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More from the innovation session...

What if we looked at member complaints as the seeds of new products and services?

If members are complaining, they're not happy with the way things are. Are you listening to the patterns in customer/member complaints? What are they telling you? Are there ideas for doing things differently that you can explore?

3M invented "Super-Sticky Post-It notes" because of so many customer complaints about "regular" Sticky Notes always falling off the old big-box computer monitors.

Imagine that.

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just a few of the 52 tips shared:

Use the Outlook today view mode of Outlook to preview your day (your appointements, tasks, number of unread e-mails).

Check to see if your cell phone has coverage in the town you're going to at www.deadcellphones.com.

Use www.payloadz.com to start selling digital download on your website.

Experiment with podcasting at www.odeo.com

Posted by Mickie Rops at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blogging in "Creating a Culture of Innovation," facilitated by Paul Meyer and Jeff De Cagna...

Jeff just outlined a six-step process for innovation:
Imagine a possibility - encourage everyone (staff and board) to imagine
Ideate the possibility - give people the opportunity to generate ideas (members and staff)
Inquire into the idea - learn more about it, just enough to make a decision
Initiate - create the idea
Implement - put the idea out there, even if it's not perfect (especially if it's not; waiting for perfection may result in a lost opportunity)
Impact - what is the result of the idea and its implementation?

Ideas generated are reviewed by an "innovation council" of middle-level folks (not at most senior level of organization) representing a cross-section of departments (about 10 folks). This group makes decisions about which ideas move forward. Engaging those closest to members sends a very powerful message about the value given to innovation. Besides, the senior folks will have a chance to look at them eventually.

Innovation doesn't have to be only for big projects, either...not everything has to be the new "Google" or the next "Post-It note."

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 03:05 PM | Permalink

Kevin Carroll, who calls himself a Katalyst for Change, is talking about fun, work and change. He has quite the interesting life story -- from abandoned child of alcoholics to well-educated, six-language-speaking athletic trainer for the '76ers and the Yugoslavian Olympic team, to create-your-own-title executive at Nike. He attributes his success to a "red rubber ball," and you really need to be here to get the whole story as to how the red rubber ball made a difference in his life.

Highly engaging guy with lots of props and gifts -- he has the audience wrapped up. My battery is starting to dwindle so I'll try to post some notes later.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

What enabled Lincoln to pull together all these rivals into a cohesive team?

• A profound self-confidence
• Empathy -- he understood why others thought the way they did even when he disagreed
• Always shared credit with others
• Repaired injured feelings as soon as possible
• Would take responsibility for his subordinates' failures
• When angry, would write a hot letter, and then put it aside
• Understood his own moods -- so when facing a setback, he would always go to where it happened to boost morale
• Knew how to relax -- went to theater over 100 times during the Civil War
• Made himself accessible to ordinary people -- anyone could get an appointment

Posted by Kevin Holland at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Asked why he put all of his rivals for the Republican presidential campaign -- those he surprisingly defeated -- into his cabinet, Lincoln said that they were the best men, and the nation was in peril and needed them. Goodwin says a more likely explanation could be summed up in a phrase favored by her former employer, Lyndon Johnson: "It's better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in."

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:55 AM | Permalink

Congratulations to the 2006 class of the Diversity Exectuive Leadership Program, just introduced as we continue the Tuesday general session:

Sheila Austria
Susan Boswell
Karen L. Beverly Ducker
Pamela Dorsey
Oleathia Gadsden, CMP
Esther Gonzales Smith
Agatha Davis Johnson, CAE
Roberto Quinones
VR Small
Ching Ping Wei, CAE

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 09:52 AM | Permalink

I've come across a few other blogs featuring regular posts from the ASAE annual meeting. A few other perspectives to check out:

• Sue Pelletier at Face2Face
• Rick Johnston at CAE Weblog
• Zach Wilson and Fred Simmons at Gulo Solutions Blog

If you know of any others, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

At this morning's final general session, they've just presented the "Associations Make a Better World" awards, representing the spirit of the association community worldwide:

Rotary International - PolioPlus Program
International Society of Nephrology & National Kidney Foundation – World Kidney Day
Association of Civil Society Support Centers - honest elections program, Kurkistan

Congratulations and kudos to these associations for their wonderful outreach programs that have truly made a difference!

