16 January 2003

This letter from the Board of Directors of the Nurse Practitioner National Marketing Campaign is to notify you all of the recent decision by the board concerning the future of the campaign. The consensus is to move on to Phase II of the campaign, which will involve the active participation of the NP organizations. The plan is for the individual NP organizations to generate stories for the local press about NPs. In this way we return to the grass roots level of generating interest in NPs. Stories will most likely be picked up by local media and then by national media as the interest is generated.

It has been agreed that the national NP organizations represented on the Board will offer some form of media training opportunities either on line or at their meetings in an effort to continue the education of NPs with regard to interacting with media personnel. The first organization to do so is the ACNP. They will offer media training on Feb 4, 2003 at the ACNP Summit in Washington DC. We encourage all NPs to attend this session. Sue Silk from Citigate Communications, the firm we have been using these last two years, will be the guest speaker and M.J. Henderson Chair of the marketing campaign will be the moderator.

The NPNMC Board of Directors has agreed to continue on as a referral resource. We have completed the agreement and contract with Citigate Communications. The financial constraint of depending on donations makes it impossible to continue to employ a communications firm on a monthly basis. When the need arises to hire experts in communications the individual NP organizations will now take on that responsibility.

We are in the process of a final audit and report to the IRS as our non profit business status dictates. The remaining funds will be used for the audit and the accountant fees for tax preparation, and for printing costs for those wishing copies of the stress tip cards, the media guide and the Media tip card. As media opportunities arise we will work with the NP organizations to help fund these endeavors as the money is available. Our legal counsel Carolyn Buppert has assured us we are in compliance of all obligations.

We would like to thank all the donors for the generous contributions that supported the work of this campaign. Please refer to the attached final report from Citigate Communications for an overview of the work done over the past year. Without you all we would not have been able to achieve so much.

The attached file is a final report from Citigate Communications for your review.

MJ Henderson Chair
Harriet Hellman Treasurer, Member at Large
Ed Gruber ACNP
Julie Novak NAPNAP
Joanne Pohl NONPF
Cheryl Stegbauer Member at Large
Susan Wysocki NPWH

22 October 2002

As the Chair of the Nurse Practitioner National Marketing Campaign, I am writing to inform you that the current financial situation of the campaign is critical. The support that we have received in the last several months is, unfortunately, inadequate. We need your support. We ask that each of you who receive this e-mail donate to the campaign today.

As Nurse Practitioners it is our responsibility to keep the campaign going because no one has our best interests at heart more than we do.Without funding the campaign cannot continue.

To date we have reproduced donation envelopes and we have given them to individual NPs, state and regional NP organizations and the national NP organizations. If you or your organization need more envelopes notify us. We have also sold all our Q & A brochures and Media Tip cards in an attempt to offset expenses. We are in the midst of reprinting these items, so let us know if you wish to place an order.

To bring you up to date on current projects, we recently responded to Redbook magazine's inaccurate statements about Nurse Practitioners in their article entitled "Advise Docs Give Their Own families". We will follow up with them to see that a correction is published and that a positive article is published about NPs.

We are also going forward with our NP "Heroes and Stars" concept. The idea is to focus on NP "Heroes and Stars" in their local communities. The goal is to acknowledge these individuals, thereby providing material for the media at the local and national level. If you know any "heroes or stars" we welcome your recommendations.

The Nurse Practitioner National Marketing Campaign mission statement reads:

"To improve the visibility of Nurse Practitioners among public policy decision makers, health insurance executives, and selected consumer and community groups."

Without your support we cannot continue our mission.

Send donations today to: NPNMC, PO Box 1375, Water Mill, New York, 11976

MJ Henderson, Chair NPNMC

26 July 2002

It has been two years now since the original "think tank" group met to create a marketing campaign to promote Nurse Practitioners. It has been a year and a half since we hired a marketing firm to help us design a marketing campaign. Our goal was to reach out to HMO executives, insurance industry people, legislators and regulators, to tell them about NPs. Phase I of the campaign was to disseminate our message to the print media. We were successful in getting articles and letters to the editor published. We have not only created a vast network of reporters who know about us, but we have also developed a Speakers Bureau of NPs who are ready and willing to be interviewed. Several of us have been interviewed this past year, but as I have said before, good news does not sell newspapers so our stories have not always been published

In May we had a booth at the National Managed Care Conference in Baltimore and in July we had a booth at the National Conference of State legislators in Denver. Both of these conferences were excellent venues to showcase Nurse Practitioners. The booths attracted many visitors and generated a lot of interest in NPs and the varied roles that NPs fill.

In August we will be distributing a media tip card to individual contributors and a media guide booklet to organizational donors for distribution to their members. Both of these items will be helpful for NPs and NP students to use for interfacing with the media. The goal is to get local stories published. Your friendly neighborhood legislators, insurance agents, HMO representatives and state regulators need to read stories about NPs in their local community. We want you all to bring the message home to your local area that Nurse Practitioners are the prescription for America's Health.

The conclusion of Phase I is at hand and we look forward to Phase II. This past year we have been slowly "beating to windward" against a very strong wind and as the Phase II buoy is in sight, we are preparing to change course to a broader reach for the next phase of the campaign. To this end we have three mainstays.

1. We have joined the Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow campaign as a voice for the advanced practice NP. We have not changed our mantra; it remains, "if there are no RNs, there will not be any NPs".

   We will continue to influence the NHT campaign to advertise the nurse practitioner role as a viable career path for RNs. We do wish to help recruit more men and women to enter the profession and to choose the NP role as an option within the profession.

2. We have also made overtures to Johnson & Johnson to include the NPNMC as the resource when they feature advanced practice NPs in their advertising campaign.

3. We are reaching out to you. Although we have many ideas in the works the Board of Directors wants to hear from NPs. We want to know what you would like to see the campaign do next. We also need to know if you are willing to help finance these plans for another year? We encourage you to write to us at the address below. And as always you can send your donations to the same address.

   M.J. Henderson, Chair NPNMC
   NURSE PRACTITIONERS: Rx for AMERICA'S HEALTH
   NPNMC
   PO Box 1375
   Water Mill, NY 11976

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