Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
From Stacks to Speciality: Finding Your Place on the Paper Continuum with Colleen Warmingham of Minimologist.
This meeting is for Professional Organizers and allied professionals.
**Attendees will learn a four-track framework for paper competency to use at every job.
**New organizers will learn what paper skills to develop first and if and when to refer out.
**Experienced organizers will be able to deepen their conversations with their clients and might discover that specializing in paper is a natural next step for their business.
TIME: 4 pm networking/schmooz-a-rama, new & prospective member Q&A, 4:30 pm official start, chapter updates, 6 pm meeting wrap.
Chapter members, please register for free here. Meeting link and access code available in POINT messages and on POINT Philadelphia Community Home page.
Visitors welcome; register here.
Questions? Please email the director of membership at napo.gpc (at) gmail.com
The very popular summer social is hosted this year by our valued business partner: Closets By Design in Malvern.
Members are encouraged to attend for this casual, fun social event. We’ll play, mingle, and create some collaborative social content.
A big thanks to Closets By Design for hosting and providing dinner. Members, as of now, you’ll get to come and enjoy without any needed prep.
More details will be posted soon.
Members, watch POINT for details and the location in Malvern, PA. To help our event organizers plan, members please register here for free.
Visitors welcome; register here.
Topic: The Great Beyond: Finding Homes for Your Clients Castoffs
This is show-and-tell, professional organizer-style.
Come mix and mingle with your organizing friends, including chapter business partners who offer excellent complementary services to our community. This meeting is a lively and relaxed way to share our favorite tips and tools.
Each attendee will have one minute to describe a type of item that they have re-homed or donated, plus their creative or favorite source for solving the problem of ridding clients of things they no longer want, whether it’s a vendor, donation service, or community resource. These collaborations are a perennial crowd-pleaser. Newbies and veterans alike LOVE to see some new tricks.
Location: Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia Plymouth Meeting, 200 Lee Dr, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
Start time: 4 pm Informal networking and schmoozing.
Official call to order at 4:30 pm.
6:30 pm is the close of the formal meeting. We’ll adjourn to a nearby restaurant to continue socializing and sharing.
Existing chapter members, please register for free here. (registration link to be added) (This is essential to help us plan for refreshments and supplies.)
Visitors welcome; register here.
Everyone loves a little drama! Sticky Situations might be your guilty pleasure. Hopefully they aren’t as sticky as the ones the AI-generated image shows. I hope this image is good for a laugh.
Our next NAPO-GPC monthly meeting will be on June 19, 2025 via Zoom. Members will receive their meeting link via email. Guests are encouraged to attend by registering here.
5 pm networking/schmooz-a-rama, new & prospective member Q&A
5:30 pm official start, chapter updates
7 pm meeting wrap
Sticky Situations are moments with clients when our ethics, best business practices, knowledge and experience are challenged. New and veteran organizers alike face these. Sharing them with colleagues can be enlightening. Just like reality TV, discussing sticky situations gives us a chance to get a little dramatic (but in a safe way).
Zoom meeting breakout discussions on each Sticky Situation selected will let us get down and dirty and get to know each other professionally.
Our meeting date falls on Juneteenth, so please check your schedule. Maybe figuring out how to honor a new federal holiday feels like a sticky situation to you? Come join us, as we figure it out together.
Save the date: Our next in person event is our summer picnic taking place on July 17, 2025. Members will receive details in email. Click here to join now.
Please visit our Events tab under News & Events to check out some great photos and a summary of our 2023 Winter Social held in Devon!
Our chapter was chosen by NAPO National to be the NAPO Chapter Spotlight on the members-only portion of its website for June 2023. Tom Harper, our newly inducted Board President, had the pleasure of sharing more about GPC, and this is what he shared:
Here to share about NAPO Greater Philadelphia is current President @Tom Harper!
Tell us about yourself: “I am the newly inducted president of NAPO-GPC, after serving as our chapter’s Director of Professional Development. I ran unopposed. It’s either because I impressed everyone with my amazing lack of experience, or because I missed a meeting and was justly “voluntold”; I’m not sure which. I think I’ll stick around, though, given the great people and, of course, the wonderful perks (e.g., no one else can read the anti-trust policy but me).”
What makes your chapter special? “Well, it could be the fact that we fully support one another professionally and personally, without any hint of ego or competitiveness. Then again, it could be the familial bonds that have been developed among all members, both veteran and new. Or it could be that we have the kindest, hardest-working, most caring, and best-looking members around. I’ll say all of the above.”
Are there any star volunteers you’d like to shine a light on? “I could pick any one of the nearly 50 chapter members we have, quite frankly, because they are all stars in their own right. Actually, I’m defying convention and picking the entire chapter (and not just to be self-serving because I could use a couple more stars on our Board). I’m a die-hard sports fan, and I believe it takes a full team effort to make any success happen. The Greater Philadelphia Chapter is successful because of its truly special, very dedicated members who want to see the chapter grow and thrive. I’m humbled to be president of this chapter – even if I have no idea how I got elected.”
Thank you, Tom, for sharing your wit and enthusiasm about NAPO Greater Philadelphia, and especially for your leadership and contributions to NAPO!
