Membership Recruitment and Retention: We Want You!
Despite the pandemic, the Central California Chapter continued to recruit new members and retain old members in 2022, thanks to our personal recruitment efforts, chapter communication, and special discount rates from NANN and CCANN. Successful recruitment was attained via providing membership discounts, scholarship opportunities, low-cost fees for the spring and fall conference to members, and offering educational “Lunch and Learn”/“Dinner and Learn” CEUs. We have made membership to this chapter very desirable by offering over $550 of meals at fine-dining facilities and offered over 22.4 CEUs to members this year.
Awards as Incentives: Annual educational scholarships are awarded to members pursuing higher and most-updated education. NANN conference scholarships were awarded to Dee Morris, Angie Co, Gil-Da Aum, Coralee Agnas, Hazel Hiponia, Cristin Padilla and Marsha Kanapi for their contribution to the CCANN chapter. Annual Scholarship: A scholarship of $500 is awarded to a NANN/CCANN member annually to encourage the individual to achieve a higher nursing education. The 2022 CCANN Nursing Scholarship was awarded to Sabrina Bear, RN. She is in her second term of RN to BSN Program at Samuel Merritt University. She has been an active member since 2021. Her contribution included fundraising effort for the 2021 Winter Holiday Event and support of the Black Wellness and Prosperity Center. A full membership to NANN/CCANN of $155 was also awarded to Kim Collins, BSN for her fundraising efforts of making Boo Shirts during Halloween 2021 and selling Carmel Chocolate Apples. These are all wonderful incentives to attract neonatal nurses to join NANN as well as CCANN.
Discount Rates from NANN: Thanks to NANN, new members/renewing members/ members not yet due to renew could all log into the NANN account by using the discount code “Nursesweek” to save $25 each. We were able to use this discount code to attract new members and retain existing members. During the month of December, CCANN also waived the entire membership fee of $25 till the end of the year, making the membership rates much more affordable. We are able to maintain 111 NANN/CCANN chapter members by the end of 2022.
Recruitment and Retention Strategies: The number of neonatal nurses that continue to show interest and submit applications for membership is astonishing. The leadership team of CCANN is dedicated to maintain and increase the chapter’s membership throughout the year. Flyers are sent to outlying hospitals along with our biannual newsletter. We remain committed to increasing our membership, making ours amongst one of the most recognizable NANN chapters.
Other recruitment strategies include reaching out the local nursing students by informing them of our meeting dates and current topics and encouraging them all to attend our educational conferences at the discounted rates. Santa gifts
At present, we are 111 registered chapter members strong and have recruited additional new members from other facilities such as Kaiser Permanente with the recruitment campaign. We look forward to collaborating with NANN with our local membership recruitment effort and increasing our chapter membership.
We invite YOU to join us to elevate your nursing practice through great conferences and quality neonatal nursing education. Share the additional education and benefits that are so valuable. Thank you for all you do for your patients, units and communities.
Our First Trip Down Memory Lane with CCANN!
The dream of five women back in 1984 led to the founding of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN). That was the same year I graduated from Nursing school. I had many dreams when I was young: wishing to immigrate to America where freedom bells ring; wishing to escape a country where women are expected to be uneducated and only bear children; wishing to live in a house bigger than 100 square feet; wishing to go to Disneyland where all the dreams appear to come true; and wishing to have a successful career as physician in the medical field. Becoming a nurse was my second-best career choice. I did not think I had the personal calling of Florence Nightingale to serve people. At the time, I became a nurse as a means to survive.
Back in 1986, I joined the NANN organization as a non-active member. It was the professional voice that supported the needs of neonatal nurses throughout their careers through excellence in practice, education, research and professional development. At one point, I somehow bought into NANN’s expansion concept. It was then that it became a vision for many, especially me, to establish a local neonatal chapter right here in the Central Valley to promote professional growth. I do not know where these visions originated. The fact was that I was still struggling at just being a nurse, overwhelmed and intimidated by everything: starting IVs, changing IV lines, and managing to communicate efficiently in English - my second language. I had to learn to communicate with neonatologists in a foreign language using foreign medical terminology. Why was everything so complicated and intimidating!
The first meeting to inaugurate the local chapter back in 2007 was initiated by another RN, Lisa Warren, supported by a few CNSs and RNs. The first chapter logo of CCANN featured Central Valley Grapes with baby footprints as vines. But there was no further follow-up after the initial meeting. In 2008, I was curious about the chapter’s status, so I called the NANN head quarter in Chicago, Illinois, and found out that they had never heard of CCANN, nor had they received our chapter application. So, supported by four RNs who then became the first group of officers, CCANN was born. Roces Velasco assisted in filling out the CCANN application and submitted it to NANN. Leslie Williams established the CCANN bank account and filed the initial application as a non-profit organization under the IRS code. Richard Twohey of CRMC assisted us in all technological support including creating our first chapter website using the Google domain. We established the CCANN By-Laws and borrowed the prior pre-established chapter logo.
I became the Founder and first President of CCANN. MaryAnn Imbing and Rina Steyn served briefly as our chapter presidents. Of course, we could not have done without our longterm President, Gil-Da Aum. We could not have been successful without Gil-Da’s unconditional support and dedication.
