FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nurten Ural, President ATAA
Allison Block, Advocacy Director, ATAA
TEL: 202.483.9090
E-mail: president@ataa.org

ATAA Leadership Conference a Success

Washington, DC-ATAA successfully held the first-of-its-kind leadership conference November 16-17, 2007 at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC.

Local component association, ATA-DC helped out in kicking off the event with a happy hour in the Georgetown Harbor for the DC-area Turkish American community and friends of Turkey, as well as the many guests that had arrived for the leadership conference.

The two-day conference began with opening remarks by ATAA President Nurten Ural. President Ural's remarks focused the Public Outreach Strategic Plan that ATAA is following and on the panels and activities of the first day of the conference. She noted that she was delighted to see the room filled with ATAA's current and future leaders who are so eager to learn the skills necessary to be better advocates for Turkish Americans and Turkey.

The first panel of the conference was a panel discussion with six former congressmen, Dennis Hertel (D-MI), George Hochbrueckner (D-NY), Jim Moody (D-WI), Michael Flannagan (R-IL), Robert Livingston (R-LA), and Jay Rhodes (R-AZ). The panel was moderated by former Turkish American Federal Congressional Candidate from Maryland Oz Bengur. The congressman highlighted the importance of building personal relationships with congressional offices-both staff and the congressional representative, noting that this includes visits to the local offices, inviting representatives to Turkish American events, and of course, writing personal letters and faxes. The congressmen also gave tips for communicating with representatives, emphasizing the importance of keeping communications short, simple and without emotion. Another important point that was stressed by each panelist was the value of being an active member in the community and conveying this fact to the representatives.

Following a buffet luncheon, participants enjoyed a comprehensive Power Point presentation by ATAA President-Elect Gunay Evinch regarding the current issues that Turkey and Turkish Americans are facing, including the PKK issue and the events of 1915. The presentation is an important component of educating Turkish Americans on the issues.

That afternoon, the group travelled to Capitol Hill to visit the offices of their respective representatives in Congress. This gave them an opportunity to educate their representatives on issues that concern Turkish Americans, such as the events of 1915 and the PKK issue. Participants that were unable to schedule meetings with their congressperson visited the office of Congressman Ed Whitfield (R-KY), the co-chair of the Turkish Caucus. There visitors learned about the legislative process, the role of the Turkish Caucus, and the functions of each congressional staff member.

"It was so interesting for me to learn first-hand about how congressional offices operated and hear about the process that legislation goes through," said one of the participants.

On Friday evening, H.E. Ambassador Nabi Sensoy and his wife Gulgun Sensoy kindly opened their residence for a fundraising dinner for ATAA. The dinner was the first time that the Ambassador and his wife had hosted an event for the Turkish American community at the recently renovated residence on Sheridan Circle. Guests enjoyed a cocktail reception, followed by a delicious dinner, catered by Elif Catering company. The evening ended with remarks by President Nurten Ural and Ambassador Sensoy, commending the Turkish American community for the work that they have done to impact legislation, adding that cooperation amongst the community was a major factor to doing so. Finally six  ATAA Past Presidents:  Ulku Ulgur, Tunca Iskir, Bulent Basol, Nuri Sabuncu, Tolga Cubukcu, and Ali Ferda Sevin, were awarded for their service to ATAA and Turkish Americans.

Saturday morning again began with inspiring opening remarks by ATAA President Nurten Ural, giving more insight on ATAA's two-year strategic plan, through which ATAA started setting in place the systems for the organization to be a more compliant and transparent 501(c)3 organization. She noted that this is the primary reason for this leadership conference-for ATAA and its component associations to become more compliant, active and growing organizations.

The first panel of the morning gave the audience ideas on how to gain more financial strength for local Turkish American organizations. The panel was moderated by Marilyn (Mickey) Katz-Pek, Partner Emerita of Biotechnology Business Consultants (BBC), who was also instrumental in facilitating ATAA's Public Outreach Strategic  Plan. Ms. Katz-Pek's extensive experience in non-profit fundraising served the panel well, as she was able to add perspective to the panelists' presentations. The panel began with a presentation by Mr. Marc Breslaw, VP for Development and Communications of the Jewish Social Service Agency. Mr. Breslaw gave the audience a great deal of insight on online fundraising, the different types of fundraising strategies and the most effective methods. He also suggested many resources from which non-profits can draw on from the corporate world to fundraise. One important point that he added was that fundraising should involve all components of the organization-not just a fundraising person. Next, Mr. Lee MacVaugh, Director of Development and Fundraising of the Character Education Partnership spoke about fundraising for non-profit organizations. Finally, Mr. Bill Gaut, President of Gaut, Inc., gave a lot of insight and tips for grantwriting-a major source of funding in the hundreds of thousands of dollars that is available for non-profit organizations that has been largely untapped by the Turkish American community.

Participants were again honored by H.E. Ambassador Nabi Sensoy as the keynote luncheon speaker. The ambassador gave insight to the current issues that face Turkey and Turkish Americans. Also, the ambassador addressed the audience with a call to action to the Turkish American community regarding the importance of cooperating under the Turkish American umbrella associations, namely ATAA. The Ambassador also took questions from the audience about the issues that concern Turkish Americans in the United States and how Turkish Americans can best communicate these issues.

The luncheon was followed by an afternoon panel, moderated by ATAA Advocacy Director Allison Block, on Non-Profit Compliance and Volunteerism. Becky Ballard, Law Fellow at the Alliance for Justice, gave a thorough and timely presentation to the group about non-profit activity compliance. Her power point presentation gave the participants the parameters around which grassroots activists can operate. Patricia O'Malley, Senior Manager at Rubino & McGheein brought with her more than 15 years of non-profit financial compliance work, and shared her wealth of knowledge on the subject in her portion of the presentation. She spoke about how non-profit organizations should keep financial records and accurately report financials with the IRS. The second portion of the panel included a presentation by Rhonda Watson, Director of Volunteer Initiatives at the American Kidney Foundation, Volunteer Development. She gave tips on volunteer recruitment and management and the most effective ways to retain and supervise volunteers in non-profit organizations. Hatice Dinc, Vice President of the Midwest Region for ATAA, followed up with a presentation on volunteerism and unveiled ATAA's volunteer plan, which is a comprehensive plan for ATAA and its component associations that will log volunteer hours completed by Turkish Americans in their local communities.

The afternoon concluded with an Interactive Networking Event, where leaders in the Turkish American non-profit community served as moderators in small groups to facilitate discussion on "best practices" in non-profit management for their own Associations and ways ATAA can improve.  Mickey Pek also showed by example of how to ask for funds and collected over $2,500.00 from the participants.

The conference closed with a reception hosted by the George Washington University Turkish Student Association's Reception and Film Screening of "Armenian Revolt", for which they were honored to have the film's producer, Marty Callaghan as the guest of the evening to give commentary.

"The caliber of the participants in the leadership conference was exceptional," said President Nurten Ural. "Not only was this an opportunity for the community to network with each other and the panelists, but also participants took away a wealth of information that is invaluable for growing the local component associations."