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 09:35 AM | Permalink

I received Team of Rivals a couple months ago through my Zooba membership, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I suppose this morning I'll get the Cliff's Notes version from Doris Kearns Goodwin, and I'm looking forward to it. Certainly the concept of managing through a group of people with disparate agendas and potential rivalries has a lot of application to the association world.

Former White House chief of staff (and former association exec) Andy Card is talking right now. More later when DKG starts.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:32 AM | Permalink

Still in Gulko's session on brand differentiation .... more notes:

Be first, or at least be perceived to be first. IBM wasn't the first company to sell computers. Google wasn't the first company to offer contextual search advertising. But they might as well have been.

What "words" are owned by your brand? FedEx is overnight, Domino's is delivery ... when your members or potential members hear "XYZ Association," what word or concept comes to mind?

Leaders educate. Followers do not underwrite studies, leaders do.

Don't dilute your brand. Create sub-brands instead. Levi's makes jeans, and failed when they tried to launch Levi's brand khakis. So they created the Dockers brand. Same company, both pants, different kinds, different brands.

Understand your target's mindset. Lexus, which now sells more cars than Mercedes and BMW in America combined, sent its managers to the Four Seasons for the weekend so they would have a better understanding of the kind of service demanded by their customers.

We can't measure quality. We can only measure the perception of quality.

Two components of a brand: rational and emotional. Rational is important, but emotional is a lot more important.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 05:03 PM | Permalink

I am blogging right now at the follow-up Thought Leader session for Mavericks at Work. Some key points:

+The importance of storytelling--Organizations must continuously create energy to propel things forward. Stories help do that. People in the organization sustain themselves through stories, while new people use them to imagine the new chapter. ING DIRECT has The Orange Journey and it has helped create a mythology around the company that inspires its employees.

+Leaders handling failure--You must learn from your errors, but not ditch them, so you can learn from them again in the future. Innovation is a team sport, so you must look at both the individual and the system when assessing failure. Are you willing to tolerate a bit of chaos and disruption? You've got to let the organization make small mistakes, but it is the job of leaders not to let the organization make a big mistake.

+Pulling the plug on ideas that aren't working--Companies are using prediction markets to help make decisions about which projects will fly and which don't. Organizations should think about developing a system for allowing ideas to percolate up and then mechanisms for evaluating them. In your association's metaphorical clothes closet, you have room for only so many outfits. If you want to put a new one in, you must take one out. Which one will you remove?

+Sustaining your maverick approach--You celebrate successes and keep moving when you're a challenger. It's an attitude that you maintain and it helps if you can find an enemy, i.e., what's wrong in our industry or profession. That is your enemy. You must have an edge. If you don't have an edge, you cannot differentiate. If you cannot differentiate, people won't want to spend time with you.

+Maverick traits--Strength of character combined with intellectual humility and insatiable curiosity. It is somewhat the worst of both worlds, because everyone is looking for hypocrisy in your words and deeds when you're standing for something, but you don't get to tell people what to do and have a huge ego. The maverick is always learning about what's next.

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 05:01 PM | Permalink

It seems association execs all believe some fundamental “wisdom”…the things we all believe to be true. The “7 Measures” study dispelled some of our assumptions, and in this afternoon’s session Mark Golden, CAE is sharing those assumptions, from Chapter 6 of the book 7 Measures of Success. The study doesn’t prove or disprove these beliefs, nor did it find any support for them.

• Smaller boards are better boards
• Elections should reflect the democratic process
• CEO should come from association profession
• Reserves should equal 50% of annual revenues
• Staff driven vs. member driven
• Be proactive, not reactive

If these “sacred” assumptions can’t be proven, what does that mean for the decisions we’ve made based on them? In our work and personal life, maybe we should consider what other assumptions we should be rethinking.

The discussion is continuing, led by Mark Golden and Michael Gallery with a distinguished panel consisting of Phyllis Edans, Jim Dalton, Wells Jones, and Dawn Mancuso.

