Westen

Great Success Story and Congratulations

In 2006 I was part of a group of subject matter experts from throughout the country who got together in Atlanta to discuss establishing a nonprofit (501c3) to standardize Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) training and programs. Originally there were 16 founding Board members and over this 3 day meeting we worked out the basis of the organization. Term limits were established for the Board members with a limit of 26 Board members, subjected to the Board decision to increase or decrease Board members as needed.

Personally, I spent 10 years on the Board, with the last 7 as Treasurer. We started with $0 and I understand now the organization brings in over $1 million yearly. Board members are working Board members; where they are expect to perform certain duties, etc. with no pay. However, grants and other commitments that require work by a Board member and if it is in the grant, are paid at the federal rate.

Every year a conference is held at a different location every year, last year it was in Phoenix, this 3 day conference with 106 workshops/presentations. The organization is member based.

Currently there are 15 Board member and 5 employees that include an Executive Director, Executive Assistant, Director of Programs, Director of Conferences, and Accountant.

When we started there was a retired programmer who volunteered to create a website. Although his intentions were good, his website was so complicated and not user friendly. When it was decided to go with Wild Apricot, he refused to supply us with the codes to move info to the new website. It took the threat of legal action for this to happen. We found that the Wild Apricot software provided all we needed, membership log, conference registrations, etc. and a members only sign in portal that provides members with various information.

The website is: citinternational.org