At the opening session of the 2008 National Conference Judy Vredenburgh, the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, announced the work being done to help position Big Brothers Big Sisters a more urgent and relevant cause. As we developed the 2007-2010 Strategic Direction we heard from the agencies about needing a stronger case for support.

We are building on BrandNewThinking. Our goal is to move beyond an appeal to volunteers to be recognized as the cause we are. The work to make us more Urgent & Relevant in the eyes of others will use a similar process that includes consumer research. We will involve many of our agencies and under direction of the Nationwide Leadership Council Marketing and Communications committee, formed a task force with key agency leaders from all five regions (Northeast: Ruth Rathblot, Associate Executive Director, New York City; Midwest: Gloria Lewis, CEO of Greater Minneapolis; Southeast: Laurie Gunn, VP of Marketing and Communications, Greater Miami; Southwest: Dan Stuchal, VP of Marketing and Communications, North Texas; and West: Guy Valdespino, CEO of Orange County, CA). The task force also includes members of the National Staff: Mack Koonce, COO; Kay Keenan, Vice President of Marketing and Communications; Nick Booth, Vice President of Philanthropy; Melanie Pack, Creative Director; Sandra Delgado Searl, Director of Hispanic Mentoring; and Mark Scott, Director of Mentoring Partnerships.

We are fortunate, through our relationship with Ad Council, that we have been paired with the international marketing strategy firm Naked Communications to assist us with this critical work. Naked began the work with us in June and has a timeline to complete the identification of our broadened position by the end of this year.

We have big expectations for this project. We will create the Umbrella positioning for Big Brothers Big Sisters; one that excites all of our stakeholders whether they are donors, alumni, volunteers or our families. It will build on what we know about volunteers and will help us step up and step out to become a more urgent, important, and relevant cause.

We will be delivering this effort to you with tools and communications during 2009. The 2008 National Conference video (click here to for the store order form to order the video ADD LINK) is the first in many pieces of new communications that you will be receiving. We are committed to finding a position that will motivate people not only to volunteer, but to support our cause.

•  Download this Form to Order the 2008 National Conference Video