One More Association Voice

It has been almost a year since I moved back into the Association Management world – and I’m still thrilled to be here. I really love being in this environment – the challenges, the learning experiences, putting my experiences to use to move great associations forward – all add up to a great and satisfying work place for me.

As I move into the new year, I promise to write more – I’ve been neglecting this blog way too long and I want to put my ideas and opinions in black and white. Probably more for myself than any readers that may be out there. But as I stated at the beginning of this adventure – I’m one more voice in the association world and if I can help myself (or someone else) work though a challenge – I will be all the happier

Welcome to 2011 – I’m really looking forward to it. Oh and I’m going on a real vacation this month. A week in Mexico – had to add that as I am so excited!

Just my voice.

I have recently made a change in my employment – yes, I am still employed by an association, but once more I am working for an association management company. And I feel like I have come back home. For years I worked at AMG, an association management company in McLean, Virginia. I loved the camaraderie of the staff – and some of my best friends worked with me there. But I left to go to a stand alone association, and although I loved my job there, I really missed talking things out with people that are doing the same things that I am doing. Once more I can walk down the hall and talk about what I am experiencing and get their take on them – short 5 minute conversations that often give me such insight that it gives me a lift to my entire day – not to mention, often makes my job easier because they have just experienced the same thing. And, most importantly, my work is very rewarding!

I am happy and proud to say I now work at Drohan Management Group in Reston, Virginia – a fine organization led by Bill Drohan. The staff is top notch and I am really enjoying each and every day. I’m back home and I am very happy!

Remember that song from Girl Scouts – one is silver and the other gold. Well, maybe you don’t remember, but it has always been one of those songs that I remember.

This past weekend I was very blessed to spend a lot of time with friends, some old some new. It made me so aware that yes, you should keep in touch with friends – they add so much to our lives, and you should continue to grow your circle of friends, they too add to your life.

Part of the group of friends that I went out with this weekend were part of a very hurtful time in my life – they were at the sidelines, but I felt that they did not stick up for me when I needed them. I drifted away from them. But this weekend I realized that it was part of the grand plan and if I hadn’t gone through that part of my life – I wouldn’t be where I am today. Forgiveness! Not for them, I’m sure that they never thought they did anything wrong, but forgiving people is very freeing and allows you to move on and put hurtful things in your past where they belong.

So today I am again singing the Girl Scout song – Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold!

Just my voice.

This is from a newsletter from Daryl Wizelman:
Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. A man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people walked through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

Long story short: The musician played continuously for an hour. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 people gave money to the musician while they continued to walk through the station at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

I have edited this for brevity, but the point is – how many times do we miss something that would have added to our lives, simply because we are too rushed, too much in a hurry to get to the next thing. Wow, to have been here, to have been able to listen to this wonderful music.

Makes me think – what have I missed because I was hurrying along – not just at the metro station, but as I am hurrying through that project, only half listening as my daughter is recounting her day, even hurrying my dog as she does her business at the park –

Just my voice

Ok, I’ll bite – what if we didn’t have boards (per Maddie Grant’s comments)? Is there a better way of doing things to lead our organizations into the future and to make them better – I’m sure there is, there is always a better mouse trap around the bend. But any leadership model will be based on some type of board, committee, group leading the way – otherwise, it would be a dictatorship, and that won’t fly for long with the membership.

Instead of thinking of ways to do without boards, why don’t we focus on what makes better boards? Many boards are too large to make informed decisions, many boards try to do the work themselves instead of using a committee to do the work and report back to the board for their ultimate decision (which in turn helps develop new leaders), many boards do not have an executive committee that can make quick decisions when getting the board together is impracticable, many boards are not representative of the membership, which often is because the nomination process takes place within the board and is not a function that includes other members, and the list goes on and on.

So do we do without boards? I guess we could, but there would be some other model that would probably work in a similar manner.

So my take on this is to focus on the nurturing of new leaders, the nomination process, preparation for service, accountability of that service, yes they need to read the agendas and come to the meetings ready to participate (and don’t get me started on how the agendas should be relevant!), proper staff support so that decisions made can be carried out – but also the flip side where there should not just be a laundry list of to-do items that come out of the board meeting, but movement toward fulfilling the association’s mission and goals that fit within the available resources.

Of course, then there are other questions that arise – why are we doing the same thing the same way? Let’s take advantage of the new tools, look at new membership models. After the bottom line is the members, without members there will not be an association or a board – but that is another post for another day

Just my voice.

