The National Organization for Human Services is my primary association client, and this year, the NOHS annual conference enjoyed an outstanding success: Income for the 2006 conference increased 63 percent over 2005. Official registration increased from 126 in 2005 to 196 this year.

Hosted by the San Diego campus of Springfield College, the 2006 conference was held Nov. 1-4 at the Bahia Resort on Mission Bay. The conference chair had a clear vision for the conference, and I worked closely with her to make the vision a reality. Together, we defined speaker expectations, which I translated into an online proposal submission form that brought in a record number of proposals.

I also worked with the conference chair and the NOHS vice president for conferences to develop a realistic conference budget. This allowed us to set appropriate registration fees that would guarantee financial success without a significant increase for attendees. One strategy was setting an "early bird" registration fee and deadlines that prompted earlier registrations.

Thanks to the success of the 2006 conference, NOHS is positioned to enter the new year in better financial condition than it began this year.