The most exciting part of the move is now that we are in New York, and we get many more visitors! We’re particularly looking forward to welcoming David Mills, Chairman of Imago Africa when he visits New York in early March, and several US therapists who called to say they would drop by.

Visit our photo-gallery to see more on the New York office and the Imago Relationships International team.

Tim Atkinson
Executive Director

The New Imago Team

We would like to introduce you to the new team who is supporting our members.

Here in New York we have just two full-time staff. Tim Atkinson is the Executive Director, and Farrah Daniel joined us on Feb 7th as Assistant Director.

Farrah recently moved to New York from California, and has an MA in Teaching and a BA in Political Science and Communication. She has worked in a number of administrative positions, but also has volunteered extensively with her sorority alumnae association.

Farrah is primarily responsible for all aspects of organizing and running our operations, while Tim will focus on opportunities for growth and development.

Tim and Farrah are supported by several part-time staff. In New York this team includes Sherry Stroh, who comes in one day per week to manage our finances. Mary Giovinazzo is working with Imago on a capacity building grant from our founders, helping to develop marketing and fundraising programs. Mary has a strong background in program development, fundraising and government. We will also be taking on temporary help occasionally to cope with peak periods.

We’re delighted that two members of our staff from the Florida office have stayed involved with Imago. Betty Williams who was our office manager, now works part-time from home. She is supporting the faculty by organizing our training programs, guiding trainees through the process, and making sure they get their certificates on time. Matthew Perkins continues to support our web-based systems, working part-time from his home in Florida.

For the last two-years Bruce Crapuchettes has served Imago as Dean of the Faculty, and we are very grateful for his leadership contribution. During the re-organization of our team Bruce expressed his concern about continuing with the current relationship, and as a result we are now working with both Bruce and the Imago Faculty to create a new model for faculty leadership which will include both Bruce and other faculty members.

What a surprise – we’ve moved to New York, reduced our rent, and our staff cost! How? And why move anyway?

A long time ago the Imago Board concluded that New York would be a better long-term location than Orlando, Florida. It’s a well connected international city, so it makes it easier for members to pass through and visit. But it is also a center for nonprofit work, making it easier to recruit experienced staff, and also easier to connect with the donors and foundations who will support our expansion.

It seems to make sense, because already we are looking forwards to hosting a visit from David Mills, head of Imago Africa. And we’ve been able to meet in our offices with the head of a large New York social services agency who is interested in bringing our work to the inner city. (It helps that Tim was giving her son a science tutoring session…) These connections help to spread the news of Imago.

We found space in downtown Manhattan, right next to the World Trade Center site. Rents are low to attract people back to the area, and on top of that we qualify for government incentives. That’s nearly half the rent we were paying in Florida!

We also took the opportunity to streamline our operations, and create a very lean and focused team. Much staff time was caught up in handling product sales, such as books and audio. These are now sold through a website link, either to the author’s own site, or for Imago products to a fulfillment house. That means we in the office can focus more on our member’s needs.

When we looked at our financial position in October 2004 we saw good news and bad news. The good news was that we had a significant sum of money in the bank. The bad news was that we were spending it – fast!! Our projected expenses were at least $80,000 more than our current income.

We had a few choices. One was to fundraise to make up the difference. Another was to work to increase the number of people attending workshops and entering training, to increase the revenue. But both of these would take some time.

The quickest solution was to cut cost. After all if it turned out we were spending money inefficiently, wouldn’t it be good to save it anyway! Then we can use fundraising and revenue growth in the future to do some really exciting new projects.

So we took the opportunity for the New York office relocation to re-examine all our operations, and focus our energy on the things we most needed to do. We cut back from four full-time staff to two, with help from some part-time people. This created $75,000 in savings. Additional savings came from a re-organization of the faculty leadership, led by Bruce Crapuchettes who suggested a restructuring of the role of Dean.

he move is just one part of a strategic plan developed by the IRI Board to move closer to achieving our mission of “changing the world one relationship at a time.”

Imago Relationships International
160 Broadway, East Building, Suite 1001
New York, NY, 10038
Phone: 212 240 7433 (or 800 729 1121)
Fax: 212 240 7435

Photo Gallery of NY Office and Team

Sherry Stroh works one-day-per week to keep Imago’s accounts in good order Views of Imago’s New York office. This great space was obtained at a bargain price as it is in the business development zone at the World Trade Center site. The long walk from the Broadway entrance to the back of the building where our elevators are located reduces our rent by an additional 30%. We look out on beautiful old buildings. In addition to our sought after view of the New York skyline, we even have a balcony with stone balustrades. Tim likes to enjoy the view while on frequent Imago conference calls And this is where the Executive Director spends his days