President's Message

With the end of 2020 in sight, I’ll join many in hoping 2021’s arrival ushers in
better times. One of the many changes we were forced to make was the postponement of our annual national conference which had been planned for Spoakne, WA. For the uninformed, that’s pronounced Spo-Can. It’s the first time in recent memory that NAFTO has missed holding our annual conference and caused the additional issue of addressing our mandatory business meeting. Like other organizations, we resorted to using Zoom to satisfy the bylaws of our non-profit association.

On December 10, 2020, the Executive Board of NAFTO held our business
meeting. During the meeting, we heard several key individuals provide reports relating to activities during 2020. In hindsight, NAFTO was still able to accomplish quite a few things this year in spite of the challenges caused by COVID. Although membership turnout was very low, a fortunate side effect of hosting the meeting on Zoom was the ability to record the meeting. We are making the video available to our entire membership via our “Members Only” section. If you are interested, click here to see it.

Your Executive Board has high expectations for 2021. While building on the financial achievements of 2020, we plan on engaging our membership with the goal of increasing retention. NAFTO will continue updating and revising our curriculum so it reflects the most contemporary, evidence-based material. These revisions will ensure our classes continue being the premier resource for FTO training in the nation. We also seek to explore partnerships with organizations to provide value to our members in the form of content. Lastly, our Chapter Committee will seek to develop guidelines and practices to help organize local chapters throughout the country. In this sense, we seek to develop a network of chapters that can feed the system with the most up-to-date ideas and concepts relating to field training.

I am honored to have been re-elected as NAFTO’s President and excited to
continue to work with the Executive Board on our goals. In the end, we will be judged by the impact we made, not by what we say or write. I look forward to the challenge and embrace the “trainee” mindset of getting better everyday. I hope you all do, too.

Training hard,
Paul