Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives MASAE Blog

The New Economy: The Case for Outsourcing Event Sales

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:04:15 GMT

Written by Skip Heymann, Exhibit Connection

It has been quite a dry spell for the conference and event industry. By the very nature of being in-person events, the format has certainly taken a hit in the last 18 months. We can dwell on the downsides caused by the pandemic — however, why not look on the bright side: we are starting to see the business of conferences come back on schedule, live and on site. The next obvious question is: are you ready?

In the downturn we have all taken – perhaps you have needed to downsize, furlough or reorganize your staff. Perhaps the new economy encouraged your employees to seek new opportunities in more remote work settings. Whatever the case, things are most likely not what they were before COVID. A new model of operations could be necessary if your organization needs to spring back into action for the Fall conference season.

To scale back up in a short time span, a very viable option is to outsource various functions to trusted vendors. At first glance, this option may seem counter-intuitive, given the complexities of your needs for your market or clientele. However – some tasks can benefit from the expertise and independence of a knowledgeable partner. This is especially true with event sales.

Outsourcing event sales can alleviate stress while ensuring your event is successful and on target. In many cases, it can actually cost your company far less than a dedicated employee. And, as you’ll see, using a contract sales vendor can initiate new opportunities, while delivering on the all-important ROI that conference organizers need.

How You Benefit from a Contract Sales Professional

An outsourced sales vendor can come in at just the right time to execute on your event sales plan from start to finish. Here are five advantages of outsourcing to an experienced company:

They have one goal: your company’s success. While your in-house team may have many projects, contracted event sales professionals have one objective: executing on your revenue goals to deliver the results you need.
They have relationships that can help you. Established event sales professionals are connected to many vendors and partners, from digital marketers to technology providers to exhibit manufacturers... Their network enables them to navigate any glitches, and you can benefit from the trust they’ve taken years to establish.
They won’t stress—and (more importantly) they’ll help you stress less. Each part of your event marketing plan—social media, invitations, collateral development, websites, landing pages—involves many decisions and deadlines. A contract sales professional is trained to think about these things, while executing the revenue generating activities that help pay for them all. They’ll keep their cool so you can too!
They can get a good deal. Sometimes, event sales professionals can leverage their connections and can get discounts you aren’t aware of. By bringing in another organization, you immediately expand your “sphere of influence” and take on a much broader network. Since a sales professional always works on your behalf, you increase your industry footprint immediately.
The bottom line. The truth is outsourcing will cut your costs — as you will only “pay for what you need.” This concept works for more than just personal insurance… An outsources sales asset can be temporary, seasonal, project orientated, or performance based. It all depends on your needs and the contract you work out.

Finding the Right Freelance Sales Team

If you are reading this post, then chances are you know how complex event sales can be. Exhibit Connection (EC) specializes in outsourced event sales and can offer all of these benefits and more. Our organization has decades of experience in this industry and has impacted the operations and revenue for organizations just like yours.

Curious? Reach out to us about making your next event your best yet. Getting back to business is in all of our best interests, so we would love to discuss how we can make that happen together.

All the best,

Skip Heymann

VP Sales and Business Development

Exhibit Connection

skip@ec-123.com

http://www.ec-123.com

Make Your Website Instantly More Intuitive For Members With This Fix

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:47:30 GMT

Written by: John Hooley

Heladería Coromoto in Merida, Venezuela has over 860 flavors of ice cream. Flavors include saltwater fish, garlic, avocado, and concoctions with names like “British Airways” (which I assume tastes like Earl Grey tea and Biscoff cookies). Visiting an ice cream parlor like Coromoto is fun in large part because of the number of flavors. Figuring out exactly what you want is a delicious and entertaining challenge. However, the number of options you present can create exactly the opposite experience as well, frustrating and angering people. This issue is actually one of the key obstacles that prevents members from having an intuitive experience with your association website. In this blog post we’ll explore how this occurs, how it impacts your website, and a quick fix to overcome it and make your site instantly more intuitive.

Choice Meltdown

How can the number of choices entertain in one context and frustrate in another?

Imagine it’s a sunny July day and you’re heading out the door to indulge your inner eight year old with a waffle cone from Ben and Jerry’s. As you leave, your spouse asks you to get a scoop of the cookie dough flavored ice cream for them.

At the ice cream counter, you spend five minutes sampling everything before deciding on a scoop of Bourbon Brown Butter for yourself. You’re happy, but then you turn to the task of feeding your spouse and ask yourself, “Okay, where’s the cookie dough?”

Perusing the glass case, it takes you a bit, but you find, “Chip off the Dough Block.” That must be it. But wait, as you walk down to the clerk you notice, “Wake and No Bake”- is that it? Marching up and down the case, you discover “Cindoughrella.” Is that what they meant? Or “PB Doughable Chocolate?” Or “The Tonight Dough?” You end up getting frustrated and ordering them a scoop of vanilla. They’re lucky you’re getting them anything! Storming out the door, you glance at the case one last time and your eyes lock on, “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.” You stamp your feet and toss the scoop of vanilla into the garbage!

That’s the frustration in these situations, because here’s the thing:

Our precious little brains can only hold so many choices in our mental “bucket” at a time. Scientists call this working memory and it’s been shown that most people can’t hold more than 4 - 5 items in their mental buckets. Processing 38 flavors of ice cream is hard and creates a mental challenge. Challenges can be fun in the right context, like choosing your ice cream, but they can be frustrating in others where you’re just trying to accomplish a goal, like getting your spouse’s ice cream.

Your Association Website Options

On your website, this situation occurs in your navigation. Visitors are coming to your website, not for an entertaining challenge, but to achieve a goal. They want to:

Sign up
Renew
Access online training
Get a question answered
Register for an event
Connect with other members
And more...

Your navigation is their primary tool for them getting what they want. It’s the ice cream case for visitors.

If you overload visitors with options and try to present everything available on the website you’re going to make them work for what they want and frustrate them.

So what’s the answer? Remove options. Every page you remove from your navigation makes it instantly more intuitive.

In our ice cream parlor example, imagine how easy it would be to find what you’re looking for if the only flavors were chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. That would be so easy a child could get their parent a scoop (no marriages ending at that ice cream counter!)

How Many Pages Should Be In Your Navigation?

How many pages should there be in your main navigation?

No more than four.

I’m only half-joking, because that’s the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry level of intuitiveness that our brains are designed to easily process. Unfortunately, there are probably more than four things your visitors are looking to get out of your website.

I like to quote Albert Einstein when thinking about what to remove and what to keep, “Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

The closer you can get to 5 main navigational items and 4-5 sub-navigation items (e.g. a drop down menu), the more intuitive the experience will be for your members.

Be Selective About What to Show Members

There are several tactics to re-organize and curate the pages available in your navigation. In general, I recommend to remove options that don’t serve members from the main navigation and put them in secondary navigation options (like the footer or a smaller text top navigation) or remove them altogether.

Every page you remove from your navigation makes the remaining items more potent. You have to weigh how useful a page is to your visitors, members, and mission versus the tax it creates in your members minds when they try to find what they’re looking for.

5 Fixes to Build Engagement With Your Association’s Website

Creating a more intuitive navigation is just one tactic that you can use to build member engagement with your website.

If you attend this year’s annual MASAE 2019 meeting, I’ll share with you an additional “5 Fixes to Build Engagement With Your Association's Website.” You’ll learn not only specific techniques to improve your navigation that build on what I’ve shared here, but also:

● What unfair advantage you have over your association’s competitors.

● How to create value for members without working more or hiring someone.

● A 3 minute test to get actionable feedback on what on your website is hurting your association.

On top of all this, the session is packed with shortcuts, tips, and strategies that will help you better serve your members. It’s designed specifically for you, the association professional, with tactics you have the power to implement.

Free Bonus

If you register for MASAE and attend my session you’ll receive a free copy of our $19 e-book on this topic. (https://goresurgent.com/products/5-fixes-ebook.html)

Save $50 by Registering Today

It’s going to be a fantastic meeting with the theme, “Reaching the Peak of Association Leadership.” Save $50 by registering today as an early bird: https://www.midatlantic-sae.org/event-3296788

John Hooley is the president of Resurgent, a digital strategy agency with a mission of adding 90,000 members to professional communities by 2029. https://goresurgent.com

Bridging the Gap Between the Association and the Members

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 19:58:00 GMT

Written by Amanda Kaiser, SmoothThePath.net

Amanda Kaiser is a member engagement specialist and consultant for the association community. Amanda writes a popular weekly blog at SmoothThePath.net.

Imagine that your members are on one side of a canyon. This canyon has steep walls, and a raging river with rapids is running through it (maybe even sharks). This metaphorical canyon separates your members from your association. The river represents the gap in understanding members have about the association and what the benefits we provide can do for them.

Your members have problems. Some of these problems are easy to solve; many members have had these same problems before. Other issues are new or complex or high-stakes problems. You members might not be looking for solutions thinking they have to live with the problem or they might be searching for answers. They look around their side of the canyon, they look in the water, and they look into the sky, but they cannot find a solution.

On the other side of the canyon, you have a benefit that contains the exact solution they are looking for. You are shouting across the canyon “benefit. Benefit! BENEFIT!!! Here is a great benefit.” Your members hear you yelling, but they don’t do anything.

Why? Because we have not bridged the gap of understanding between their problem and our benefit. Your members are softly whispering, “I am struggling” and we are saying to them, “try this benefit” usually without linking our benefit to their current frustration. So how do you build that bridge of understanding?

State the problem using their words and ideally include the emotions they feel because of the problem.
Reveal the solution, the outcome, and how other members felt after receiving the solution.
Default to short clear messaging especially for new, less engaged members.
Pick a warm, engaging tone that is pleasant, friendly, and maybe even uplifting.

If your goal is to improve member engagement one of the first places to start is to build the bridge of understanding for your members. Show them the link between their problem and your solution. Over and over again.

Amanda Kaiser is a member engagement specialist and consultant for the association community. Amanda writes a popular weekly blog at SmoothThePath.net.

Associations Please Help Fix Time-Poverty

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 19:56:32 GMT

Written by Amanda Kaiser, SmoothThePath.net

Amanda Kaiser is a member engagement specialist and consultant for the association community. Amanda writes a popular weekly blog at SmoothThePath.net.

When someone asks you how you are, do you say, “busy”? “I have been crazy busy” has been my go-to reply. Fifty years ago did people say that? Maybe but probably they said, “I am fine, thank you.”

