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Let's discuss: What have been the biggest, most positive innovations or ideas that have impacted your association since the year 2000?

I will start with my opinions about the big ideas from the last decade that are positioning my association strongly for the next:

1) Strategic planning process: Our association actually went through two strategic plans in the last decade. The first was very tactics-heavy and resulted in the establishment of an overwhelming number of goals for staff and volunteers to manage. After 3 years, we scrapped the plan and devised a new strategic direction that lays out big picture goals, but leaves the planning and creativity to the Exec. Director and his staff. It is working much better. This has taken us so far in terms of the process we've been through. As a young trade association with humble grassroots, the strat planning process has given the association the gift of vision, and facilitated a stronger, more focused board environment.

2) A functional website: Websites were around in 2000, but remember how archaic they were compared to now? (Check out your association's website 10 years ago by typing in the url here: http://web.archive.org.) For years we struggled in finding a good web solution, and although our current website is not the most advanced or the prettiest, it is functional and we control the content and don’t rely on a third party. I feel it has been essential to growing our membership the last few years.

3) Investing in education that matters: Oftentimes, our association got sucked into situations where we were planning educational programming based on convenience or the opinions of a small group. We are now investing in building educational planning models that are a better reflection of the needs and pains of our members. We are starting to ask consistently the question "What are our member’s biggest challenges this year, and how can we address them?" We are also moving toward a zero-loss policy on educational events (in other words, each event must break even financially). As we add value and relevance to educational programming, we minimize our risk for dependence on sponsorship alone to make programs profitable, and maximize our ability to impact the day-to-day lives of our members.

What big ideas have made a difference for your association over the last 10 years? What have you learned from them?