An Important Conversation

I just returned from my educational conference with ASAE and the Center (American Society of Association Executives). There were some very exciting educational programs and keynote speakers.  As always there were excellent ideas shared that can be utilized in my every day work with NALS.  It was also a great time of community and catching up with others in my profession. I got the opportunity to see Carol Jorgenson, a former NALS staff member, Sandra Yost, PLS, a NALS Past President who is now herself an association executive and Pam Hemann, CAE who has worked with NALS as a consultant many times in the past. And because the conference was in San Diego I also got the opportunity to meet up with President Dee for dinner.

One of the things discussed at the meeting included how scanning is still very important to the growth of associations today. This is certainly a best practices principle that NALS subscribes to; we will be conducting environmental scans throughout the year. Be sure that you take the time to share your thoughts with us so that we are better prepared to meet your needs in the future.  ASAE had been doing extensive scanning of volunteers and as I review their research look for me to share some of those important facts with you. One of the number one facts discussed was a more involved member has a much greater association satisfaction rate. So it is important that we all at all levels of the association take the time to get involved, to participate. Chapter and state leaders take the time to engage your members in important conversations about what they want to receive out of their involvement with the association. Listen to them, give them the opportunity to offer an old program a new way or even to offer an innovative new program. 

We also had some great generational education at this conference. For those of you looking to brush up on the generational issues check out this blog: http://thegig.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/   Learn about the boomers as helicopter parents and why the Y generation are the way they are and how we can work to bring the very best of this generation into our association.  I found Nadira Hira to be highly informative, keep and open mind as you read what she has to offer you in the way of knowledge that can help you better manage this new generation.

Renee Mauborgne offered us insight on how we could utilize her book The Blue Ocean Strategy to tap into new unchartered resources for our association.  How we need to look beyond what we consider our current market and tap into the markets beyond drawing on totally new areas.  This is something for us to think on and consider to ponder and discover. 

There were even associations in attendance that have changed their structure to offer memberships for free because their greatest sources of income came from their meetings and by offering the memberships for free they had even higher attendance at their meetings.  And while I can't see immediately see how this could work for NALS it does challenge us to look beyond how we currently structure our memberships, services and events and ask the questions, have the conversations, can we do better, can we do more, can we open ourselves to new markets.  

Regardless of the outcomes it is important to have the conversations to have an open dialog. They lead us into new possibilities, and new ventures, new ideas that without the conversation and open dialog we might miss. So let's start the conversations, share our thoughts our ideas and our potential for the future of our own professional development, for our own advancement of knowledge, and for the future of our association.

I hope to see you in Norfolk . . .