has had minimal sponsor success.”
Civica Management understands that consistent sponsor relations are key to the success of our clients. Because of this belief, we have assumed sponsor solicitation responsibilities from volunteer committees and brought them to the professional management level. We are heavily engaged with our clients’ sponsors, making sure they receive the return on investment they are seeking and keeping association members updated on new products, services, and best practices in their field. During the recently concluded Spring Conference season, Civica conducted video interviews with vendors at each exhibition for posting later on the association website and in a post-event press release. We are facilitating an “ask the expert” portal for our members in which our vendors and sponsors can post responses. Vendors are very excited about this opportunity to connect with members. We are also exploring other vendor opportunities (i.e. vendor slam format) for extended sales process products and services. Home Care Convention Exhibitors said that traffic during the recent exhibition was excellent due to our exhibitor game card program and meals within the exhibitor space.

“These meetings are highly valued by ARIN membership, but have operated a loss or minimal profit for the past 5 years. ARIN holds an annual Fall Symposium that is valuable to membership, but has made a minimal profit in only 1 of 6 years.”
We are proud of our record when it comes to conference profitability. Every client annual conference we have managed in the past 5 years has resulted in positive net revenue. We have extensive experience managing conferences, workshops, symposiums, and educational sessions for all levels of nursing professionals. We have developed 1, 3, and 5 track conferences in multiple day formats. We have experience managing conventions of 100 to 5,000 attendees, as well as award fundraisers for 500. Three of our major clients consist primarily of members who are nurses.

“ARIN members face increasing pressures including economic challenges for nurses, rapidly changing industry technology that impacts nursing practice, education, and publishing, and changing member demographics, as well as the real potential threat for downsizing in our practice areas in a changing healthcare arena.”
Because Civica manages three major nursing-related associations in Colorado, we have a unique handle on the healthcare industry and nursing profession. We have over 30 years’ experience lobbying at the national and state level on healthcare issues. We have built solid relationships with lawmakers and regulators at the state and national level along with a strong network of advocates across the U.S. We feel this places us in a unique position to help ARIN make the highest and best use of resources as well as providing clearly defined direction and priorities.

“ARIN’s vision for the organization seeks to address the changes facing our members. It calls for a dynamic, vigorous ARIN volunteer system, innovative meetings with great networking, improved robust online services, and growth in membership and finances.”
Civica Management has helped other clients in the healthcare industry survive and thrive in the past few years of change and uncertainty. We have experience reinvigorating membership and volunteer engagement, and reinventing floundering meetings for positive financial outcomes. We are also innovative in our approach to the online presence of our clients, their connectedness to their members, and positive social media engagement.
Functions of the Headquarters Office

Membership & Technology Services: Civica currently handles all the responsibilities listed in this section for existing clients. We have systems and support in place to ensure that technology works for the association. Our clients are set-up on Avectra Net Forum and Affiniscape association management software. These systems were researched and recommended by us to specifically fit our client needs. We currently maintain all client websites, databases, and online event registration systems. We have extensive experience building websites, having completed 65 in 2012 alone. We actively use Live Streaming, social media, and association management software to efficiently manage the business of our clients. Our experience in journalism (28 years) and convention management (15 years) make us uniquely qualified to assist with all copywriting, event programming, marketing and communications needed. Our accounting systems and reporting have been touted as being of corporate quality and will continue to provide high standards of service and information to volunteer leaders.

General Administration & Leadership Support: As the fastest growing AMC in the state, we are adept at providing all general administrative support, as well as leadership support and guidance. We are practiced in the requirements of non-profit record keeping, including meeting minutes, financial reports, and by-laws compliance. We are one of the few AMCs nationally that has a practicing attorney on staff to assist with the legal needs of our clients.

Meeting and Event Management: With 15 years of meeting and event planning experience and a Certified Meeting Professional on staff, Civica will meet and exceed all your event expectations. We begin with site research, recommendations, inspection, contract negotiation and management. We are experienced in event marketing, planning, and development from menus to agenda content. We have successfully applied for and received authorization to provide nursing continuing education credit for the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care. The administration of this program is our responsibility and it adds great value to our conferences. Since 2009, we have offered multi-media CEU opportunities to our members through webinars and audio-conferences. Our experience in journalism and communications enable us to oversee print projects with ease and expertise.

Financial Operations & Management: Our financial management systems have been directed by the same person for over 12 years. This continuity has served our clients well. We are responsible for all income and expense budgeting, invoicing, accounts payable, dues invoices, bank reconciliation, monthly financial reports, maintenance of merchant accounts, PCI compliance and preparation of materials for tax filings through our CPA firm.

