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I stumbled on this article this morning in the Food section of the NY Times...but it could just as easily have been in the Design section. It delves into how both design and copy choices in restaurant menus influence the choices diners make. I'm interested now to take a second look at the menus at some of my favorite restaurants.

I stumbled on this article this morning in the Food section of the NY Times...but it could just as easily have been in the Design section. It delves into how both design and copy choices in restaurant menus influence the choices diners make. I'm interested now to take a second look at the menus at some of my favorite restaurants.

2009 has been an exceptional year for ICA. As I look back on where we were a year ago, I see how far we’ve come. But as I look at my vision for what I believe ICA can be, we still have a lot of work to do.

First, some of the highlights of the past year:

Many of us realize the need to insure personal belongings like cars and homes, but often we neglect to insure what provides our lifestyle and financial well-being -- our income.  Individual income protection can help maintain financial stability if you become too sick or hurt to work. And through Principal’s Income Protection Association Program, ICA members may be eligible for coverage at a 10% premium discount, or more with combined additional discounts.

The Independent Communicators Alliance is looking for a college intern to assist with drupal development for icatriangle.org. This is an unpaid internship. But it's a great opportunity to do some drupal development and make connections with professionals in marketing, PR, design and editorial in the Triangle. Internship includes an associate membership in ICA.

The internship would entail:

I'm pleased to announce two new benefits for ICA members.

ICA members may now subscribe to the Creative Business newsletter for $10 off the regular price. Creative Business is published by Cameron Foote, the author of "The Business Side of Creativity" and "The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business". The latter has been a valuable reference to me in starting and running my business. I've been subscribing to the newsletter for two years. I must admit I don't even read most of the newsletters I'm subscribed to, but  Creative Business is one I make sure to read from cover to cover. In addition, subscribers have access to free business advice via phone or email. I have taken advantage of that on a couple of occasions and gotten excellent advice both times. Members click here to  find out how to take advantage of this discount (must be logged in to access this page!).

ICA is now an entrepreneurial company member of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. You can now enter your individual profile in the CED member directory. When it asks for Company Name, choose Independent Communicators Alliance from the list.

As CED members, ICA members may now attend CED members-only events, and pay the member rate at other events. This is the equivalent of a $195 CED membership per person. Please take a look at CED's membership pages to learn more about the how you can benefit from membership.

As an association, I'm hopeful that ICA members will be a great resources to the companies in CED, many of whom can benefit from the expertise of seasoned professionals who can work flexibility required in fast-growing start-ups. And the resources that CED offers for business consultation and professional development will be of great value to the solopreneurs in our group.

The ICA board is in the process of negotiating other benefits for members. The size of our group is a limiting factor for some things, e.g., health insurance, which typically requires a group of several hundred people or more. But there are also companies that are happy to extend discounts or other benefits to a group like ours. Let us know if there are any particular benefits you would like us to pursue.

Three new members have joined ICA recently. I hope you will all join me in welcoming them to the group. Click on their names to go to their profile, where you can also check out their websites, LinkedIn profiles and blogs.

Jack Threadgill has 26 years experience in journalism, starting out as a reporter, spending 12 years as copy editor at the Herald-Sun, and most recently working as National/World Editor at Paxton Media Group. Ann Whitehurst is a copywriter and marketing consultant studying English at NC State (4.0 GPA!). Susan Washburn is the Assistant Director of Communications at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, and also freelances as a public relations writer.

I hope you all find ICA membership to be a rewarding experience.

It's been great seeing a lot of ICA members at the meetings the last few months. Mary Ann Bella has done an amazing job getting some excellent speakers. I'm sure that some of you long-time members will want to come to the May meeting to say hello to former ICA president David Rhoades, who left the carefree (ha!) life of an independent to work for the state of North Carolina. He has the important task of marketing the excellent resources and talents of North Carolina to the rest of the country and the world. We're honored to have him take time out of his busy schedule to talk to the old gang!

I have been busy with client work, and hope many of you have been as well. I did exit my usual "I'd rather do it myself" mode in order to get a few things fixed on this website. I found a wonderful drupal developer, Rich McKnight, who I hope to work with on many more projects. He is in New Jersey but considering a move to the sunny south. Should you ever need an excellent and personable web developer, you can reach Rich through his website at Knightstar Technologies.

A number of you have renewed your membership, and if you haven't, I encourage you to do so soon. Those who don't renew will be removed from the member directory. I also encourage you to edit your profile if you have not done so already. In particular, you need to specify your Specialities and Industries so that you'll show up in search results on the website.

Those of you who subscribe to the newsletter for linkingraleighnc may have seen the article about the ICA that was published in their last issue. Thanks to Cindy Turner for writing this up and getting us some publicity!

On my to-do list is to redesign the home page and the member directory of this website. Specifically, I want to move the mission statement to the sidebar, to emphasize the "what you can do here" block. I'm also considering having a special place for the description of the next event so that it stands out more. For the member directory, I want to add a simple list of names, and compress the information that's there now so that everyone appears on one page, if possible. I don't want people whose name starts with "Z" to get short shrift.

As always, I welcome any input or assistance on the website or other ICA business.