Today professionals are time-starved. There is never enough time to do the things we want to do at work or at home. I hear this in the research often. From university presidents to CFOs, to fundraisers, to engineers, to financial planners, to association professionals, none of us have enough time.

Being involved in an association usually takes time. But what if our association could give back time to our members? That would be an enormous benefit! And this is something many associations already do.

Benchmarking studies save members the time of having to do it themselves.
Curated content saves members time from searching and validating content themselves.
Association online communities can save members time because they don’t need to sift through the mess of some public communities.

What else could save time?

Association consulting services that help members get to a solution faster.
Association agency services that help members with time-consuming media and content production.
Or what about an association service that helps members connect with just the right member.

Perhaps what your strategy, marketing, and innovation needs is a focus on how the association can save members’ time.

Better Member Retention From Frictionless Experiences Designed for Your Association

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 19:50:39 GMT

Written By Amanda Kaiser, SmoothThePath.net

Amanda Kaiser is a member engagement specialist and consultant for the association community. Amanda writes a popular weekly blog at SmoothThePath.net.

In the age of infinite choice, organizations can not afford to make the purchase experience difficult. And so we see one-click online ordering, retail stores with no checkout lines, curbside pick up, and more. All of these changes, which would be unheard of just a decade ago, seek to make the consumer experience easier. Frictionless.

Grocery chain executives are likely having conversations like this, “maybe my grocery store carries the same items as the grocery store down the street, but I can change the grocery buying process making it quicker and easier for shoppers. Busy people will shop here when they see they can save 10 minutes or a half an hour a week purchasing their groceries.”

The only places where we still see friction-full buyer experiences are where buyers have few choices. The airlines, utilities, government offices, hospitals, etc.

If you work for an association where membership is required or an association with a 98% retention rate and no competition, your association might be able to get away with a bit of friction.

The rest of us need to design frictionless experiences wherever members interact with us, including:

Intuitive member applications
Easy to understand membership tiers (or no tiers)
Immediate access to behind-the-pay-wall member benefits upon joining
Timely, valuable new member messaging that solves the problem they currently have
Professional development opportunities even if I cannot come to an in-person event
Easy access to other members who have the same niche project, goal, or challenge
Quick response to members who call, email, or chat
Quick-to-read but highly valuable newsletters
Intuitive website navigation
Curated networking
Customizable data
Helpfulness
Welcomes
Smiles

Try standing in your member’s shoes and list all the points of friction between members and the association’s policies, or staff, or systems. Get started by picking an easy one to solve and gradually work through your list eliminating all the points of friction in your members’ experiences.

Finding a Community, Finding a Career

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 01:22:52 GMT

Posted By Joseph Sapp, CAE, Wednesday, Nov 1, 2017

Much like others who find themselves in Association Management, I was completely in the dark about the industry until I found myself right in the middle of it. I did not study to become an Association Executive and I have never joined a membership society before therefore I did not know that there was an abundance of associations for almost anything.

At the start of my career in association management I was at the bottom – learning membership protocols, staffing a booth at a tradeshow, returning phone calls to the office, and stuffing envelopes. As I improved my understanding of what this industry was, I sought resources that would give me more opportunity. That first resource was DVSAE and, subsequently, MASAE.

I attended a half-day workshop in Philadelphia and there I met a few people, heard some things that made no sense to me at the time and left overwhelmed. A few months later I attended the Annual Conference. I saw someone that I had met at the previous workshop, and they remembered my name. They welcomed me and said it was good to see I had decided to attend the conference.

That was an “Oh Sh*t” moment that changed everything. I was no longer working in Association Management, I had a career in Association Management. I had found a community, one that gave me the tools I needed to grow professionally.

Since that day, I have been to nearly every MASAE event. I have met colleagues and friends. People that I trust, that I can call with a question and know without a doubt I am getting honest and professional feedback.

I have seen what impact I can have on the industry as well. From calling a member about renewal to planning the Annual Conference, I have seen the value the organization brings to people and their career. I think about the different industries our members serve and the type of value they are bringing, and from time-to-time it still gives me that same “Oh Sh*t” moment I had years ago when I realized the value that MASAE gave my career.

We Can't Do It Alone

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 01:20:31 GMT

Posted By Ryan Rosenbaum, MBA, Monday, Oct 16, 2017

I have been working in Association Management for the last 15 years. This is something I am proud to say because there are 1.5 million professionals working for 90,000 trade associations around the country. Association Management is a small field compared to others. Larger associations (Mainly AMC’s) could have dozens of employees but a majority of associations have 5 staff members or less. Because of these statistics, we, Association Professionals, tend to navigate our world by turning to colleagues who work at other similar associations. “Who knew that there was even an association for the associations” is what I thought to myself a few years ago!

I found MASAE in 2010. I was a few years into my career and really looking to share and gain knowledge from those in my industry. I found out that even though every association was different in its mission, the core values are quite similar. Many of us have shared strategic obstacles, membership development techniques, technology concerns, board engagement issues, educational components, marketing campaigns and sponsorship ideas to share.

By attending MASAE conferences, webinars and networking events, I have been able to enhance my career but I’d like to think that I’ve improved those around me too. There is a great sense of comradery of professionalism. I look forward to the MASAE events as It allows me to network and see how everyone is progressing in their careers. Seeing familiar faces and even newer faces offers me the encouragement and assurance that I’ve chosen the right career. Being a part of an SAE is also my commitment to my professional career. It indicates a constant devotion to learning about the industry and taking these educational steps in helping my association.

MASAE has both the duty of fulfilling its obligations to its members by offering a superior suite of opportunities. It has no choice as the members themselves know a good membership organization when we see one. It is my hope that many of you see these same values that I have experienced in the last 7 years because as I learned, we can’t do it alone!

How Did I Get Here and Where Do I Go Now?

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 01:04:39 GMT

Posted By Ethan Gray, Wednesday, Oct 1, 2017

If you’re like me, Association Management was not on your radar screen while you were in college. Since I finished my undergraduate studies in 2003, the industry has (in my eyes) gained much more visibility. I think that speaks not only to its vitality but the recognition of its essential role in society by institutions of higher education. That didn’t help me in 2003 though. I left college with enthusiasm, great memories, an economics degree and almost no direction. Instead of moving back home, I relocated to Philadelphia with my future wife and some equally wayward friends and signed up for AmeriCorps (an exceptional program with beautifully varied opportunities).

AmeriCorps introduced me to the non-profit environment and to real service. When my term ended, I envisioned two paths I could consider walking: 1) Go back to economics and try to find an entry-level role asan analyst or continue to pursue this foggy non-profit world. I chose the latter. I was lucky enough to convince several people that I had areal penchant for service and for contributing to a cause or profession designed to make a difference rather than simply generate a profit. Two jobs later I said to myself “I seem to have at least found a role that makes sense and might keep me gainfully employed for a while”. This was partly because I had been able to transfer skills I had acquired in my econ training (data manipulation, introductory project management etc.). This is an important point because I believe many concentrations teach fundamental skills that are applicable daily tothis industry. In a way, that provides a diversity of opportunity that may not be so readily available elsewhere. Anyway, I found myself in another period of contemplation. And then it happened. I found a job atan Association Management Company. What was “As·so·ci·a·tion Man·age·ment”?? I didn’t know but would be quickly educated. When Ifully grasped the concept, I knew I had found a career. Not only was I amazed but I felt gratitude for having somehow been delivered to this opportunity; an opportunity for a real professional life. Through that job, I was introduced to MASAE. Now, I had not only a career path but a community and resources to help me navigate, contribute and be successful.

That all happened 11 years ago. Since then, my wife has walked a path that lead to the same industry (how cute) and her vocation has taken her all over the world as a volunteer specialist teaching people about the power of professional engagement and community. Through this all, MASAE has been a place for learning, building relationships and becoming a better association manager. The organization was a principal reason I pursued and achieved the CAE credential. I have been grateful that MASAE has also allowed me to serve as a speaker, committee member and now board member.

Whether you have been recently delivered to Association Management or are seasoned, MASAE is your community and can be an indispensable resource should you choose to engage (come to networking events! access resources online! join a committee!). The community will be stronger with your contributions. My path to this profession was largely circumstantial. Since I arrived, I have been deliberate in my unwillingness to travel elsewhere. I know many MASAE members and I would like to meet and learn from more. I hope to see you at upcoming events. Feel free to connect at any time.

I now work in membership at the Society of Hospital Medicine in Philadelphia; egray@hospitalmedicine.org or find me on LinkedIn.

Greater Member Engagement with an Old School Approach

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 01:38:25 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, January 1, 2016
Updated: Tuesday, May 26, 2015

By Rick Rutherford
Industry Resource Director, YourMembership

It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.

Whenever I hear that phrase, I feel my blood pressure start to rise! Of course it’s personal – it always has been.

The whole notion that business isn’t personal simply provides justification for treating people poorly in the workplace and within organizations. It works to diminish human interaction and the results are almost always counter-productive. It is at the very heart of poor customer service. We all know that people who aren’t treated well don’t stick around, whether that be employees, customers, or members.

One of the alarming trends I’ve noticed during the last 36 months is the increasing number of associations that are being force to disband – essentially going out of business. The most common reason I’ve seen given for this is dwindling membership, causing shrinking revenues that eventually lead to the organization becoming no longer financially viable. Competition for associations has increased substantially, and even with an improving economy, there is still a great deal of pressure on non-profit organizations.

You may have heard the phrase “people don’t quit jobs, they quit people.” The same can be said for members and their associations.

As our organizations struggle to find new and creative ways to grow and retain membership, they are finding themselves forced to place all of their cards on the table. They must create a member experience based on undeniable value. Does that mean overhauling the traditional dues structure, adding new services, or more non-dues revenue initiatives? Maybe. But I think what is really needed calls for something more personal – getting personal.

Getting Personal

As a society, we always find room for the things we value, even when that seems impractical. Traditionally, members have rallied around their associations during tough times. The ability to network, share ideas and ask for help created unbreakable bonds until associations ran smack into the buzz saw known as technology. The New Millennium has not brought glad tidings to many organizations, which have been forced to realize they’re not quite up to speed when it comes to serving this new, demanding audience that wants, and expects, everything at the click of a mouse.

