Chapters

• ITNS Mission Statement
• ITNS Society's Goals
• Interrelationship of Society-Chapter Governance Structure
• Model for Society-Chapter Relationship
• Working with the Society's Office

• Before you get started
• Basic terms
• Define your site's purpose and content
• Evaluating whether you should pay for or use a free hosting service
• Resources
• Who will be responsible for the site?

Now that you have chartered an ITNS chapter, you may want to consider creating a chapter web site. A web site can help you to showcase your chapter events, communicate with your members and provide easily accessible information about your chapter to your members.

Introduction

AACN and ABTC (American Board of Transplant Coordinators) have approved the International Transplant Nurses Society (ITNS) as a provider of CEU/ABTC credits from their organizations. Under this providership we are able to provide continuing educational credits for ITNS educational offering in both local and national setting.
Under the set guidelines set by AACN and ABTC, we are able to grant recognition to programs that meet established standards based on predetermined criteria. Approval assures participants that programs need professional continuing education standards, and provides participants with continuing education credit for:

Biannual Activity Report/Chapter Update

Each Chapter President should receive this form by email biannually (October and April) from the Director of Chapter Development. Information on this form will assist the Director in reporting Chapter news and activities to the ITNS Newsletter Editor and Website Director, as well as address any questions or problems that Chapters may experience. This is your time to shine! Tell us about all of your Chapter activities so that we can inform our membership. Information on your chapter will be updated on the Chapter page of the ITNS Website and may be included in ITNS newsletter. Please return information within the deadline set by the Chapter Development Director.

A chapter newsletter for members is an excellent communication tool to keep members abreast of trends and issues affecting the transplant-nursing specialty.

Read the latest document on developing a Chapter newsletter. Download the PDF.

Some additional recommendations for a newsletter are:

Your chapter may want to consider developing a Journal Club for your members. This is a relatively easy process once Club guidelines are established and a member of your board of directors is assigned responsibility for direction of this on-going project.

Journal club meetings can be held once per month, every two months, or quarterly. A group of nurses (i.e., a specific transplant hospital nursing unit or outpatient transplant coordinators) should volunteer to host or facilitate each meeting. Sign-up sheets for volunteering to host a journal club should be circulated at every chapter function. Try to have host volunteers signed up for at least 2 meetings in advance.

Mission: To facilitate the work of chapter leaders by advancing initiatives that meet the needs of ITNS chapters and fulfill the needs of the Society.

Welcome to the Chapter web page of ITNS. Whether you are ready to establish a new chapter, or research information for your existing chapter, I hope this information will be useful and informative.

If you would like to contact me directly, please do so at:

Can Associate Chapter members vote and hold office within the local chapter?

How many Committees should our Chapter have?

Can one person fill two elected positions (i.e. Secretary and Treasurer)?

Does a chapter need to file a tax form with the IRS each year?

Is there a list of ITNS speakers that I might contact to do a presentation for our chapter?

Can we develop our own Chapter logo and letterhead?

The purpose of the educational grant is to assist your Chapter members in defraying expenses related to continuing education thus allowing for the advancement of the care of the transplant patient/family or donor/family, transplantation literature, or academic efforts.

Feel free to download an example of a generic Educational Grant Guideline and Application. These forms were adapted from the Golden Triangle Chapter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You may use this as a guide while developing your own educational fund for your members. You may want to consider raising educational grant funds through the sale of tickets for raffle items at your Chapter meetings.

• Member Recruitment
• Member Retention
• Increasing Member Participation
• Recognizing Members
• Developing Leaders within the Chapter
• Officer Transition
• Chapter Planning
• Program Planning
• Increasing Visibility and Communication