Friends,

Yesterday we had a fantastic Executive Meeting for our chapter. Some
of the points we discussed were:

Media Promotion to build membership: We need to list out meetings in
the local papers and get the word out about our Monthly Roundtables.
There are many alternative healthcare providers out there looking for
peers to network and hone skills with. Make sure to let everyone know
that we have plenty of resources within out IHF Chapters.

Meeting Formats and Discussions: We have received a lot of great
feedback with the roundtable discussions we are conducting this year.
The team wants to build on this concept even more by continuing with
the monthly roundtables and allowing the group to learn from each
other. This month the roundtable is working with weight, next month
is stress and then one of our favorites taking positive thinking to
the next level. The idea of roundtables is that no-one person is the
expert at these discussions. Everyone participates and you might be
surprised in finding that the newest member could provide that one
piece of information that you find more valuable than all the other
discussions for the night.

Mentoring Programs for our members: We discussed building a mentoring
program for new members or old members that want to hone certain
skills. This opens the door for mentors and students which will be a
valuable resource for our chapter members.

Weekend Workshops and Events: The team discussed putting together
networking events for us to promote alternative healthcare in
different communities and how to build the skills doing it. Workshops
for presentation skills might be a great tool for some of our members
to attend. We could use the workshop to design a presentation from
the chapter members that we could promote and provide the
organizations that would request or welcome it. We could also use the
money we are collecting to rent a place to sponsor our own seminar
for the public if the chapter desires. Instead of using the money for
a party we could use it to promote ourselves. A lot of ideas in this
discussion.

Better Contact and Meeting Tracking: A discussion of making sure our
members are getting the proper continuing education credits for
memberships was expressed. We are developing a form for new members
and a way to track CE's for current members. A website can be created
for our members to track their CE's and to promote our chapter. This
will be discussed more in the future. Right now we want to clean up
our current membership listings and notifications. Our new chapter
newsletter is the easiest and most professional way of contacting our
members. All mailings will stop because of cost till we find a way to
do it cheaper. I currently have over 50 members on our email
newsletter and most of our members come from that listing. The
mailings did not bring in any more members over the last 5 months.

Money raising for the Chapter: We brought up fundraising for the
chapter to put on more events in the future and this discussion was
tabled till we found out more of what our chapter members were
willing to do themselves. We did not want to create an event that we
just work ourselves and it did not fit into the chapter members
schedules or priorities.

In summary I am happy to report that the San Fernando Valley Chapter
of the IHF is alive and growing. 2008 is turning into a year of many
adventures and growth for its members and the chapter as a whole.
This month we are meeting at the Mostman's estate again and we are
working on a permanent location for our chapter in the future.

If you have questions you can always call me directly at 661-286-2179
and I love to discuss new ideas and opportunities for you to help and
grow. Even if you just want to tell me about how you think I can help
you that is fine. We are specialists in thinking outside the box my
friends. If we have a challenge our job is to look at ways we can
overcome it. This includes our own challenges and limits in my
opinion. Sometimes we need to hear our own challenges from someone
else to realize we are doing what our clients do. You will find that
my goal is to make sure that we walk our talk and live what we are
teaching. In this way our job becomes easier and our lives are
enriched by what we have learned for years.

Have a fantastic week and make sure to stop by the San Fernando
Valley Chapter roundtable:

Adress: 11801 Balboa Blv, Granada Hills, CA
Paul and Terry's Phone: (818) 368-1161

Time: 6:30pm - 9:00pm
Date: Wednesday, 21st May 2008

Fee: $5.00 for members, $10.00 for repeat guests
(Free to all first time guests)

6:30-7:00pm socialize and conduct chapter business.
7:00-9:00pm workshop and practice

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
President
San Fernando Valley Chapter
International Hypnosis Federation