We’ve all witnessed, and been given access to some of the most amazing technological advances known to man. The born from technology have made us more available to one another than ever before. It’s a 24/7 world whether you want to engage it, or not. And yet with all of the advancements in technology we seem to have grown more impersonal in how we communicate with one another. Just because it’s been tweeted, or is out there on Facebook doesn’t mean the connection has been made.

People join associations for a variety of reasons, most of which are personal. Whether they are there for professional development or volunteering their time and talents, it is a personal commitment to the organization. And on the flip side of the equation, when it comes to staff providing exceptional service to your members – it should be personal.

Going Old School

So as we work our way to the Dog Days of Summer, I want to boldly suggest an “old school” approach to cultivating an intimate relationship with your members that has been a longtime and proven favorite of mine – pick up the phone!

One of the casualties resulting from the growth of technology in communications is that we often end up removing the person, the real person, from the equation. Email, texting, tweeting have made it so easy to avoid the “real” in communications – I’m talking about the conversation. No sharing of mood (sorry, emoticons don’t count), personality, or understanding of the true nature of the message. Calling someone on the phone has become a big deal – as in taking a lot of effort.

How often have you read an email that leaves you thinking the author is angry with your organization, angry with you, or just plain rude? In many cases when you talk with the person to discuss their message, you realize they are neither angry, nor rude – just not a very good writer.

Email is often a poor form of communication at best, one that can easily be misinterpreted. Misunderstood messages often lead to nasty exchanges that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Do you want to make an impact that lasts longer than the time it takes to compose an email and then have the recipient move that message to a “black hole” folder? Institute a no email day, at least for yourself. Once a week, once a month – it doesn’t matter. Start with a commitment you can build from. Start with yourself and then engage your staff to join you.

The Starting Point

Where do you start? Look in your inbox. Select someone you have only communicated with through email or have not spoken with in quite some time. Look in your database and identify members who have not been contacted by anyone from your association in a while. Call members coming up for renewal. Call (former) members who have let their membership lapse (a tougher conversation, for sure). Call a member when they receive an accolade, professional or otherwise. Call a vendor or sponsor to let them know how valuable they are to the ongoing success of your association. I guarantee you, there is a lot of low hanging fruit you and your staff can pick.

Now you’re ready to enjoy the opportunity of making a real connection. Maybe there is no one there to take your call and you end up leaving a message on their voice mail. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Either way your voice on the line says “I care about YOU.” That always makes a difference. Start dialing!

It’s not just business, it’s personal.

About Rick

As YourMembership’s Industry Resource Director, Rick guides YM’s thought leadership initiatives, directing the company’s Resource Center, weekly blog and monthly webinar series, as well as coordinates YM’s Industry Alliance Program.

Rick has worked in the association industry for more than 29 years, serving as a vendor partner, staff member, and co-founder of a technology company focused on associations. Rick previously served as the Communications Director for the Texas Society of Association Executives, where he received a Gold Circle Award from ASAE.

@ricknatx

PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES OF ONE INNOVATIVE ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOR NEW IDEAS TO USE AT YOUR ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 01:56:20 GMT

Posted By Amanda Kaiser, Tuesday, Nov 29, 2016

The following is a guest post from Amanda Kaiser. You can check out more great posts from her on her weekly blog for association professionals at SmoothThePath.net or follow her on Twitter @SmoothThePath.

Your annual conference is even more important than you think! For many new members the annual conference is the first time they get to interact with the association and the community in a meaningful way. If they have a good experience at this first conference they are more likely to become more engaged. Many members also say the conference is the biggest value compared to the association’s other offerings. Conferences are where our members have their first experiences of the association and conferences are where our members derive the most value.

Because conferences are important we want to deliver the best possible experience for all attendees, first-time to long-time. This is certainly the case for the Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives (MASAE). This year I participated in the conference committee and got to see conference planning in action (by the way, the conference is December 14th and 15th in Atlantic City and I think you should go). What is particularly interesting about this year’s conference is the team methodically set about meeting some of members’ biggest challenges. Here are the challenges we all have and here is what we did about them:

New Members Feel Like Outsiders

One of the most common stories I hear in member research no matter the association is that first time attendees feel like outsiders. They don’t know anyone but, it seems like everyone else does. They don’t know the industry lingo but, it seems like everyone else does. They don’t even know where to go or what to attend but, it seems like everyone else does. When first-time attendees feel like outsiders for too long they do not get as much value from the conference and they do not come back.

Some of the committee members noted that they too had the same feelings as first-time attendees. The team decided to try a first-time attendee orientation at the start of the conference. The orientation has two objectives: 1) make new-comers feel comfortable and welcome and, 2) give first-timers a sense of what to expect and what not to miss. New attendees will leave the orientation knowing each other and the conference committee members. If they want to ask questions during the conference or are looking for a friendly face to talk to at lunch or during the evening reception they will have us!

Attendees Have a Hard Time Taking Insights to Action

Have you ever heard members say something like, “well, at the conference I always learn at least one new thing”? Don’t we want them to learn and remember 100 new things? Isn’t it a success if they act on 10 of those new things? The conference is not a success if the only value is earning CAE credits. We want attendees to absorb what they learned, digest the implications for their unique situation, remember key insights and put them into practice back at the office.

Conferences can be really long with very packed days. We run from keynotes to sessions to lunch to and back to sessions with very little time to ruminate on what we just heard. The committee decided to build in time for reflection right into the conference schedule. At the end of the conference attendees will be invited to choose their favorite topic to discuss in small groups. In this low-pressure, collegial environment they will have the opportunity to share their biggest take-aways and early thinking on how they might implement within their association.

Associations Are Under Extreme Pressure to Change

A recent association industry benchmarking study says that 7 out of 10 associations have just started focusing on innovation in the last one to five years. Most associations are decades old and are finding the old model isn’t working as well as it used to. We are having to innovate but innovation is new, uncertain and risky.

Because innovation and change is such a big focus for associations today, the focus of this year’s conference is also on innovation and change. Four keynote and five session speakers will be tackling the topics of innovation and change. They’ll be sharing how they are doing it at small associations and large associations. They’ll be sharing ideas for association CEO’s as well as those involved in professional development, membership, marketing and more. They will be talking about organization-wide innovation and how to have a more innovative mindset. We’ll hear about how to change a culture and how to set up the right processes. We will learn that innovation is not luck and heroes. Innovation is a science, something we all can do. Did I tell you? I think you should join us?

One association colleague of mine said the best conferences are not only ones where you learn from the sessions, speakers and each other but the best conferences are where you also learn from the conference organizers by seeing how they do what they do. I think this will be one of those conferences. We’ll be learning from the speakers. We’ll be learning from each other. And we will be experiencing in real time how each of these new tactics works and how to make them even better back at our own conferences.

It is going to be great!

I haven’t even mentioned yet all the other new things you will experience. There will be an innovative new show floor layout. The four keynoters have been working together as a team for months to bring us a cohesive story. Attendees will get a printed copy of the 37-page 2016 Association Industry Innovation Research Study.

I think you should register now. Don’t you?

Amanda Kaiser is a qualitative researcher for the association industry. Qualitative methodologies are great for answering difficult, thorny strategic questions. The more familiar quantitative methods like surveys and analyzing our own data are good for answering What. What members are thinking. What members are doing. What goals members have. Qualitative research adds a critical layer of insight by answering Why. Why members are thinking that. Why members are doing that. Why members have that goal. Knowing Why helps us make more accurate strategic decisions.

Channeling member insights, Amanda writes a weekly blog for association professionals at SmoothThePath.net or follow her on Twitter@SmoothThePath.

Fine Tuning Your Connection with Your Members and Prospects

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:46:19 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, Jan 1, 2016

By Rick Rutherford
Industry Resource Director, YourMembership

It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.

Whenever I hear that phrase, I feel my blood pressure start to rise! Of course it’s personal – it always has been.

You may have heard the phrase “people don’t quit jobs, they quit people.” The same can be said for members and their associations.

Getting Personal

Going Old School

Email is often a poor form of communication at best, one that can easily be misinterpreted. Misunderstood messages often lead to nasty exchanges that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

The Starting Point

It’s not just business, it’s personal.

About Rick

Hard to Believe, but “Members Only” Doesn’t Always Benefit Your Members

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:35:00 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, Jan 1, 2016

By Rick Rutherford
Industry Resource Director, YourMembership

It’s not easy to identify ways to make the value of membership offerings resonate with young professionals, but every association and membership organization will need to develop offerings that will attract them as members in order for their organizations to sustain. And the good news is that it can be done.

In our webinar Flipping the Membership Equation: Thinking Differently About Membership Recruitment and Retention we discussed the need for associations to redesign their membership offerings to remain competitive and relevant to Gen X and Gen Y in today’s economy. Associations have been wrestling with questions around membership and dues for years, but like with everything, technology’s need to address this subject is accelerating.

Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age in staggering numbers, ten thousand people reach age 65 every day, and this trend will continue through 2020. By 2018, one in four workers will be over age 55.

Technology, and specifically the internet, has changed not only the way people access and purchase today, but it has also introduced a “try it before you buy it” expectation. There are many for-profit players working their way into the space, and at some point associations will need to take a hard look at what they are doing to keep their offerings fresh. Those organizations will need leaders who aren’t afraid to radically rethink business models or resources.

“Flipping the Membership Equation” discussed these challenges and highlighted how moving from “Dues before Value” to “Value and then Dues” can be a workable business model for your organization.

One area where we run into some lively conversation with association leaders is whether a job board/career center should be a “members only” benefit or open to any prospect wanting to post a resume and find a job. We almost always start out on the opposite sides of the question.

I’ll be the first to admit that I understand the rationale behind “member only” areas for associations. After all, there has to be tangible value created by being a member of an organization to get someone to lay down their money to join. Market forces have taught us that scarcity and exclusivity are two of the key drivers behind a members only value proposition.

Scarcity triggers an emotional response because we find it hard to resist wanting things that are not readily available. Many people have an innate view that scarcity increases value. They assume it is more valuable and of higher quality – because it’s harder to get.

Exclusivity is also about availability, but from a different angle. Exclusive things are accessible only to people who meet particular criteria – like association members. Scarcity and exclusivity can boost word of mouth about an organization by making people feel like insiders. If someone gains access to something that not everyone can, it makes him or her feel special. Gaining that insider knowledge is a form of social currency.

And so, on the surface, the thought of members having exclusive access to great job opportunities through a “members only” job board appears to fit the bill. Except for one basic reality about job boards – it’s always a numbers game.