Publication Support Services: Our 28 years in journalism will serve to seamlessly accomplish the tasks requested in this area.

General Management & Support: Our staff attorney will be available to advise and counsel the ARIN Board of Directors and committees as needed. All our Directors will be helpful in establishing and quantifying organizational goals, having extensive experience in association management and a history of healthcare focus. As an AMC, we consider it our job to guide our clients through the five key areas as outlined in The Race For Relevance. We subscribe to the idea that “More than ever, the way associations become more successful is to help their members do the same.”
In Conclusion

The Civica team is excited at the prospect of working with ARIN on a national level. We have excellent relationships with our current nursing client organizations, and believe that the long term goals of ARIN fit our long term company goals well.

We understand the significant changes facing the industry and nurses in this specialty practice. We firmly believe that these changes provide an opportunity for growth and metamorphosis for the organization. The race for relevance is now and we are prepared to be at the starting line next to the members and leaders of ARIN. We would be honored to provide the executive support you are seeking and are willing and able to look at all avenues that will push the organization to the leading edge.

Features

Three Nursing Clients

Civica works with many nurses and nurse administrators through our management of the Colorado Nurses Foundation, the Home Care Association of Colorado and the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care.

Chapter Development

Civica revived Colorado Lawyers for the Arts and worked with local organizers in Connecticut, Kentucky and Iowa to create or reestablish VLA programs in those states. We're also working on state chapter development through our partnership with Camp Colorado and the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds.

Communications Are Our Strength

Video, audio, text: Civica does it all, writing, producing and delivering news via email to a high-quality website we build and maintain on your behalf. Our trade newsrooms may be our single greatest strength as a management company.

We Don’t Outsource Websites

We built 65 websites in 2012, and we've built 28 so far this year -- whether primary website, section/chapter website or event/conference website. You need to know that your management company isn't vexed by technology, and Civica isn't.

ARIN WANTS TO KNOW

Your Questions, Answered

Please answer the following questions:

General:

Provide information about your company, including how long you have been in business, the number of employees, other types of clients and references.
Don Knox, a veteran Colorado journalist and business developer, founded Civica Management in 2010 (incorporated in early 2011) to assist nonprofit business organizations in increasing their membership and relevance in the rapidly advancing world of industry and technology. Civica had tremendous organic growth before acquiring Caruso Group International earlier this year. The company has six full-time and part-time employees, two advisers and a number of contractors retained for the highest-end design and video projects. Virtually all of our electronic work is handled in house: Civica built 65 websites for its clients in 2012. Our clients are predominantly 501c6 business groups. We address references below.

Are you familiar with ARIN? Please explain.
We were familiar with ARIN through our work with the Colorado Nurses Foundation. We knew that ARIN did not have a Colorado chapter.

Please provide a list of current clients and a short description of the work you provide for them.

Full Management
American Physical Therapy Association Colorado Chapter
Colorado Association of Professional Lobbyists
Colorado Campground & Lodging Owners Association
Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care
Colorado Lawyers for the Arts
Colorado Nurses Foundation
Home Care Association of Colorado

Start-up Management Services
Colorado Chocolate Guild
Colorado League of Legal Organizations
Connecticut Lawyers for the Arts
Iowa Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Kentucky Lawyers for the Arts

Technology, Communications, Social Media
Arizona Managed Care, Colorado Managed Care and HealthCare Computer Corporation of America.
Blacktie-Colorado.com
Colorado Restaurant Association Mile High Chapter
Family Advisor Services, Collaborative Trusteeship
Innovation Pavilion, an ecosystem for entrepreneurs
Penny Parker
Rocky Mountain Food Industry Association
TFA Private Trust

Business Consulting
Bonfils-Stanton Foundation
Denver Social Record and Register Ltd.

Please provide your mission statement and/or long-term goals.
We are one of the country’s fastest growing and most innovative association management companies. Our highest goal is to transform our client organizations using superior technology and business practices.

Please provide any company literature you publish for review (brochures, business cards, marketing materials).
Our website is www.civicamanagement.com. A business card is here. We market ourselves exclusively through in-person networking events and through our company blog, which auto-posts through social media channels. We have 520 followers on Twitter.

Please list three client and/or professional references. Please include contact information.

Cari Levy, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Mobile: 303-596-2906. Email: cari.levy@ucdenver.edu. — Immediate Past President, Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care.

Larry Hudson, Esq., Hudson Government Affairs, LLC. Mobile: 303-249-4234. Email: larry@hudsonga.com — President, Colorado Association of Professional Lobbyists.