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 04:44 PM | Permalink

After some technical difficulties, the session is off to a good start. Here are a few key points for those of you who missed it:

The legal risks of credentialing programs are higher when the credential becomes more important - like when denial or revocation of a credential impacts individual or organizational livelihoods (e.g., certifications required for licensure/practice or jobs).
To be legally defensible, the standards, policies and procedures of the program must be reasonable, fair and impartial.
Program governance should be well-defined (in organizational bylaws) and ensure autonomy from association governance.
Policies and procedures should be documented, made publicly available, and periodically reviewed.
Standards and assessment processes should be objectively developed (not just the opinion of a committee).
Eligibility criteria should be appropriate for the purpose of the program and should be fair and reasonable (you should be able to justify the criteria).
Marketing should accurately support the integrity of the program (don't over promise)
A due-process procedure should be in place (i.e., appeals).
Disciplinary policies should be clear and justly administered.
Program record keeping must ensure confidentiality and security of all materials (locked files, password protected databases, as examples).
Staff must understand and be attentive to legal issues (although this does not replace the need to have legal counsel with credentialing expertise).
Contracts must protect the interests of the program (such as security, confidentiality, document ownership).
You need to make sure your insurance policies cover your credentialing activities (don’t assume that they do).

If you’re considering developing a credentialing program, be sure to locate the Accreditation and Certification Law Handbook, an essential resource, through the ASAE & The Center.

Posted by Mickie Rops at 04:35 PM | Permalink

Larry Gulko, who is leading a session on brand differentiation, is a Boston native, and you can tell since his accent is thick as chowder. He warned us that we should expect to see a lot of depressed people around town tonight since the Sox lost their fifth in a row to the Yankees. (Of course, as he pointed out, the Red Sox sure have their brand loyalty down pat -- they lose, then go on to still raise their ticket prices in December, and sell out the whole season.)

Some thoughts from Gulko and my responses:

Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of product categories. Don't think about what "product" you sell; think about which "product category" you want to own. Be a specialist, not a generalist.

I agree with Gulko's point here; the problem, of course, is that many, if not most, associations are "generalist" by design. We have dozens of committees, hundreds of disjointed products, we lurch in and out of issues based on the whims of who happens to be occupying the board chair. How can we get associations to willingly "contract" themselves into something that may be "smaller" but more valuable, more focused? Time to stop buying into the old-fashioned association hype of "we serve our industry" and start answering the question, "how do we serve our industry?"

Department stores struggle while specialty stores thrive. There used to be Macy's, and they sold everything -- including books, bedding, shoes, and electronics. Today we have Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Foot Locker, and Best Buy.

Gulko had a funny point to make about Best Buy, which I agree with -- their service sucks. It's one of the worst places to do business. But we go there because they have the best selection at the best price, and so we put up with it. I wouldn't want to be the guy who has the lowest price and the worst service, but I suppose it's a viable business model for commodities.

A brand is promise, trust, and perceived value.

The three parts of a brand promise. According to Gulko, every brand has three sentences that start as follows:

• We create ...
• Providing ...
• For ...

Fill in the blanks.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 04:14 PM | Permalink

Still in Erik Wahl's session....

We've been trained to give left-brain, analytical thinking preferential treatment. From school to corporate structure, we react to everything based on the context that's been defined for us. An example: Wahl showed us the following symbol:

VII

and then asked how to add one line and make it an 8. Everyone knows this, right --

VIII

Then he showed us this symbol

IX

and asked us how to add one line to make it a 6. Everyone looked a little puzzled, until he showed us the answer:

SIX

The way we define the context of a challenge determines how we resolve it.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can already tell that this is the sort of session that will make me wish I brought a camera with me. Wahl opened with a woman playing the keyboard and singing "God Bless the USA" while he quickly painted a striking image of the Statue of Liberty. After his applause he said he brought another canvas with him, and asked, "Who here can draw?"

Unsurprisingly, following his display of talent, the only response from the audience was laughter. "Don't feel bad," he said. "I've asked that question of financial executives, sales executives, healthcare executives -- I'm lucky to get even one person to respond.