By numbers I am referring to the number of job seekers registered on a job board; how those numbers are compelling to employers looking for places to list their open positions and the significant non-dues revenue available through an association career center.

When we call employers on behalf of the associations we work with, they almost always want to know how many people are members and what percentage of those members are registered job seekers on the job board. If that percentage is low, it is a much tougher sell to get that job posting. However, if you allow prospects to register and post their resumes on your job board that number can increase significantly. Remember, the more registered job seekers, the more valuable that job board becomes to employers. Their goal is to get that listing in front of as many qualified eyeballs as possible.

And as an added benefit, prospects registering on an association’s career center have given permission through their registration, for you to market to them directly. That conversation takes on a whole new direction when you are able to identify how they are already taking advantage of the products and services your organization provides.

There are some associations that don’t really seem to care if they charge for job listings or not. These groups will allow members and employers to post job openings for a minimal fee, or even at no charge. By taking this approach they are denying their organizations valuable non-dues revenue that could have a positive impact on their bottom line.

Experience tells us that employers are more than willing to pay to list and advertise their targeted opportunities to members and prospective members, all while creating a steady stream of non-dues revenue for the association. By posting jobs on an association’s job board, employers gain exclusive access to the best, most qualified candidates, consisting of engaged, (career-minded) professionals with the degrees, certifications, and experience needed to increase quality of hire and candidate success. Online career centers connect an association’s members and prospects to the top employers and opportunities within their industry, helping to build greater member loyalty and engagement. And most importantly, these associations are growing their influence as the trusted resource for career seekers as they continue to provide access to career opportunities within their industry.

So while association’s “members only” offerings are not going away, your job board is one area where you may want to reconsider making available to anyone in your industry. The value it creates for employers, prospects, members, and your bottom line most likely outweighs any perceived value that exists by making your job board a gated offering.

About Rick

Using Technology to Build Your Brand

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:14:36 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, Jan 1, 2016

Welcome to Rick Rutherford who will be our guest editor through the first half of August.

By Rick Rutherford
Industry Resource Director, YourMembership

What does your association’s brand say about the organization? Ideally, it should represent the leader for your industry or profession, locally, regionally, or nationally.

For years associations have relied on word of mouth (WOM) to play a role in creating that awareness. WOM is a very powerful tool. There is no question that social networking has taken WOM to a whole new level. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and many others have literally created an industry around brand awareness.

While you work to build your association’s brand, do you use all the tools at your disposal to achieve the results you desire? What role is technology playing in your efforts?

Let’s look at three avenues where you can positively impact your brand awareness through technology.

Association Management or Membership Management Software

Association Management Software (AMS) is the hub for connecting your association to your members via technology. It really comes down to member data and putting that data to work to drive engagement and create membership value.

Using membership software that integrates with your job board, social networking, events and ecommerce activities multiplies the value of the member data you collect and the ways you can put that data to work.
Creating opportunities for member engagement through surveys, polls, forums, blogs, and user ratings can provide additional insight that you can strategically use in your recruitment and retention initiatives.

Career Centers and Online Job Boards

An association career center is an excellent tool for building member loyalty, recruiting new members, and driving non-dues revenue for your association. It should play a significant role in positioning your association as the career resource for your members and prospects alike.

Prospects who upload resumes or create profiles and job alerts on your association job board are communicating that they are interested in receiving value from your association. Are you telling them what your organization does to enhance their careers?

Creating a contact list of non-members registered on your career center provides you a prospect list to market to for new member recruitment.
Implement a “personal” touch campaign to connect with these prospects. It should be more than a direct mail piece or email.

Employers posting open positions on a job board are willing to provide testimonials when they find a great hire or have an overall good experience. What about members that actually find new jobs via your career center? Do you get their testimony?

Solicit testimonials via a form on your website asking “If you have found a new job through the XYZ Association Career Center please share your experience.”
Contact them personally. Congratulate them on their new job.
Get permission to use their positive experience along with a photo so that you can share their story with your website’s visitors.
You achieve two wins – you recognize a member for their accomplishment and you promote the ability of your Career Center (and the association) to positively impact the professional lives of members.

Conferences and Events

How do you use technology to create more value for your events? The simple choices are offering online registration and payment. What else can you do to build brand awareness via your conference?

Create a microsite that exclusively promotes the event, helping to create a unique conference experience.
Create pre-conference surveys and forums that connect attendees with presenters, helping to align the content to be presented with attendee expectations. It’s an easy way to increase overall satisfaction.
Man-on-the-street interviews shot on something as simple as a smart phone that help capture the positive experience of being at conference. Edited properly and posted on your website and social media channels, you can help enhance your associations brand while creating exciting and anticipation for next year’s event.

These are just a few of the many ways technology can be utilized to help you can increase your association’s brand awareness.

About Rick

Happy Birthday To...

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:10:32 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, Jan 1, 2016

By Bob Bauer

Happy Birthday to...

Marking the anniversary for your association can be a fun thing to do. I’ve done it once already and will be doing so again fairly soon. By way of background, we’re a bit of a hybrid here. We’re the staff of a food industry trade association. Over the years, however, some smaller groups within a segment of the food industry have come to us to ask us to manage them; so we’re a quasi association management company as well. Our main association, AFI, takes up 85-90 percent of our work.

In 2006, AFI marked it centennial. In 2017, one of the other groups we manage will celebrate its centennial. Though it will create some extra work, I’m already looking forward to the centennial. AFI’s celebration was well received, so we’ll probably do something similar to what we did back then, with some technological improvements.

The first thing I did was get together for a lunch with some old-timers, including my predecessor, to get some input on how they thought the association should mark the occasion. It was a great couple of hours filled with lots of reminiscing. Though I wasn’t able to get a lot of input about the event itself, I heard a lot of great stories about the association, its members and its impact. It also spurred everyone around the table to check at home for old pictures, etc.

Picking the date and location were among the next steps. Should we do it at our annual conference, which is typically held in Florida? Should we do it in a resort-type setting at another point during the year? We opted to do it in on a Saturday night in New York, the night before a large trade show many of our members attend. Though we’re an international organization with member firms all over the world, our highest concentration of members is in the New York metro area. So that, coupled with the trade show, made the date and location the logical choice. We opted for the Roosevelt Hotel. Teddy Roosevelt happened to be president when our association was founded.

We have a small staff, so I decided I would handle the association’s history research on my own, some of it on my own time - like there was a lot of that. I soon discovered it was a lot of fun and was happy to squirrel away even more time to put things together. Before long, we had a timelime of important dates in the association’s history, pictures going back many, many years and copies of association publications, such as newsletters, bulletins and our annual publication. We put together four DVDs – one with the timelime, one with pictures from the association publications and two of pictures from association events. At the event itself, we put four TVs around the room and the adjoining foyer and had one DVD run repeatedly on each. We had a fifth TV that showed a highlight DVD from a convention the association had in Morocco, still the most-talked-about event in the association’s history.

We marketed the heck out of the event; using old pictures, highlighting the convenience of the event being the night before the show that opened the next day, everything we could think of. Though I can’t remember exactly what the numbers were, we reached our target in terms of domestic members registering to attend. We had hoped we would get more of our foreign members to attend, since some were in town to exhibit at the upcoming show but we fell a little short on that end. Some told us they didn’t want to have a late night the night before an important show, with some adding the jet-lag issue.

We were trying to do things on a budget to keep registration costs as low as possible, so I took advantage (with the board’s approval) of having a brother who is a musician (keyboard player/singer) who gave us a great price to play at the event. I also reached out to a local photographer who I knew did good work at a reasonable price. It was cheaper to pay both their travel time and costs than to hire someone in the city. I also knew the quality I was getting. I simply had to tell both what I had in mind and knew they would deliver.

The night itself was great. The DVDs were a huge hit. As people gathered around to look at them, their eyes would light up when they saw a familiar face they hadn’t seen in a while or when they saw something about an issue they and the association faced way back when. The music was perfect for this type of event. The photographer got hundreds of great photos. The past chairmen (and my predecessor) who spoke all kept to their word and stayed within the short time limit they were given.

Over the next few days as I walked the floor at the trade show, many people who went to the centennial celebration told me what a great event it was and even more who didn’t attend said they heard so much about it they wished they had attended. The centennial celebration proved to be a nice lift for the association because people were proud to be a part of an organization that had been working on their industry’s behalf for a full century.

As I prepare to start working on the next group’s centennial, I’ve got a few ideas on things to add. We’ll do a lot more membership recruitment marketing tied to the centennial. This group exhibits at a couple of trade shows. I’ve seen people serve birthday cake at booths and it’s usually resulted in a lot of extra traffic. I’m sure I’ll be able to get some members to volunteer time at the shows to serve cake/talk up the association.

With the past celebration and the upcoming one, one of the keys was/will be to have information for non-members (when promoting the event and just the centennial in general) to show them why their competitors have valued their membership long enough for the association to reach such a milestone.

Always Being On Isn't Necessarily a Bad Thing

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:06:06 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Friday, Jan 1, 2016

By Bob Bauer

Traveling for business is a necessary evil for me. In fact, I’m writing this as I’m in an airport in Turkey waiting to board the first of three flights to get me home. If all goes as planned, I’ll be home in 28 hours. After nearly 20 years with AFI, learned to take the bad with the good and try to make the most of my time on the road.

With today’s connected world, one works a lot longer when traveling now than before the Internet and email. The days used to be long enough already. Whether putting on your own event or representing yourself at another industry event, the hours are long. Throw in a day or more of travel each way and the scenario has always had exhaustion written all over it. Now, however, when you get done with everything else you have to do, if you haven’t been able to do it as you go along, you have to spend x amount of time checking/replying to emails, etc.

I was fortunate to be able to bring my wife and children along with me to several events our association ran when the kids were younger. I’ve had to remind them over the years that I chose those particular events because I knew I could squirrel away a little free time at them and that there would be other kids their ages there. So as they got older and heard I was going away, they figured I had a few hours most days to sit around the pool, etc. Of source, it didn’t help that my flustered wife would sometimes say I was on vacation when I went away on business.