And that is what it is all about, isn’t it. Don’t we as association professionals strive to provide something for our members that they cannot get anywhere else – or we at least hope they can’t or don’t

My dear friend, Vinay Kumar, was talking on the Executive List Serve last month about the importance of creating an experience. In this day of recession, layoffs, cut-backs, we need to be even more in-tune with our members needs and desires – make every transaction an experience. When they hang up the phone, if they can think positive about their experience it is a plus, but we should also strive for that to be the norm.

After all, without members, we have no association. It is all about relationships and those positive experiences build those relationships – which in turn helps keep members and those happy members talk about our associations and then new members join to see what the fun is about.

Relationships, an experience, whether that experience is a first timer at your conference – where a great experience could ensure that they come back – that call to the office answered with a smile on your face, the marketing pieces that make it easy for them to get the information that they need to make a purchase or attend an event and it goes on and on. Every ‘touch’ that we make is important – every single member of the staff is important, not just the Executive Director or Vice President, but that receptionist, coordinator, secretary – every interaction is important. Of course we all have to make sure our staff realizes that are are given the tools to provide the excellent service that is needed and expected on a day to day basis, but that is another post.

Just my voice.

So discussions on the big ideas that started on the ASAE web site have circled round and now the theme is just do something! Both Jamie Notter and Elizabeth Engel (and others!) have said it very well and now it is time to see if there will be some action from these great discussions.

We may not all be the boss – I bet most of us are not – but we can all do something to move our association into being better, even if it is a tiny movement, it is movement. It can be something as small (but important) as taking extra time when that member calls to make sure that his or her question is answered right away without passing them on to someone else, if you have that knowledge.

I like the ideas of starting from scratch when brainstorming – how about for the next few months when we start to do something, we go in with the belief, that we will do our best to do it different – to look at our project, whether it be a publicity piece for that conference or a different and new thank you note for that donor (admit it, you’ve been using at least a version of the same one for years!).

I, like Elizabeth, am challenging myself and the association community to ask ourselves, every day:

What can I DO TODAY to make myself, my job, my association, and/or life for our members better than it was yesterday?

Just my voice.

I’m not talking about Christmas, no I’m talking about the New Year and the chance to take a fresh look at our lives. I found this quote:

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

So it got me to thinking, I need to concentrate more on my blessings and not on the everyday aggravations that sometimes fill my head with negatives. This happens way more than I would like it to. My daughter gave me a beautiful journal for Christmas and I am going to use it to start a gratitude journal, but not a normal, write 3 things that you are thankful for – I want to journal each day on not only what I am grateful for, but what makes my life a life I wouldn’t trade for the world. A positive journal – where no negative thoughts are allowed.

So in 2010 I’m going to try to live a positive life, and fill that journal with positive entries that will steer me in the right direction – I do have a lot of living to do and I want it to be marked with all the positives that go on, and not concentrate on the negatives!

Just my voice.

I was able, finally!, to peak in on the Association Chat that is held every Tuesday on Twitter at 2 p.m. Eastern – if you haven’t been able to participate, or at least lurk, you should check it out. If nothing else, look at the transcript under #assnchat. Wonderful participants, great discussions. Who knew you could say so much in 140 characters!

So today they were talking about innovation – the tweet that says it all for me is:

@pinnovation: design thinking is abt building new options rather than choosing among existing options…need imagination #assnchat

- and if you don’t follow Jeff DeCagna on Twitter, you really should.

I think a number of association people picked up on this idea. I love this – I try very hard to do this every day in my job, but it is very hard to step outside your comfort zone. But we are in an age where everything is changing, more so than in any other time during my 25 years in association management, I believe. Social media is just allowing it to be more transparent, and some may say that is the spark, and maybe it is – partially because conversations are so easy to have – ideas are so easy to throw out there.

I love being part of, no matter how small, this movement – moving out of what we have always done, looking at it a different way. But, I especially love the above tweet from Jeff – start looking at it completely new – don’t even put the old way on the table – be bold, don’t allow yourself to do it the way we have always done it.

I know it is early, but this is my 2010 commitment – I will force myself to look at things a new way, start with a clean piece of paper – go to the ‘old’ way, only when necessary.

Just my voice

I am just back from our Annual Meeting and although I am not sure which number this is – I have been going to meetings/conventions for almost 25 years – it seems I always learn something.

We were in Chicago this year – beautiful city, beautiful hotel – great program, wonderful members.

So what was different – really nothing – an annual meeting is basically the same whether you are a staff member of a big organization or a smaller one. There are lots of details and lots of places you have to be – sometimes all at the same time! Although I have to say this one went really well, except for the fact that I caught a flu bug, but I got over it quickly – thank goodness!

And while it is not new to me – it once again hit home – we are doing this for the member, not us, not our vendors – but the members. If they don’t get something out of the meeting, they won’t come back and that is bad for both of us.

Just my voice