CIANJ Commerce Magazine September 2020 Live | Page 22

■ Annual Best Practices Guide
Continued From Page 18
ASSOCIATIONS
New Jersey
Bankers Association
By John E. McWeeney, Jr.,
President and CEO
NJBankers is all about making
connections for our members.
We connect them with
legislators, regulators, industry service providers
and each other. Prior to COVID‐19,
most of our programs were in-person events
so, when the pandemic hit, we had to quickly
change our business model in order to keep
making connections for our members. In a
matter of days, we launched a series of webinars
with regulators and service providers on
key issues like regulatory lending guidelines,
PPP, reopening procedures and more. Attendance
was huge with a number of webinars
drawing more than 200 attendees and one
more than 1,000 attendees. We’ve since gone
virtual for committee and board meetings
and a number of conferences, including ones
on financial elder abuse and diversity and
inclusion. Keeping our members connected
was critical and we employed the resources,
the team and the courage to go virtual and
make it happen.
New Jersey Society
of CPAs
By Ralph Albert Thomas,
CPA (DC), CGMA, CEO and
Executive Director
Even before COVID‐19, as
a membership organization
we acknowledged that communication and
engagement are key to knowing your membership
and understanding what members
need to advance their careers. Amid the pandemic,
we put that into overdrive. Since everyone
has been impacted by this in some way,
we instituted Membership+, where NJCPA
membership now includes 20 free continuing
professional education (CPE) credits, the value
of which actually exceeds the cost of membership.
This way, NJCPA members can meet
their minimum annual CPE requirements for
free. We also increased our efforts to be an information
resource for members on pandemic-related
issues and made it easier to connect
with us by offering virtual meetings, seminars,
conferences and networking opportunities.
Staff also embraced the virtual environment
to engage with members and each other.
NJ Warehousemen &
Mover’s Association and
New Jersey Movers
Tariff Bureau
By Bob Russo,
Executive Director
NJWMA is a trade association
for licensed public movers. When the COVID‐19
shutdown began, we joined several business coalitions
and participated in webinars on a daily
basis to gather information. Then we became
the COVID‐19 Q&A information source for
members by e-mailing them relevant updates on
ever-changing rules, clarifying requirements and
suggested best practices for movers that choose
to provide essential services. We also provided
information to consumers about social distancing
and sanitizing recommendations during
moving. We posted all updates and questions
on our website, njmovers.com, and our site visits
went up. Our members said they appreciated
us since they were unable to get information
from official sources. We also e-mailed many
comments to regulators, legislators and state
agencies regarding issues that were not being
addressed and we said we objected to bad decisions
that are not business-friendly—advising
that companies will move out of New Jersey.
Continued On Page 22
FOCUSED ON THE
ROAD TO RECOVERY
FOR NEW JERSEY’S
BUSINESSES
Now, Next and Beyond
20 COMMERCE www. commercemagnj.com