Truth be told, whether it’s something around the corner or on the other side of the globe, when you’re away from the office on business, you’re always “on”. Take this trip, for example. It was at an all-inclusive resort. The meals that were not a part of the function were buffets held in two restaurants. I didn’t make plans to have any meals with anyone but there wasn’t a meal I didn’t sit with someone I knew and talk about industry issues. It’s great in terms of getting the pulse of my membership but it means you’re always “on.” I didn’t have time to relax on the beach or at the pool but if I did, I’m sure someone would have come by to talk. It happens a lot and did so at our conference just last month. So even when you have the opportunity to unwind a bit, you’re still “on” because you run into members. When it happened at our conference, it turned about to be a couple of great conversations with people who have now pledged to be more active in the association.

So I’ve learned a few tricks over the years. At this event, 50-75 of the 1,000 attendees were from member companies. Another couple of hundred knew about our association but either aren’t members or really don’t need to be. Since we have members all over the world, I don’t see some of these people very frequently and vice versa, so recognition can be difficult. I make it a practice to wear shirts with the association logo on it so people who don’t know/recognize me have a better chance of making a connection. It also helps keep them from having to squint at the conference name badge to see who I am. I can think of three occasions during this event when people stopped me because they recognized the association’s logo on my shirt. (Yes, I purchased the shirts from an MASAE associate member – Brown Dog Marketing.)

-Interruption –

Sorry about that. While sitting in the airport club writing this, someone who was at the same event as me noticed my shirt and struck up a conversation. Here’s hoping it results in another company added to the membership roster.

Another tactic I’ve used over the years is to volunteer to speak or do something else publicly during the event. Speaking is the best option because it puts you in a position of authority as you expose yourself to potential members. It also helps existing members feel good about the association because they’re hearing an association representative provide valuable information.

I also keep myself in front of people in other ways. At this event, during portions of the day when no formal activities were planned, I found spots in a couple of high-traffic areas, which resulted in several people finding me and discussing industry issues with me. At a trade show next month at which AFI doesn’t have a booth, I’ll spend a lot of time in one of the show floor’s main corridors. Thousands of people go to this event and by spending time in its busiest area, I’m able to see many of my members who attend the show. Usually, at least a couple say they need to introduce a potential member to me.

One thing I’ve started doing lately is not rushing home (he says as he leaves his current trip early to get home in time to celebrate his wedding anniversary). I’ll also leave early if I’ve been to the event before and I know the networking typically is not good at, for example, the closing dinner. After all, I do want to make it home to be with my family. But unless I want to get home for family reasons, things like red-eyes are not in the cards. I just don’t see the value of finishing a meeting in California at 6 p.m., having dinner with someone and then rushing to the airport to get little or no sleep and arrive home early in the morning in need of sleep/time to recover. I find it much more effective to have that same (early) dinner, get to bed early, get an early start and be home in the late afternoon pretty much back on schedule and perhaps having had time to get some work done on the plane. If the meeting ends earlier than 6 and/or there’s no dinner with someone, then I’ll use that time to start the meeting minutes or otherwise catch up on things.

When I return to the office, those who don’t travel for business may, like my kids used to, think I was on a vacation of sorts, particularly if I mention how nice the setting was or say something about a pool, a bar or a nice dinner. But more than ever, business travel means incredibly long days where you’re always “on.” But when you get down to it, that’s a good thing.

There's An Association for That?

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:57:28 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Thursday, Jan 1, 2016

With apologies for our brief hiatus, we're back with the remainder of Bob Bauer's series of posts. Follow Bob through the end of the month.

By Bob Bauer

“There’s an association for that?” I get that a lot! Yes, there’s an association for imported foods. Yes, within that association there are sub-associations, including one focused on honey and one on olive oil.

“You went to India for a conference about cashews? You’ve been to Singapore, Australia and Turkey for an annual convention about nuts and dried fruits?” The list goes on.

Most people seem to latch on to one item. There’s one guy who I’m certain after knowing me for many years thinks everything I do is about nuts. He can’t seem to figure out why there needs to be an association to deal with that. After reminding him the association covers all kinds of imported foods, I give him examples about nuts anyway just to drive home some of the reasons the association’s work is important. I’ll ask him, “do you like cashews?” When he says he does, I’ll say that our association has helped educate the producers (most in lesser-developed countries than ours) about ways to improve quality and yield, so he and others can get enough cashews of good quality at a good price.

I’ve had a couple of people make it sound un-American of me to work for an association centered on imports. Of course, there’s a whole U.S. industry of companies employing thousands of people and supporting thousands of other jobs such as trucking and retail stores carrying the products. And do you think the industry imports products that are produced in great numbers or at all here in the U.S.? There wouldn’t be a lot of money in that.

Olive oil has been another conversation starter. Some folks think they know more about olive oil than I do. Others want me to tell them what brands to buy. In case you’re wondering, I don’t tell them what to buy. There are hundreds of varieties of olive oil and they’re grown in many different climates and in various types of soil, so there’s a wide variety of tastes. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. Our friends certainly seem to enjoy when we bring or put out a few different oils when we get together. With olive oil, some ask me about things they’ve read online that say negative things about imported olive oil. When I explain the faulty conclusions in those “articles”, they get a first-hand example of why it’s important to have an association for the industry.

When I tell people I belong to two associations (MASAE and ASAE) for people who run associations, there are often smirks. But when they think about it, they seem to get the picture.

Yes, there’s an association for that. As we’ve all heard or said before, “there’s an association for everything!” And that’s a good thing.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Association Web Design

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 23:50:40 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Thursday, Aug 27, 2015

By Callie Walker
memberclicks.com

Websites. We all have them. We all use them. But that’s not to say that all websites are winners. In fact, some websites actually seem to do more harm than good. They drive people away and even cause bad feelings – which is the last thing we want to do as associations.

So what exactly are the qualities that drive members and prospects away? Behold, the seven deadly sins of association web design:

Cluttered pages
Too many associations forget about the importance of white space. They often get so caught up in their own design aesthetic that they forget it isn’t about them. It’s about the user’s personal experience, and that means having a clean and simple web design. Cut back on the heavy text that’s likely to scare users away and focus on simplicity instead.

Poor navigation
Sure, website navigation can be tough, but this is one area you don’t want to skimp on. The majority of users will leave a site if they can’t find what they’re looking for in three clicks or less, so a seamless structure is imperative.

Now there’s no formal rule for how navigation should be organized, but in general, it’s best to have vertical navigation down the left side of your site or horizontal navigation across the top. These are the most common design techniques and users will feel more comfortable if your organization follows suit. Additionally, it’s best to use textual descriptions for all of your links so that users know exactly where a page is about to take them.

Missing contact information
You’d be amazed at how many associations hide their contact information online. But members can’t reach you if they don’t know how! Be sure to include your phone number as well as email address in the Contact Us section. Yes, you may attract some spam, but it’s better than losing members because they can’t reach you.

One extra note here: Some organizations prefer to use a Contact Us form rather than listing their contact information outright. But beware, this can often backfire as users don’t typically want to wait for a response.

Dead links
This one can’t be emphasized enough. How many times have you been to a website and clicked on a link that can’t be opened? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? That’s why website testing is so important. Even if you’ve tested a link before, check it again every so often to make sure it still works.

Slow load times
Nothing makes people leave a website faster than slow load times. Not to mention, search engines penalize slower loading websites, leading to less traffic and overall page views. To avoid this, make sure your images are optimized. That means resizing your images and reducing the quality. Don’t worry though – a lower quality won’t show any significant changes from the original version.

Unresponsive templates
Did you know that more than half of all web access comes from mobile devices? That means it’s imperative to have a mobile-friendly site. Now a lot of organizations tend to put this one off, but mobile isn’t going anywhere, so it’s crucial you adapt. We highly recommend using responsive web templates that adapt to all platforms and devices, including mobile phones and tablets. That way, you can appeal to all users to matter where they’re coming from.

Pop-up ads
This is by far the worst offender. Yes, you may get a few new email subscribers, but is it really worth all of the traffic you lose due to pure annoyance? Now we will say, associations are pretty good about not utilizing these, but there are enough fans that we felt it was worth mentioning.

If you do want to use pop-up ads, we recommend using a time delay. Don’t show your ads unless someone has been on your site for say 30 seconds or longer. The longer they’ve been on your site, the more likely they are to click on the ad. That being said, we still recommend using strong calls-to-action, such as “call today” or “register here,” rather than interruptive pop-up ads.

There you have it, folks. The seven deadly sins of association web design. Is your association guilty of any of these?

Dust Off Your Old Posts

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 23:10:27 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Tuesday, Aug 25, 2015

By: Susan Young
Get In Front Communications
Getinfrontcommunications.com

It's time for business bloggers to dust the cobwebs off of their old posts.

Many bloggers believe the content that's collecting dust should be deleted.

Not so fast!

I say you should only dump material that is outdated or embarrassing.

There’s a better way to use your ‘old stuff’. Give it flavor. Give it energy. First, go back and identify posts that you want to salvage. It’s important that the majority of the post is not dated and can easily be tweaked.

Once you determine the content you’d like to modify, consider these seven tips:

Turn your post into a Slideshare deck. Visuals are the hot trend this year so pull a few main points from your written post and transform it into a snappy deck.Suggestion: Don’t use stock photos. Start building your own personal library of pictures and images. That’s what cell phone cameras are for, right?
Use your voice and record a podcast. Your post is now your script, which will need short, punchy, and easy-to-understand sentences. Suggestion: Focus on your vocal vitality!
Create an e-book. If you’ve been blogging regularly for six months, you should have more than 50 posts. Old content, as well as current posts should be included.Suggestion: Hire a Virtual Assistant and/or graphic designer to pull everything together.
Produce a free ‘Special Report’ in a PDF format. Using three of your most popular or favorite posts, reformat the text, and update as needed. This new PDF can be used as an opt-in on your site to build your database and list. Suggestion:Stick to one theme or topic.
Record a video blog based on your written content. Suggestion: Keep it casual and less than three minutes in length.
Offer to guest post. Pitch a fresh version of your post to a respected leader in your industry with a large following. Suggestion: Be sure to find out the preferences of the person you are pitching. Ask about word count, deadline, bio box, and images.
Transform your post into a bylined article. Identify a publication that your ideal clients read. Find out if they accept bylined articles and pitch your topic to the editor.Suggestion: Before spending an enormous amount of time reworking your piece, first pitch the topic and a few bulleted details.

One important note when repurposing content: Check all links to be sure they are not dead-ends.

Your blog is a business development AND marketing tool. It’s time to get creative!