Kimberly Bozich, PT, DPT, CSCS, Cactus Sport & Spine. Cell: 303-870-1749. Email: kbozich_dpt@yahoo.com. — Treasurer, American Physical Therapy Association Colorado Chapter.

Lola Fehr, RN, MSN, Project Director, Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence. Mobile: 970-590-0325. Email: lolafehr@comcast.net – Board of Directors, Colorado Nurses Foundation. Former Executive Director of the Association for PeriOperative Nurses (AORN).

Administration:

What is the largest budget your company’s staff has managed?
The Home Care Association of Colorado is our current largest client with a budget of approximately $350,000. Don Knox is a former top executive and large shareholder of Insight America, a former private company with $20 million in annual revenues. The company was sold in 2005.

What is the smallest budget your company’s staff has managed?
We have worked with startup nonprofits with negligible revenues.

Have you had experience in working with an outside accounting firm?
Yes. We have experience working with CPAs. We typically send client data to McNurlin & Associates P.C. for our clients’ Form 990s to be prepared. We also work with volunteer CPAs who help with our peer reviews
of our finance records.

Do you contract with an outside auditing firm? Can you provide a reference?
No, but we have volunteer CPAs from BK LLP who help coordinate and review our clients’ finances when we do our peer reviews, once per year for most clients.

Please detail your experience in database management?
We have considerable database management skills in our. Our founder, Don Knox, was a top executive of Insight America, a database company that worked with many state and U.S. agencies. Don has experience transmitting data through tagged-text formats (including XML).
We use a variety of Association Management Software platforms, including Affiniscape and Avectra.

Please detail your experience in financial reporting.
Susan Nolte has considerable financial-reporting experience. We close each month’s activity for each client and send a full report to the treasurer of each organization and retain paper and electronic copies in our files.

Please describe your experience/computer capabilities.
Our employees are heavy users of technology. We built 65 websites in FY2012, virtually all of which we continue to maintain and update. Our telephone, email and file systems all are cloud-based with protective backups in place.

What kind of computer hardware and software programs do you own and operate.
We own, operate and/or access via the Internet a number of software programs including Adobe Creative Suite, QuickBooks, WordPress and Microsoft Office. We own both PCs and Macintosh computers, tablet computers, smart phones, video cameras, wired and wireless microphones, mixing boards, high-definition TVs and frames and badge-making equipment.

Association Management
Briefly describe your professional background as it relates to duties outlined.

Have you had experience managing an association the size of ARIN? IF yes, please explain. If no, please detail how your qualifications match the outlined duties.
We have managed associations nearly as large as ARIN’s. Our founder, Don Knox, has personally managed four companies of more than $1 million in revenue. He was a top executive of a company with $30 million in revenue.

Have you had experience managing other professional organizations of nurses? Please explain or detail how your experience would be a good for this organization.
We manage three organizations composed entirely of nurses or have a heavy concentration of nurse members: The Colorado Nurses Foundation, the Home Care Association of Colorado and the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care. Our continuing work with nurses will positively inform our work with ARIN. ARIN would be better run because we know, work with and have managed nurse organizations.

Please describe your experience in managing conferences and obtaining sponsorship and support from industry for meetings and other member benefits.
Unlike other AMCs, Civica takes the lead role in selling sponsorships on behalf of our client organizations. We view the sponsor relationship as too important to delegate to well-meaning but overworked volunteers. Volunteers are called upon to assist Civica in “close call” opportunities only.

Please describe your experience in collateral production.
We are predominantly an electronic publisher. We produce all of our own electronic collateral, which constitutes the vast majority of all the collateral we produce. We design conference programs, postcards, flyers and session evaluations, but we send most of it to an area printer for production. We produce some logos in-house but also work with a contract graphic design, Amy Vanchina. We make most videos in-house but work with contract videographers where the highest-quality lighting and editing are required. Our founder, Don Knox, has 28 years of experience in journalism, most of it involving oversight of publication design.

If you were to accept this contract, what skills/tools would you need to acquire to meet the requirements outlined on the previous page?
Civica can accept this contract with its current team of employees and contractors.

ARIN & Civica: A Great Team

‘We Look Forward To Working With You’

“Our Goal Is A 44% Net Profit Margin Per Conference”

“Activity And Strategic Thinking”

Thank You

What Is Civica?

Our Team

Our Key Strengths

How Civica Can Help

Functions of the Headquarters Office

In Conclusion

Our Strengths Are Complementary

Three Nursing Clients

Chapter Development

Communications Are Our Strength

We Don’t Outsource Websites

Your Questions, Answered

References