Courtesy of www.napo.net
Authors: Lea Gallagher 405.458.0408 and Rie Brosco 215.435.5609
When it comes to an organizing project (or really, anything in life), the words we say out loud or think in our heads can either empower us or hold us back. Today, we want to share with you three words we loathe and three words we love. They apply to the work we do helping clients organize their space, and they have broader application in life as well.
REDUCE THE USE OF THESE THREE WORDS WE LOATHE
Maximize. Hello, corporate speak! Does anybody else think this word sounds a little soulless? When you hear the word maximize, does it imply that the only way to operate is at 100% or 110%? But everyone needs wiggle room and flexibility! We don’t need to be everything to everyone all the time, and that’s what maximize makes us think of.
Productivity. This word goes right with maximize as it is often paired together, as in maximizing productivity. It’s pretty ingrained in American culture that we need to be productive. But we are all worth more than our productivity! Don’t connect your self worth to how much you can produce for someone else. I’m in full support of efficiency, but not productivity at a negative cost or impact. Remember, sometimes the best thing is to NOT be productive. Down time rejuvenates the soul and helps make the time when we are working on a project more fruitful.
Perfect / Should. Okay, that’s two words, but they’re related. There’s no such thing as perfect, and all too often, we set unrealistic expectations of ourselves to try and reach that impossible standard. And in seeking perfection, we create a lot of “shoulds” for ourselves: we should do this or we should do that. A friend of mine often says, “Don’t should on yourself.” Just for a day, keep track of how many times you think or say you should do something. Bet you’ll be surprised by the weight you’re putting on yourself unnecessarily.
REUSE THE USE OF THESE THREE WORDS WE LOVE
Progress. This one’s about the continuous journey! We are all works in progress. We’re on our own path and at various spots along the way. Progress feels hopeful and implies growth and forward movement. And it’s okay if your progress isn’t always linear and doesn’t look like somebody else’s progress. What matters is that you’re making progress for you.
Can. A much better word than should! If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you’re right. It’s more of an active choice versus the burden of should. We can choose to do something. We can also choose not to do something. There’s a difference between, “I should do the dishes,” and “I can do the dishes because I want my sink to be clean.”
Enough. This one’s empowering to me (Lea) as a recovering perfectionist. Each of us gets to decide what’s good enough or what’s done enough for us. There’s wiggle room! It also implies that there’s a stopping point where you can shift your focus to other things like relaxing or spending time with family or being creative. If you spend all your time on one thing until it’s perfect, it may never be good enough and you will be neglecting everything else. And perfect isn’t actually possible, so you’re missing out for no reason. Focus on what’s enough and move on.
In today’s world where we all try to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible to save and improve our environment, we encourage all of us to reduce and recycle the use of the words we loathe. Instead, strive to reuse the words we love and expand the joy in our lives.
About a year ago, I started asking myself a question that gave me dramatically more clarity (and joy!) in my work and life.
The question was:
Is it fun and easy?
Why did I start asking this question?
Because I was overwhelmed by the “shoulds.”
I have ALWAYS have been overwhelmed by those blasted shoulds, but I felt particularly overwhelmed as a new entrepreneur. Suddenly, I, alone, had to dictate how I would spend my precious time.
Being an entrepreneur can be incredibly freeing. But, there’s also no road map. No clear strategy. No “right” answers.
After a year of trying to do all of the “shoulds,” I signed up for an online course called 31 Days to Flow. I had learned about “flow” previously in my career, and I was intrigued about how I could apply it in this new phase.
Essentially, “flow” is a state where you feel totally in the zone. You don’t notice the time passing. You feel energized. You feel like you’re excelling at what you are doing or you’re seriously enjoying the process.
(Doesn’t that sound better than “should”??)
The course instructor asked us to spend almost two weeks identifying our core values. I was somewhat dismayed at this request since I had spent countless hours (days!) in my previous corporate and non-profit life identifying values. What?! Values?! But I signed up for flow!!
Alas, I really liked the course instructor, and I had paid for the darn class already, so I obliged.
The results ended up being one of the most game-changing exercises I have ever done.
After much soul-searching, ranking, debating and word-smithing, I came up with a list of 5 (soon to be 6) values that would become my new compass for EVERYTHING that I do – not just in work, but in life.
My values are (in order of importance):
These six simple words unlocked new wisdom about what I seek in life – in others, in my work, in my parenting, and so much more.
I could bore you for hours on the significance of each of these. So let me save you from that and instead offer a few examples. “Depth” alone explained why certain friendships filled me up, while others depleted me. “Quiet” explained why I turn into a crazed person from those hysterical Snickers commercials if I don’t have some quiet time in my day. “Beauty” came later, as an antidote to a world that often feels out-of-control.
Our instructor promised us that if we began to follow those things that aligned with our values, we would find more flow. More fun. More ease.
And so it was.
The question “Is it fun and easy?” became a shortcut to test if something “checked off my value boxes.”
I made some significant changes as a result.
By following the path of “fun and easy,” I have found more flow, ease, and joy. I’ve accepted the radical notion that I can follow what energizes me.
I know what you’re thinking. Not EVERYTHING can be fun and easy. So true, my friend. So true.
Luckily, for those things that aren’t fun and easy, we can often eliminate them, delegate them, or find creative ways to make them just a bit more joyful.
Starting today, how can YOU find more “fun & easy” in your work and life?
