Issue 38 July 2012

While the work in many offices quiets down over the summer, our conference committee work is heating up. Leading Discovery is only three months away!

It was great to see the flurry of registration activity at the end of June as many members took advantage of the early bird rate. We’re pleased to announce that early bird delegate Brian Power, Manager of Prospect Research at Memorial University of Newfoundland, is the lucky winner of an autographed copy of Up and Down, Terry Fallis’ new book.

The last two months have been very busy.  With the Early Bird Conference drive and Apra Canada membership renewal, we were receiving Paypal updates and cheques daily.  We are still getting caught up from all of the activity. Thank-you for your patience, but if you need a receipt or confirmation that you have registered or renewed, please let me know. Both and early-bird conference registration and membership renewal have gone very well.   If you haven’t registered or renewed, there is still time and details are available through the Apra Canada website.

Upcoming Sessions:

APRA-C Twitter Talk: Best Practices in Raiser’s Edge

Thursday, September 27, 2012

12:30pm-1pm EST | 9:30am-10:30am PST

Join us for our second twitter talk where we will discuss best practices in Raiser’s Edge. Connect with colleagues via twitter gaining insight in 140 characters or less.

If you have questions you would like to pose during this session, please forward them to Liz Rejman at elizabeth.rejman@lhsc.on.ca

A Call for Mentors

Annual Membership Renewals are now underway!

Thank you for your support of APRA Canada over the past year. As you may know, our membership year runs from July 1^st through June 30^th each year. All current APRA Canada memberships expired at the end of on June 30th, 2012.  We are hopeful that you will continue to support our organization by renewing your membership for the upcoming year: July 1^st, 2012 to June 30^th, 2013.

Thank you very much to Steven Gibson, Research Coordinator at BC Children’s Hospital for updating the Research Resources – News which can be found on APRA-Canada’s website here: http://www.apracanada.ca/res_news

Thank you also very much to Alice Wen, Prospect Research Analyst at the Nature Conservancy of Canada for updating the Privacy Toolkit found here http://www.apracanada.ca/privacytoolkit and the section on Federal privacy laws found here http://www.apracanada.ca/privacy_fed

The scholarship selection committee is please to announce the 2012 APRA Canada Scholarship recipients.  Melody Song from the Calgary Zoo was selected to receive the APRA Canada International Scholarship to attend the APRA International conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota this summer. In addition, Steven Gibson of the BC Children's Hospital and Guillaume Parent, of the Foundation du CHUQ in Quebec, were both selected to receive APRA Canada Founder's Awards to assist with the financial cost of attending the 2012 APRA Canada conference in Toronto. Thank you to everyone who applied.

As researchers, we all know how important an online presence can be (and are likely far more aware of our privacy settings than the average user). We often turn to social media to find out information about our prospects - Linked In is of particular use. We also use social media to make recommendations on how to engage prospects - Twitter feeds, Blogs or public Facebook accounts often give detailed information on interests and friends.

In a recent adhoc survey (http://twtpoll.com/duych1), 90% of respondents indicated that they had a tacit understanding or verbal policy on using social media for information gathering purposes.  The majority indicated that they did not have a formal policy but adhered to the privacy and ethical guidelines of APRA, CASE or AFP.  Is having an informal understanding good enough? Are the current ethical standards set forth by APRA International sufficient in the context of social media?

2012 has already been a busy year for APRA–Canada and it’s only half over! I would like to sincerely thank you for renewing your membership for 2012-2013. Our membership numbers continue to be strong and stable among research professionals. Through our activities, we hope to continue to expand our program of professional development, grow our mentoring program and offer value added features and refreshed content on our website.