Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Membership, February 2018)

The lifeblood of any nonprofit association is its membership. We continue to have a chapter who leads the nation in BDPA members.... BDPA Cincinnati. The chapter ... led by its president, Frank Hill ... continues to amaze others by its consistent growth. The chapter is significantly larger than the second largest chapter as they continue moving towards the next milestone of having 200 members this year.

We would also like to congratulate BDPA Bay Area (led by Gina Tomlinson) and BDPA Greater Tampa Bay Chapter (led by Andrea Johnson) for becoming an 'active' chapter by having more than the minimum level of membership. Gina and Andrea both realize that we need to work hard to keep membership growth and retention higher.

Frank Hill

BDPA believes in the management maxim -- you get what you measure.  Let us assess the numbers in order to honor those local BDPA chapters who are demonstrating success in their efforts to recruit and retain members.  Let's take a look at the ten largest chapters in BDPA-Nation:

1. Cincinnati - president, Frank Hill
2. Detroit - president, Loraine Stewart-David
3. St. Louis - president, Marvis Hollis
4. Indianapolis - president, Delano Robinson
5. Chicago - president, John Coleman
6. Atlanta - president, Victor Montgomery
7. Southern Minnesota - president, Ebenezer Kyei-Baffour
8.  Philadelphia - president, Cedric Edwards
9. New Jersey - president, Anthony Dupree
   
10. Washington DC - president, Perry Carter

The number of chapters now belonging to the 'BDPA Century Club' has grown to three.  The benefit of having powerful leadership is obvious when we see that Cincinnati,Detroit and St. Louis each have over 100 members. One of the common denominators for each of these chapters is that they place a high premium on the delivery of quality programs and services to their  members. These chapters work hard to ensure that there is a strong return on the $100 investment that each member makes thru annual dues.

What are your thoughts about the value of BDPA membership? What can your local chapter do to improve the value-proposition for you on a personal or professional level?

Grant Declination: Walmart Community Grant Request (BDPA Greater Tampa Bay)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) worked with BDPA Greater Tampa Bay chapter (president, Andrea Johnson) to submit a $2,500 grant proposal to the Walmart Community Grant Request. If approved, the grant would provide partial funding for the Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program in Tampa, FL.

Unfortunately, our grant proposal was declined. The declination letter read as follows:

---

Thank you for submitting a request, Request ID 38527597, to facility #3197 for a grant through the Walmart Community Grant Program. Your grant request was not selected for funding at this time.

The Community Grant Program is a competitive application. On average, we receive more than 150,000 applications from more than 65,000 local organizations striving to improve their communities each year. A number of variables may influence each funding decision. Common reasons grants may be declined include lack of: alignment with our focus areas, local connection with the store, program timing, limited resources and clarity of programmatic work within the facility community.

Thank you again for your interest in the Walmart Community Grant Program. We appreciate your efforts to help people live better and wish you success in your future endeavors. If you would like to learn more about all of Walmart’s giving programs, we encourage you to visit http://giving.walmart.com.

Sincerely,
The Walmart Community Grants Team

---

BETF will continue to aggressively pursue funding for all 46 local BDPA chapters. However, God loves the child who has his own ... so we encourage you to support BDPA scholarship programs by making a secure online donation