The humble beginning of CCANN started with the support of our medical advisors, Dr. Krish Rajani and Dr. Kajori Thusu. Currently, our chapter advisors are Dr. Indira Chandrasekar, Dr. Radhika Narang and Dr. Jimmy Lan as well as Dr. Vidhi Shah. The success of the chapter’s educational events is largely dependent on the advisors’ providing their expertise to guide the chapter.
In 2008, the CEUs and CMEs for NANN conference participants were offered in collaboration with the Valley Children’s Hospital Education Department. Eventually, we even stepped up to the next level by providing our own CEUs under the BRN Board. We offer convenient and inexpensive CEUs to all the neonatal nurses in the Central Valley and across the continent as well. Well-known speakers from around the Valley share their knowledge and expertise on the most up-to-date topics in Neonatology. Our chapter offers many free ‘Lunch and Learn’ and ‘Dinner and Learn’ conferences, as well as one major conference 4 in the Spring and one in the Fall of each year, offering nearly 20 CEUs annually. And Linda Sepulveda as our first official EMCEE.
In 2020, CCANN held our first virtual conference with the support of vendor, Silentia. In 2021, we rolled out our first independent virtual conference under the leadership of our own NNP Dee Morris.
Our chapter’s first community service was helping the March of Dimes. This was suggested by Patricia Martinez, our current lactation specialist. We created our first T-shirt to raise money for the March of Dimes, March of Babies in 2008. Today, CCANN plays an important role in serving the Central Valley. We have provided philanthropic services such as money and goods to many charitable organizations: Ronald McDonald House, Terry’s House, March of Dimes, Community Food Bank, American Red Cross, Smile Train, Toys for Tots, Make a Wish Foundation, to individuals in need, and many other charitable organizations.
The first vendor that supported us was Mead Johnson. Helen Markus of Mead Johnson had kindly agreed to support CCANN since the chapter inauguration. Sponsors that have supported us in the past 14 years include: Kentec Medical, Silentia, Ameritas, Neotech, Huggies, Footprint, Purium, Send-Out cards, Neochild, Ensearch, Vygon, Mallinckrodt and Small Beginnings. The vendors found the chapter to be a great opportunity to showcase their products that improve pediatric and neonatal care. Current active sponsors are Mead Johnson, Prolacta, MedSource/GE, CeraVe, Syneos Health (Baby Johnson’s Team) and Ensearch. We collaborate with the vendors in all CCANN events by building a mutually-beneficial partnership.
Over the years, CCANN has been the proud recipient of many NANN Chapter awards for Fundraising, Community Service, Membership Recruitment and Retention, Communication and Education. We received our first key NANN Chapter of the Year Award in 2015, and in 2021 we won the Mid-Size Chapter of the Year Award. These awards truly represent much behind-the-scenes hard work and diligence by many nameless chapter members and officers.
Our first publication was the successful launch of the CCANN Bi-annual newsletter, led by Karen McGough, a retired RN since 2013. Our current Newsletter is managed by Coralee Agnas. A team of editors include Sarah Gil and Rose Kalebjian, whose editing made our publication flawless. Our first CCANN web site “sites. google.com” in 2008 was set up by Richard Twohey. Our current website CCANNurses.org is maintained by friend Francis Fung. Our first CCANN Facebook was set up in 2010 and our Instagram account, ‘ ccannurses’, in 2015 by MaryAnn Imbing. Our current Instagram account, ‘ccann_2007’, is managed by Leslie Williams, Transport Nurse Coordinator. Our official CCANN email address ‘ccann2008@gmail.com’ was set up by Sarah Gil.
As we reminisce about CCANN’s successful past, we must acknowledge that there are so many past and present heroes who had worked countless hours to make this chapter a success. We would like to call upon a few good men and women to take the lead in guiding the chapter’s future. Your effort and participation would be deeply appreciated
JOIN US IN OUR MISSION
The goal of NANN Central California Chapter (CCANN) is to serve our community and bridge the gap between the various nursing professionals. Neonatal Nurses are uniting to serve and foster professional growth with a simple goal of providing excellent and safe care to the little ones we love and work with daily.
NANN, National Association of Neonatal Nurses, is the professional voice that shapes neonatal nursing through excellence in practice, education, research and professional development.
Click here link for NANN online membership application and renewal
Please print then complete the application form and
mail to
CCANN, 8709 North Fuller Fresno CA 93720.
Make all checks payable to NANN (NANN and CCANN Fees will be combined)
SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER (For group of 10 applicants or more)
NANN $130.00 (REG. $110.00) & CCANN $25.00
Regional Conference Fees
Non-members $65
Members $45
FREE Breakfast Conferences
(1 Hour CEU per conference)
FREE Subscription to NANN Nursing Journal, Advances in Neonatal Care
(6 issues per year)
For any inquiries regarding membership and scholarship application, please email
Kamela Loo (kamfnp@gmail.com)
Chance to EARN Nursing Scholarship Award
Chance to EARN FREE NANN National Conference