Bloops and Blunders: Top Ten Association Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 23:17:46 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Thursday, Aug 20, 2015

By Leza Raffel, The Communication Solutions Group, Inc

No matter how successful your association is, there’s always room for improvement. The best way to attract new members and promote new services to current members is with a comprehensive marketing campaign. Before you jump right in, however, it’s important to remember some ground rules that will help ensure your campaign is successful.

There are many effective association marketing methods, but beware: there are also countless ways to spend money without getting results. If you don’t have any marketing experience — or even if you do — remember that poor planning, poor execution and poor follow through lead to poor results.

Below are the top ten marketing mistakes and advice on what to do about them. Following these rules could help you see your way through to a successful and profitable marketing campaign.

Mistake Number One: Launching a marketing campaign when you don’t have a clear set of goals

Don’t jump into a marketing campaign without deciding what you want to say and who you want your message to reach. Doing so could be a waste of time, effort and most of all — money.

Instead, take the time to plan. Think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your campaign. Are you trying to bring in more members? Are you looking to retain existing ones? Is your association offering new services? Do you want to grow attendance at your next conference?

Having a clear set of goals will help you decide on what kind of a marketing campaign you want to launch, and the rewards of a successful campaign will more than make up for the time you spend researching and planning.

Mistake Number Two: Not taking the time to determine your unique selling point

Don’t start a marketing campaign if you don’t know what differentiates you from competing associations. If you don’t know, potential members won’t either.

Determine what makes your association unique, and use that to drive your message.

Mistake Number Three: Not identifying your target market

Not everyone can be your target market, or target member for that matter. Before you spend money on a marketing campaign directed toward the masses, identify who’s ultimately going to make the decision to join your association and why.

Knowing who holds the purse strings and who determines where their organization’s money is spent will help you decide how best to get your message across.

Mistake Number Four: Not having a budget in place

Without a budget, chances are you’ll spend too much money on marketing. Know how much you want to spend before beginning a marketing campaign, and stick to your budget.

The general rule of thumb says a marketing campaign should be 1.5 percent to 3 percent of your operating budget. That amount should be sufficient and will help you determine what kind of marketing campaign you can afford.

Mistake Number Five: Putting all your eggs in one basket

Don’t spend all of your marketing money on one type of promotion. Creating an overpriced website or buying a single membership recruitment ad in an industry publication is a surefire way to you’re your budget very quickly.

Instead try spreading the wealth around. In addition to making your money go further, your message is more likely to reach existing members and potential members when you use more than one type of marketing method.

You could easily miss valuable prospective members if your marketing method overlooks them, and by putting all your eggs in one basket, you’re certainly going to overlook someone.

Mistake Number Six: Trying to do it all yourself

Trying to accomplish everything on your own often leads to problems. Do-it-yourself marketing campaigns are often disjointed and unpolished.

Use professionals who can create a comprehensive package that enhances your association’s image and gets your message across clearly and completely. It may be a bit more costly than doing it yourself, but it should pay off.

A cohesive marketing campaign developed by the right professionals and aimed at the right target audiences won’t eat into your time and will more than pay for itself.

Mistake Number Seven: Not doing your homework

Don’t pay top dollar when you don’t have to. Advertising prices vary and so do printing prices.

Negotiate with publications for a lower advertising rate and shop around to get the best printing prices for quality work. Just because a company charges top dollar doesn’t mean it provides top quality products.

Failing to be cost conscious in all of the marketing decisions you make is a mistake. Remember, the further you stretch your marketing dollars, the greater the opportunity you’ll have to spread your message.

Mistake Number Eight: Not pursuing PR opportunities

You’re not marketing your association well if people in your industry don’t know who your association is. Get involved in industry activities and issues, launch a scholarship fund, and organize conferences which educate others on industry trends. Then, be sure to get the word out about your activities on your social media sites and in industry and mainstream print and electronic media outlets.

PR is free and it provides organizations with more credibility than advertising. In fact, data suggestions that people are 7 times more likely to respond to a story about your organization than an ad!

Mistake Number Nine: Not tracking where responses are coming from

Don’t forget to find out what’s working and use that to your advantage. If you don’t track responses to your marketing campaign, you won’t know which parts of it are successful.

No matter whether you use social media, direct mail, conduct recruitment webinars, advertise in special industry publications or any one of a number of other promotional sources, it pays to know what’s working. Failing to question your members about how they heard about you or not having a system to identify where inquiries come from is a costly mistake.

The more you know about what’s working, the more you can use that to your advantage, and the next time you embark on a marketing campaign, you won’t waste your money on what didn’t work.

Mistake Number Ten: Not Attending MASAE events

MASAE is committed to providing educational and networking opportunities for members, thus enabling you to gain more knowledge and grow your contacts within the association field. Paying money to be a member, but not partaking in member benefits that does not make sense. Mark your calendar for upcoming MASAE programs and join us!

Follow the Rules for a Successful Marketing Campaign

Remember, a great marketing campaign can be an invaluable tool for promoting your business, but a bad one can be nothing more than a waste or your time, energy and financial resources.

Keep this list of ten mistakes handy, and refer to it each time you begin developing a marketing campaign.

Make it your goal to ensure that your future marketing efforts are mistake-free.

Leza Raffel is the president of the Communication Solutions Group, Inc. MASAE members are entitled to a complimentary, one-hour consultation. For details, call 215-884-6499 or visit www.comsolutions.com

Crisis Communication Strategies: Plan for the Worst to Achieve Your Best

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:02:07 GMT

Posted By Todd Van Deak, Tuesday, Aug 18, 2015

By Leza Raffel, The Communication Solutions Group, Inc

Association directors often devote considerable time and resources to planning for success, but most don’t even want to think about dealing with a crisis. Yet how you handle a crisis situation can mean the difference between survival and ruin for your association. Careful planning before a crisis is upon you is the key to making sure you have what it takes to weather the situation, so you come back to make your association even stronger.

Disaster can strike any association, and often it occurs when it’s least expected: Things could be going along great – your membership is growing, conference attendance is up, your corporate sponsors are happy – then out of nowhere, you’re facing a situation that spells trouble for your organization. A crisis can take many forms, large or small, including those for which an association is directly responsible, those caused by a volunteer leader, and those caused strictly by accident. For association, those might include:

Accounting irregularities are found
A natural phenomena – such as a tornado- destroys your upcoming annual meeting location
Criminal activity by an employee.
Product recall directly related to the industry your association represents

Be Prepared
It’s not only a good motto for a boy scout, being prepared is your best defense in the event of a crisis. Before a problem ever occurs, sit down and brainstorm your worst fears, then start considering the best ways to handle them. This information can be formulated into a basic crisis plan that can be implemented in case the situation arises.

Your plan should include a specific crisis team consisting of trusted association leaders, legal counsel and perhaps even a public relations professional, who can all come together quickly to deal with the situation. One of the team members should be named the spokesperson that will interact with the media. It would also be wise to develop a standard press release format and a list of media contacts so you can get your message out quickly and effectively.

Be Thorough
Before you respond publicly to the situation, make certain you have all the facts. Learn all you can about what has happened, and then consult with your team, including your legal counsel. While a timely response is important, accuracy is even more important. Don’t be afraid to say that you are unsure of all the facts but that you are looking into it if an immediate response is required.

Remember, your most important job is to protect the reputation of your association. Saying one thing and then having to change your story after getting all the facts is not going to help that cause.

Be Honest
It simply cannot be said enough: NEVER try to lie, hide or deny involvement. It will invariably come back to haunt you. You can be sure that the facts will come to the surface one way or another and you will have to face the fallout from not only the situation itself, but from your dishonesty.

Ignoring the situation is similarly unwise. Answering a question with “no comment” tends to make you appear guilty and uncaring – a double whammy against you.

Be Caring
Always act with care and concern. This starts with immediately handling any threat to human life that may arise from the crisis situation. Your members and the general public will be unlikely to forgive any negligence on this front.

In your first public communication after the crisis, make sure you express concern for all those affected by the situation, whether they are your members, your staff, or the general public. Put yourself in their shoes, and try to see the crisis from their point of view. Then take steps necessary to alleviate their concerns.

Be Communicative
Consider all of your audiences and pinpoint the most effective means of communicating with each of them. For general media release, make sure you have a standard fact sheet about your association, along with information on the environmental factors that may have been involved in the crisis. The more information you provide, the more chances you have to influence what is said in the media about the situation.

While interaction with the general media is imperative, it is also vital for you to stay in close communication with your members, board and other stakeholder groups during and after the crisis. Phone calls, emails, meetings, mailings and other means of dissemination of information can not only help you through the crisis, but can help generate loyalty by giving these stakeholder groups “insider” status.

Be Proactive
The cloud of a crisis situation might contain a silver lining if you look hard enough. Once the immediate situation is resolved, consider ways to turn the crisis into an opportunity.

The new policy will go a long way in deflecting future criticism of your past wrongdoing, and give you a more positive public image, as well.

Be Smart
Start now to prepare for potential crisis situations. Begin by putting together a simple plan and team. Then it’s time for a gut check. If you feel you’re already over your head, you might consider bringing on a public relations professional who can help you through the preparation process and be at the ready should a crisis occur.

You can’t know when disaster might strike, but you can be ready for it.

Associations are Connected to our Nation’s History and Prosperity

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 22:49:24 GMT

Posted By Administration, Friday, Aug 14, 2015

Editors Note: This post was originally scheduled to run in late June. We've made small changes to enable its posting today.

By Rick Rutherford
Industry Resource Director, YourMembership

Last month we celebrated the 239th birthday of our nation. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the role associations play in this ongoing experiment of democracy we call America, as they are very much intertwined within the fabric of our society and our collective history.

To interpret the future of associations, it is important to understand their past. The root of associations can be traced back to organizations and institutions like the church, medieval craft guilds, merchant trade groups and Greek symposiums.

The closest cousins of what we know as the modern association can be found in the guilds of 16th century England. These guilds were formed to provide protection to merchant interests and individual artisans. In addition, these organizations provided training in specific skills and established rules for fair wages and working conditions, which continues today in the form of professional development and advocacy.

As our country was founded, American citizens began to expand and formalize the guilds into what we identify as an association today. Citizens of the United States began exercising their first amendment freedoms of speech, assembly and the press. New laws were developed to support and define these new groups and the role they would come to play in our educational and political system.