"But if I go to a high school and ask that question, I get 10, maybe 15 percent hands raised.

But if I go into a preschool -- any preschool -- and ask who can draw, how many do you think say they can draw?"

Of course, the answer is -- all of them.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 03:11 PM | Permalink

Are any of these thought leader sessions not packed? I'm waiting for Erik Wahl's session to begin and it's in the same room as Bourdain's yesterday, and once again it's an SRO crowd. In this morning's Daily Now they wrote that there are at least 24% more association executives this year than last, and it certainly feels more crowded.

I've seen a few of those people who are working here riding Segways around the expo floor -- whether they are for ASAE or the convention center or someone else, I don't know -- and my tired feet are making me jealous. Perhaps they should rent Segways out to attendees to help us get from Room 253B to Room 109 in the fifteen minutes they give us between sessions? That would be cool ... if a little dangerous.

It's starting now, more later....

Posted by Kevin Holland at 03:00 PM | Permalink

Bill is talking with Larry Huston from Procter & Gamble about the company's "connect and develop" strategy for innovation. P&G is a consumer products behemoth, with a very well developed R&D function. But P&G has also recognized that most world-class innovators don't work for the company, so they have created networks with innovators around the world.

The case study of Pringles Prints is an example of how "connect and develop" works. P&G shares an innovation brief with its networks looking for a technology that can print directly on to Pringles chips. The brief works its way through the networks to a professor in Italy who has created technologies that makes this food-based printing process possible. This is a new form of innovation that is open and collaborative, a significant departure from the traditional R&D approach.

Your association can succeed with this same kind of approach by building innovation networks with individuals, associations, companies and other contributors, reaching out around your community, the country and the world for new ideas. No association needs to go about the work of innovation alone.

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Panelist Lyn Heward just shared a Cirque du Soleil philosophy that might be kind of radical in the association world that focuses so strongly on members: what do staff members want to feel about the place they work? How do their perceptions and their emotion and their passion connect with what they do every day?

Seems to me that giving some attention to our people – not just their skills and what they bring to the work, but finding out what they’re passionate about and connecting that to the jobs they do – might light some sparks that could lead to innovative and creative approaches to member service. Even if that passion is not directly related to the jobs they were hired for…maybe look at another way to align responsibilities so that people can bring their passions to work and actually use them.

Posted by Kathi Edwards at 09:46 AM | Permalink

In this morning's Daily Now, I suggested that today's general session would send the message that associations must challenge conventional wisdom and industry orthodoxy. So far, it has not disappointed at all. Right now, Bill Taylor is interviewing Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO of ING DIRECT. ING DIRECT has been called "the Southwest Airlines of banking."

ING DIRECT is an excellent example of a disruptive business model. Virtually all of the company's activity occurs online in order to reduce fees to customers. Although the company has "branches," they are more like cafes. ING DIRECT has challenged the underlying assumptions of the banking world, including those of customers who expect to have their hands held. (ING DIRECT actually fires customers who are too needy when it comes to help.)

I happen to be an ING DIRECT customer for savings, and I love what the company offers. I am definitely an evangelist for ING DIRECT, something that Arkadi believes is very important to its success. So the question for your association is two parts: 1) does your business model disrupt industry orthodoxy, even to the level of the member or customer and 2) do your members/customers have such profound passion for the way you do your work that they will share their zeal with others?

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bill Taylor, author of Mavericks at Work, is speaking right now, and he has raised three fundamental questions for all association leaders to consider in the areas of strategy, innovation and the human side of the organization:

+What ideas do you stand for?--It isn't enough to have great products and services. Maverick organizations are fighting for important ideas that will change their industries.

+How will you surface great ideas no matter where they are?--Most of the world's brilliant people will never work for your organization. But they doesn't mean they can't work with you.

+Why would great people want to work for you?--Paying more money is not a strategy for attracting great people. Maverick organizations treat the people side of the organization with the same discipline as other functions.

As an association leader, how will you and your organization answer these questions?

