idealist.org

HR Networking | Join/Start a Local HR Group |
Real Life Examples

Are you an independent group, or part of a member organization (if so, which one)?
PANO is an independent group that has been around for 21 years. It started sometime around 1984-85 with a small nucleus of four organizations who met during lunch regularly to discuss HR. One person told another and another, and so forth, and it grew. Over the years, many people have come and gone.

What geographical location do you serve?
We serve the New York City area. We have one person who lives in New Jersey and works in Manhattan. Most of our group work in Manhattan, while there are a few people who travel in from the Bronx. We’re happy to open it up, however. Anybody involved in human resources in a nonprofit can attend, and our network runs the entire gamut of HR, from Financial Officers, to Vice Presidents, to Controllers, to HR managers.

How many people are currently in the group?
As of April 2005 we have 208 members from 128 organizations. We don’t have an agenda for the group to be large or small, just to be useful.

How do you determine who can join?
Other than our requirement that attendees be responsible for HR activity in a nonprofit organization, we don’t have any other criteria. We do exclude consultants. However, if someone becomes part of the network and then leaves to be a consultant or to work for a for-profit, they can still stay in the group, but can’t serve as an officer.

What is the governing structure of your group?
We established bylaws, and have an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is a minimum of five people and a maximum of 12—right now there are 12. The officers on that committee are the President, Vice President, and Treasurer. The officers are elected by the committee for two-year terms, while the committee itself is voted in annually by the group at large.

What resources do you offer to the people in your network?
Other than several kinds of networking, we offer expert presentations on topics of interest to the group, and discussion forums via an email list which is used very, very frequently.

Are your events or meetings ever open to the public?
Everything is open to the public in the sense that if you’re working with human resources in a nonprofit organization you can come and see it.

How often do you get together?
We get together once a month.

How are events or meetings structured?
In our meetings there is usually a presentation for an hour and a half, and then we open it up for networking, discussing PANO business, or any burning HR issues. The meetings are always the third Thursday of the month, from 9-11:30a.m. We’re nomads, and we hold the meeting wherever we can get space. We’re always looking for meeting hosts, and always looking for speakers and potential presentations. We also provide a continental breakfast, with fruit, Danishes, bagels, coffee, and juice.

Do people in your group pay dues? If so, how do you take care of collecting/ organizing/ accounting for the budget?
Yes, once a year the Treasurer sends out an invoice for membership dues to cover administrative costs (such as postage), and for the continental breakfasts. It is a very small fee. But the dues allow an entire organization to attend, not just one individual. An organization could send multiple people for one membership fee. We have only been collecting dues for seven years. Before that the officers and the meeting hosts would always foot the bill. That didn’t seem fair, so we decided to have yearly dues. What we found, interestingly enough, was that the organization was taken more seriously by members and Executive Directors of their organizations when we added a membership fee.

How do you choose presenters and topics?
We gauge our network and ask them what they are interested in. We ask them at every single meeting, and we also keep tabs on the questions that are being asked via the email list. Every one of us is an ambassador for the group, and if we encounter a presenter that seems good, we immediately ask them if they would present at a PANO meeting. We do have a couple of law firms who are fans of PANO and make presentations year after year after year. Speakers are often lawyers, consultants, practitioners, representatives from the state department, and even sometimes vendors who will give us true knowledge about the industry.

What advice would you give to groups in other cities that were seeking to start a similar group?
It’s hard! The hardest thing is finding the people. I’ve been involved since 1989, and one of the things we always used to talk about was finding more people—although we’re talking about it less so now. It’s difficult since we’re nomads without central offices, so no one can reach us and it’s just been an underground network. People have found it through word of mouth—they know someone who knows about it, they’ve heard about PANO from someone. Now we have the website, and that will help a lot. Unlike more official organizations, we’re not doing it for the money, but just for the knowledge. We’re out to share resources with one another, not to make a million dollars.