The earliest association on record in the U.S. was the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, which was formed in 1768 by 20 merchants. Nearly 246 years later, it survives today as the Partnership for New York City. That’s older than our country’s declaration of independence!

While there is much discussion around the changes associations face today with a highly competitive and global economy, associations have faced similar challenges throughout our nation’s history. When factories and mass production were introduced during the Industrial Revolution, associations were dramatically changed. The focus on work quality and wages soon gave way to new priorities around quantities and production, causing associations to lose power and forcing them to adapt to survive that change.

Prior to the Civil War most associations were essentially local; but as the Civil War broke out, regional and national organizations were formed to capitalize on our divided country’s industrial capabilities. The railroads fueled expansion and new markets for manufacturers resulted in the birth of more trade associations to ensure fair competition. By the beginning of 1900, more than 100 associations were organized to influence federal and state government, especially around issues affecting business.

As with the Civil War, both World War I and World War II helped drive growth in the number of associations forming. Trade associations played key roles in the war effort by supplying the government with information on available equipment, available labor and productivity. They were a valuable link between the companies and industries they represented and the U.S. government. They also helped influence the war effort at home by encouraging conservation and providing technical specialists to public service.

Professional societies have also made significant contributions throughout our history as consultants to governments and academia, helping to broaden the scope of the existing body of scientific knowledge. They have facilitated an ongoing exchange of ideas and technical information while providing a forum for dissenting viewpoints on professional research. As a result, higher standards of professionalism are constantly being established and met.

The number of associations has swelled to over 100,000 organizations today. As a result of that long history, we can have confidence they will continue to form and exist in today’s society. Almost every facet of life is represented in some form or fashion by an association or cause-oriented membership organization. The challenges they face have never been greater and the new opportunities they have are just as great.

Today we talk about social networking and online communities, big data, information overload, jobs, generational issues, member retention, and non-dues revenue. While associations are looking for ways to remain relevant, their members and future members need help managing the turbulent environment they work and live in. The roles haven’t changed, just the tools needed to survive.

That’s why we are here and why we love what we do. Associations are being asked to do more with less in ways unimaginable just 15 years ago. YourMembership.com exists to provide associations with technology-based solutions that will allow them to compete and prosper in today’s world. It is a big responsibility and privilege we don’t take lightly.

And so to our association customers, and the millions of members they serve, we pause this July 4th to say thank you for all that you have contributed and continue to do for our great nation.

Special thanks to Shelly Alcorn, CAE for her assistance with this post.

About Rick
As YourMembership’s Industry Resource Director, Rick guides YM’s thought leadership initiatives, directing the company’s Resource Center, weekly blog and monthly webinar series, as well as coordinates YM’s Industry Alliance Program.

@ricknatx

My Reasons of Joining An Association

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 22:39:58 GMT

Posted By Bob Bauer, Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Members of the non-profit world who don’t belong to their local or national professional association, I’m about to let you have it. To be quite frank, it’s hypocritical. How can you defend making your living in large part due to members that join/support your organization and not join/support the association(s) that exist(s) to help you do your job better?

That’s a rhetorical question. As a long-time member of the MASAE membership committee and the NJSAE before that, I’ve heard all the excuses. They’re the same ones your potential members give you when they don’t join – not enough time, no money in the budget, etc. No money in the budget, really? We all have to spend our resources wisely but how can people, whether staff or volunteer leaders, running a non-profit say it’s not worth the money to participate in a non-profit designed to improve the efficiency of its members?

I belong to MASAE and ASAE. I rely on MASAE for my local needs – seminars, etc. When I attend MASAE sessions, I learn a great deal from the speakers; I also learn a great deal from my counterparts in the room, through questions asked/comments made by them during and after the sessions. I’ve made a great number of contacts over the years and I’ve reached out to several with questions. Their help has been of great value, further enhancing the return on investment of my membership dues. There are quite a number of people I look forward to seeing when I attend MASAE events.

I rely on ASAE for more global needs. It offers a great deal of resources for all of us. I’ve accessed things online and through the ASAE staff. Since its meetings are rarely held locally, I don’t normally attend them but I’m fortunate to have MASAE as an option for that aspect of things. MASAE puts on quality educational programs. Getting back to ASAE, at our association’s annual conference seven or eight years ago one of my board members asked me if there was a nationwide annual convention in my industry and whether I attended it. I said there was but I had only been once – when it was in Philadelphia. He encouraged me to attend it more regularly and now I attend every year. The expenses have never been questioned by any board member because they see what I get out of it.

(Spoiler Alert – There’s a Tip Coming Up)

One thing they don’t see is how energized I am when I come back from an MASAE or ASAE event. There’s something to be said for being in a room with people who do what you do every day. It gives you a sense of belonging, a sense of being a part of an important industry. It motivates me to try to improve my performance when I get back to my office. I try to structure events at my association’s meetings to ensure our attendees get this feeling as well.
The MASAE Annual Conference and the ASAE Convention include “fun” activities as well – and what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with celebrating what we do as an industry? The evening reception at the MASAE Conference is something attendees look forward to. It’s a fun event with great food, drinks and those people, again. Yes, the people who do what I do every day. We renew acquaintances, meet new people and even learn from one another – all in a relaxed atmosphere. It’s the same at ASAE. The events at the convention are great and though it’s harder to develop the level of friendships you can with fellow MASAE members, you can’t help but meet (and hopefully learn) from a whole slew of people.

Here comes that tip I mentioned: Even within my office, I know there were people who questioned the benefit of me attending and participating in association events. So I created a document that gets updated after I or anyone else on the staff attends an education session. Upon returning, we go through our notes and add to the document the points we think could be helpful to us and others on staff going forward. We review the document every six months or so to see if we can incorporate more of what’s listed into our operations.

Of course, there’s another reason we all should support our industry organizations and it’s a reason we all mention to our prospects. Theodore Roosevelt said it best: “Every man owes some of his time to the upbuilding of the profession to which he belongs.” We all know there’s strength in numbers. Many probably think there aren’t issues impacting non-profits. Not true. For example, after the widely seen reports on the extravagant events hosted by some government agencies, policies were changed to limit federal government employees from attending industry meetings. Legislation was even introduced that called for a limit of one representative from a government agency per year to be allowed to attend functions held by an organization. We had a meeting last year attended by several representatives from the Food and Drug Administration. One was a high-ranking official who was our invited speaker. He brought along someone working closely with him on the proposed regulations that were the topic of the meeting and he had several representatives from a local FDA office attend so they could be brought up to speed on the new regulations and, along with their two bosses, interact with our members to answer questions, hear concerns and get a better picture of how our industry works. I was happy to attend ASAE’s American Associations Day to make visits on Capitol Hill to speak about the two-way value of participation by government personnel at industry events.

I’ve also been happy to volunteer with MASAE (and before that, NJSAE). Like all of our members, there have been times I could participate more than at other times. My job requires a lot of travel, so I can’t always make the meetings/calls. But I do what I can.

At last year’s MASAE Conference when my term as a member of the MASAE board expired, I said part of the reason I volunteer is somewhat selfish – I do it in part to learn from the people around me and from the tasks we are performing. The return on investment has been great.

I know some people won’t be able to spend what I can spend on association involvement (though don’t lose sight of that return on investment), while others can spend a lot more. Start out small by simply joining MASAE or, if from another area, another local association. The investment is less than $200 per year. Quite frankly, if your association can’t afford that, you should be concerned. Read the information you receive. You’ll no doubt find something you can implement. Then tell your board about it and get more money put aside toward professional development. You are one of your association’s most crucial assets and your board has to be willing to invest in you!

Deconstructing the relevance fallacy: part III

Wed, 27 May 2015 22:34:02 GMT

Posted By Todd Von Deak, Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Editors Note: This is the final installment from Jeff De Cagna (Principled Innovation, LLC) as our initial guest blogger. Many thanks to Jeff for leading us off with such thought provoking content.

In Part II, I explored the relevance fallacy from the stakeholder perspective. In this final post in the series, I will extend this discussion to consider why relevance thinking is a losing argument for persuading stakeholders to develop relationships with associations.

Why should your current and future stakeholders want a relationship with your association over the next decade and beyond?

As a result of 25 years of technological transformation, stakeholders are not only experiencing new challenges and opportunities in their lives and jobs. Today’s stakeholders also have abundant access to many of the tangible and intangible resources they need through their network relationships. Knowledge and expertise, trusted connections and even financial resources can be secured with relative ease through crowdsourcing sites, social networks and peer-to-peer sharing platforms.

This unprecedented shift in influence toward individuals and networks, and away from legacy organizations such as associations, cannot be addressed with a traditional strategic plan developed using a relevance mindset. Instead, associations need to think and act beyond the orthodoxy of their membership-centric business models to co-create value with stakeholders in the three overlapping timeframes mentioned in the previous post:

Solving short-term problems - Stakeholders have problems that must be solved in near real time, an opportunity ideally suited for applying mobile, social and cloud technologies. Associations, however, tend to be more comfortable operating on “association time,” which means value creation and delivery occurs on schedules organized around internal processes and requirements. This is a business challenge that will not be resolved by making association or its membership offer “more relevant.”

Meeting intermediate-term needs - Stakeholders have a full range of needs they must meet to prepare for the future and advance and grow in their careers. They will consider products, services and experiences from a number of sources to meet them. The most significant differentiator among the many available offers will not be relevance, however, but the richness of the meaning and impact those forms of value can bring to stakeholders, as well as to their peers across personal and professional networks with similar needs.

Achieving long-term outcomes - Throughout their lives, stakeholders will pursue ambitions and aspirations that they will need help to reach. Diverse and intimate network relationships will be a critical wellspring of both practical and emotional support, and associations also may be able to play a unique role in this context because of the sense of purpose (not relevance) that animates their work. To act on this opportunity, however, associations must be willing to listen to and learn from stakeholders and their networks in order to collaborate with them to create distinctive value.

After many decades of trying to figure out what’s next, associations have arrived at a crucial moment, and the choice for senior decision-makers is clear: embrace the transformation that is happening all around them and begin building organizations capable of thriving in the 21st century or continue to operate within the fallacy of relevance. In my view, it is not a difficult decision.

Jeff De Cagna FASAE is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, located in Reston, Virginia. He can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com or on Twitter @pinnovation.

Deconstructing the relevance fallacy: part II

Thu, 21 May 2015 22:26:32 GMT

Posted By Jeff De Cagna, Thursday, May 21, 2015

Editors Note: Many thanks to Jeff De Cagna from Principled Innovation, LLC for being our first guest blogger. We hope you enjoy his three part series that will run over the next two weeks.