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:11 AM | Permalink

Richard Green from Marriott has just received the Academy of Leaders Award, ASAE & The Center's highest recognition for industry partners. Richard has been a friend for many years and he is definitely a deserving recipient of this great honor.

Congratulations Richard!

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:08 AM | Permalink

Live blogging Larry Friedman's session, "Connecting With Your Customers" (handout).

* There are no orange kangaroos in Denmark (if you were here, you get it).
* If you're not uncomfortable from time to time, you're not taking enough risks.
* The currency of the 21st century is time.
* Speedy service is good customer service.
* Understand and create the "perfect world" for your members.
* Motivate employees to give great member service by catching them doing something right.
* Humor is the ability to take yourself lightly and find something funny in your predicaments.
* Laugh lines impact the bottom line.
* Choose your attitude by asking yourself these four questions:
1. What do I have to be grateful for today?
2. What can I do to make a difference in someone’s life today?
3. How can I challenge myself today?
4. What great thing is going to happen to me today?
* ‘AUR’ Way to approach these tough situations:

Acknowledge the situation. Listen empathetically. Four phrases to ackowledge a problem: Isn't that awful? Isn't that horrible? Can you believe it? That's my favorite problem!
Understand: Get the facts; learn the details. Accept responsibility.
Resolve: Do what you can; take some action to meet or exceed their expectations. Give alternative solutions.

Manage your moments of truth: (first impressions, when you do something wrong). Any time a customer comes in contact with any part of you business it's a moment of truth. The most critical moment of truth is when you make a mistake. How are you going to handle it?
Stay Informed: Make yourself indispensable with information and resources.
Make Every Customer Feel Special: Create their “Perfect World.”
Innovate Constantly: What can I do to create my members' ‘UCE’? (Ultimate Customer Experience)

Posted by Ben Martin at 04:59 PM | Permalink

Fellow blogger, Kevin Holland, is in this overly small room - somewhere. I'm blogging from the floor of a room that filled up 10 minutes before Bourdain started. Fabulous session! Fabulous and entertaining speaker. Clear cut, dynamic, fun, and with clear expectations of his kitchen staff, Bourdain's decisive nature provides his staff with the old fashioned "tough love" approach to management. How refreshing!

As a leader of an organization--

1. Be clear. Set clear expectations of your staff. Do not waiver on those expectations.
2. Be fair. Apply the expectations to EVERY member of your staff even handedly.
3. Have down time with staff. Building relationships outside of the office
4. Set unwaiverable standards. Set very high standards and never waiver from them.
5. Be prepared to break all rules that you set. Always give yourself the ability to change the rules, break the rules, etc.

On a somber note - Bourdain answered questions about his recent taping of his show in Beiruit. The short version is that he and the crew started taping a show. 7-8 days into taping they watched the bombing of the city and were evacuated on a Marine transport. The show will air tomorrow night and will show the crew's experiences.

What an amazing speaker! Kudos for using a non-traditional speaker for this conference!

Posted by Amy Smith at 02:25 PM | Permalink

They seem to have underestimated Anthony Bourdain's appeal considering the throngs of people lining the walls around the packed-out room. Bourdain himself seems somewhat surprised at his new role of management guru; he opened by saying that after he wrote an "obnoxious, testosterone-filled" memoir he was amazed to see it used as the basis for an article in the Harvard Business Review. And now here he is, speaking on management to an SRO crowd of association executives.

He starts off talking about employees. In the high-pressure, dysfunctional world of restaurants, Bourdain says that when he hires an employee, he looks for character. "I can teach them the skills," he says. "I can teach them to make hollandaise sauce later. But are they worth the investment?" (Of course he also admits that "young, fresh, naive and totally moldable" makes for a good candidate.)

"I don't care if you were up late last night worshipping Satan," Bourdain says, "as long as you're on time for work. You show up on time every day, almost everything else is negotiable."

Posted by Kevin Holland at 02:06 PM | Permalink

More from Jim:

+There are no shortcuts to greatness...it is built day by day, year by year, decade by decade.

+Associations face a profound challenge in "getting the right people in the right seats on the bus." How do you make sure that your key seats (staff, volunteers and board) are filled with the right people?