In Part I of this series, I began deconstructing the relevance fallacy from the point of view of association thrivability. In this post, I will continue this process by examining relevance from the stakeholder perspective.

What will your current and future stakeholders need to thrive over the next decade and beyond?

In a world being buffeted by the forces of transformation, association stakeholders will continue to encounter both complex challenges and compelling opportunities. The profound impact of these forces, especially the application of powerful technologies in every industry, profession and field, is reinventing the very nature of work (and not always for the better), while also enabling more convenient ways to connect, cooperate and collaborate, i.e., to associate, with peers anywhere in the world, in any language and at any time.

On the surface, relevance thinking appears to be the exact approach associations should pursue to help their stakeholders thrive over the next decade and beyond. To further reveal the relevance fallacy, however, it is worth asking which players really benefit (or don’t) from this mindset and why.

The relevance mindset benefits boards - As I have argued before, association boards frequently adhere to a membership ideology, which is understandable given that most board members make some connection between association membership and their own professional success. Since it is tied to membership, then, the relevance mindset reinforces boards’ existing orthodox beliefs and nurtures a misplaced clarity for the overarching purpose of their work as senior decision-makers.

The relevance mindset benefits senior staff teams - For association CEOs and their direct reports, adopting and acting on the relevance mindset is an attractive alternative to the more challenging work of creating truly 21st century associations. This observation is not offered as a criticism, but as a clear-eyed recognition of reality. Building an association to thrive in a time of societal transformation is a highly complicated and unpredictable endeavor, while relevance thinking is an intuitive, if incremental, approach to making improvements.

The relevance mindset does not benefit stakeholders - Contrary to popular belief, current and future stakeholders do not benefit from associations’ focus on relevance. The combination of problems, needs and outcomes these stakeholders face demands a stronger response from associations, a genuine commitment to create distinctive and meaningful value that effectively harnesses the forces of transformation for innovation.

In the final part of this series, I will consider the relevance fallacy in the context of why current and future stakeholders should want to have relationships with associations over the next decade and beyond.

Jeff De Cagna FASAE is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, located in Reston, Virginia. He can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com or on Twitter @pinnovation.

Deconstructing the relevance fallacy: part I

Tue, 19 May 2015 22:14:38 GMT

Posted By Jeff De Cagna, Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Editors Note: Many thanks to Jeff De Cagna, founder of Principled Innovation LLC for being our first guest blogger.

As I travel around the country for both client work and public presentations, I hear a growing number of association decision-makers staff and voluntary alike - repeating a very familiar refrain: we need to make our associations relevant. Whenever someone expresses this point of view, I have a decidedly mixed reaction. On the one hand, I feel genuine empathy because relevance thinking usually is shared as a sincere, well-intentioned response to the complicated challenges created by a volatile and uncertain marketplace.

On the other hand, I almost always feel a strong wave of frustration wash over me whenever I hear the word “relevance” used in this context. As a long-time association contributor who is committed, as a matter of both purpose and passion, to building 21st century organizations, it is difficult for me to view the relevance mindset as anything other than a serious threat to the real work of building associations to thrive in the years ahead.

To better understand why relevance is a dangerous fallacy that associations must immediately abandon, I will use my guest posts on this blog to examine and deconstruct the fallacy by applying the three core questions that underpin long-term association thrivability:

1. What will it take for your association to thrive over the next decade and beyond?

2. What will your current and future stakeholders need to thrive over the next decade and beyond?

3. Why should your current and future stakeholders want a relationship with your association over the next decade and beyond?

Legacy organizations of all kinds are asking themselves the same questions, even if their versions use different words. For association decision-makers, these three questions provide a helpful structure for encouraging both greater discipline and greater creativity in their thinking about the future.

What will it take for your association to thrive over the next decade and beyond?

Over the last 25 years, the comparatively stable experience of linear change to which we have all grown accustomed has been supplanted by a profound, intensifying and accelerating experience of societal transformation, driven primarily by the relentless impact of technology on every field of human endeavor. In 2015, we are still closer to the beginning of this transformation than the end, and associations must act now to prepare for even more significant developments yet to come.

Thrivability is about creating an association that can flourish in a world experiencing transformation. To be thrivable, associations need to be both adaptable to rapidly shifting conditions and resilient in the work of co-creating distinctive new value. While thrivability is about nurturing the development of new organizational capabilities for the future, the relevance mindset leads associations to limit their thinking about the future in (at least) three important ways:

The relevance mindset is tied to membership. For the most part, when association decision-makers speak of making their organizations more relevant, what they are really talking about is making membership in the association more relevant. The focus on thrivability, however, challenges decision-makers to think beyond the sacrosanct orthodoxy of membership and act to develop meaningful relationships with distributed networks of stakeholders, including those who will never join, to collaborate on the creation of value.

The relevance mindset ignores resistance and risk. Many decision-makers honestly believe that diminished relevance explains their organizations’ inability to realize their full potential. The work of thrivability acknowledges the true problems - the unchecked influence of internal resistance to transformation and the misplaced fear of the external risk of innovation - and focuses organizational attention on addressing those problems directly to build adaptability and resilience.

The relevance mindset is not generative. In my experience, association decision-makers see relevance as something that can be addressed with a combination of fairly incremental programmatic and promotional initiatives. Thrivability, in contrast, demands a truly holistic and generative approach and, as I have previously written, “[w]hen we focus on being generative, we can create new dimensions of success both organizationally and for our stakeholders, but only if we’re willing to think differently about how we do our work.”

In Part II of this series, I will look at the relevance fallacy through the lens of what association stakeholders will need to thrive over the next decade and beyond.

Jeff De Cagna FASAE is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, located in Reston, Virginia. He can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com or on Twitter @pinnovation.

President's Message

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 11:27:17 GMT

Posted By Tim Bower, CAE, Thursday, April 30, 2015

I am excited to have the opportunity to serve as the MASAE President and look forward to working with all of you in the upcoming year!

I want to start this President’s article by telling you what MASAE means to me. I have been involved with MASAE for many years and was on the Board of DVSAE and a member of NJSAE. It was many, many years ago when I got involved in DVSAE and by getting involved I mean I was at a DVSAE Social Outing and Mike Taylor talked me into Co-Chairing the Education Committee. That simple conversation started me on a journey that would allow me to serve as Education Committee Chair for DVSAE and MASAE, serve on various Mid-Year Meeting, Conference Planning and Golf Committees as well as serving on the MASAE Board and Executive Committee. I owe Mike a BIG THANK YOU for talking to me that night many years ago. My involvement in MASAE has provided me with an experience that I could not have imagined. I have become a more accomplished professional, made some great friends, have expanded my resources and have had a great time doing it. Getting involved in MASAE is one of the best professional decisions I have ever made. Why am I starting my first article with this bit of information - because I want you to get involved in MASAE and join an MASAE Committee. Join MASAE as a volunteer and start your journey. MASAE will only improve if quality people continue to get involved. You are the reason that MASAE will be the best resource for education and networking.

Member Experience and Core Initiatives

MASAE is working very hard to expand the resources available to you and to make information more accessible to you. Some of the initiatives are outlined below and all of them have improving the member experience at the core of each initiative.

MASAE is launching a new and improved website. The website will give the members increased functionality to connect through Forums and allow for more resources and information. This new website will also be a great membership recruitment tool.
We are continuing the membership drive started in 2014. You may ask how more members will help our current members and for me the answer is simple. As we increase the membership numbers we increase our resources. More members also mean increased networking opportunities and the networking component is a critical aspect in all of our success as we progress through our careers.
MASAE is launching a new blog that will be sent about every two weeks. The articles will be a resource for timely information and will feature various professionals on the local and national scene. This will be launched shortly after the new website.
MASAE is working with champions in the various geographic regions we serve and discussing what they need and what type of meetings work best for them. It is these champions that will make these geographic subgroups successful. Please do not worry there will still be plenty of opportunity for all of us to get together at the Mid-Year and Annual Meetings and of course the local meetings are open to all.

Upcoming Events

The items above are some of the newer items we are working on but rest assured you can still count on MASAE for the consistent high quality educational programs that you have come to expect from us. Below is a list of the upcoming events. More events will be added so please check the MASAE website frequently for updates and information on how to register.

April 23 – Breakfast Club at Ponzio’s in Cherry Hill, NJ
April 30 – Executive Management Forum in Princeton, NJ
June 3 – MASAE Mid-Year Meeting at the Inn at Penn in Philadelphia, PA
June 25 – Breakfast Club at Ponzio’s in Cherry Hill, NJ
August 20 – MASAE 6th Annual Golf Outing at Sea Oaks Golf Club in Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ
September 24 – Breakfast Club at Ponzio’s in Cherry Hill, NJ
December 2-3 – MASAE 6th Annual Conference & Exhibition at Harrah’s in Atlantic City, NJ

If you want to champion a Breakfast Club or Lunch Bunch type of meeting in your area please contact me and MASAE will help promote the meeting. There is no formal speaker and it is a great opportunity for colleagues to get together in a less formal setting. They are a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet some new friends. I really want to make sure we are engaging the MASAE Members and other association professionals at times and locations that are easy for them to attend.

Engagement

The key to the success of MASAE is communication and engagement. I hope that you will contact myself or any of the MASAE Board about what is working, what is not working, what might need a little tweak and what we are not offering that we should be offering. MASAE is here to serve the members, the profession and the industry and those of us that are fortunate enough to serve on the Board are only temporary stewards of this great organization. That is why your involvement is so necessary to ensure the current and future success of MASAE. I have listed the Committees below and all of them could use additional volunteers. The purpose of each committee and a sign-up form can be found by clicking here or if you have additional questions please feel free to call or email me at any time.

Awards Committee
CAE Committee
Communications Committee
Conference Committee
Education/Program Committee
Golf Committee
Membership Committee
Associate/Vendor Member Task Force
Pace Magazine
Scholarship Committee

To those of you already involved thank you for everything you do for MASAE and if you are not involved please consider getting involved. Joining a committee would be great but your first step could be attending an event, talking to a colleague about joining or just letting us know how we are doing.

I can be reached at 215-858-8023 or by email at tbower@bowermanagementservices.com and welcome all communication.

Thank you,

Tim Bower, CAE
MASAE President