+The leadership difference in great companies is not the presence of leadership itself, but the kind of leadership demonstrated. (Level 5 Leaders)

+In associations, there may be a "legislative" type of leadership, i.e., not executive leadership, but bridging different views to come up with the right decision, although not necessarily the consensus decision.

+The question of staff-driven or member-driven associations is the wrong question. Associations should be data-driven, intelligence-driven and acting on that data.

+Ask your staff or board, "What do we mean by great results?"

+Your most powerful motivational tool might be an Excel spreadsheet. (Personally, I find that pretty hard to believe. ;>)

+The move from great to good occurs when you refuse to accept the brutal facts and refuse to engage in dialogue and debate about them.

+The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change, but chronic inconsistency, i.e., preserve the core while stimulating progress.

+It is not just being a change agent that makes you great. You must also be a continuity agent.

+How many of you have a to do list? How many of you have a stop doing list?

+The importance of "disciplined people engaging in disciplined thought and taking disciplined action."

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 10:16 AM | Permalink

What are the early indicators of decline? The moment you begin to doubt the facts of your data and debate its ramifications, you're already in "level 2" of decline. Level 5 is capitulation to irrelevance -- or death.

Collins studied 40 companies that have fallen from great to good, or never became great. He asks, what is the signature of mediocrity? He describes the extraordinary success of Southwest, which actually, literally, copied the business model of another airline. They have been one of the most successful publicly-traded companies and yet they did not innovate anything. Today, Southwest is still around and profitable, while the airline they copied is long gone. Why? The other airline got spooked by all the changes in its operating environment and didn't stick to its plan. Southwest never changed.

Mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 10:05 AM | Permalink

Collins says, be neither -- be "data driven." Gathering the right information and then acting on it is not "staff-driven" -- it's "intelligence-driven."

Posted by Kevin Holland at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Jim Collins says he started the "Good to Great" research by insisting that there not be a "leadership" answer. Turns out, the research proved him wrong. Leadership does matter, if you hit what he calls a "level 5 executive," combining overarching ambition for the purpose of the organization with a ferocious will to get things done no matter what.

He admits with associations, it gets a little complicated. A business CEO can simply make a decision. In a complex membership organization, there are many "circles of power." It requires building a way to make the right decisions happen in the right way. Associations have a "legislative leadership" as opposed to "executive leadership."

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:53 AM | Permalink

The giant teleprompter on the back wall of the opening session.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:44 AM | Permalink

More from Jim Collins...

+The 7 Measures of Success is about comparing gold medal winners to silver medal winners. It isn't about being competent, it is about being great.

+The pathway to greatness in the social sector is not be more like a business, because most businesses aren't great.

+Greatness is a cumulative process.

+The minute you say you're great, you're not.

+When you're building something great, there is no single moment of "achieving greatness."

More to come...

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:34 AM | Permalink

Did the first 30 minutes or so of this year's opening session live up to last year's standard? I'd say certainly yes .... in fact, I thought this year was better. There was a group of singer/dancers, a rapper doing his best to make association work sound hip (props for trying, anyway), and a DJ laying down some beats. But the most interesting part for me has been the connection videos -- videos that start off with one attendee and then take their association and go through a series of connections to get to another one. It was a nifty idea I may steal.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 09:28 AM | Permalink

Jim is on the stage right now. Here are some key points from his talk so far:

+Jim says that through the project, he has learned that associations are the glue that holds society together.

+Everyone has an opinion. Where's you're data? How do you know that you're opinion merits attention?

+Best practices disseminate too quickly to everyone to separate great from good. How do some become exceptional?

More to come...

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 09:25 AM | Permalink

Let me tell you, wireless Web access ROCKS! The wifi at the BCEC is awesome and it is FREE! It is wicked pissa.

Outgoing ASAE chair Paulette Maehara of the Assocation of Fundraising Professionals says she generally gets three reactions when telling people that she runs a professional association:

+A blank stare
+The very sincere question, "So you're a lobbyist?"
+The even more sincere question, "Do you get paid to do that?"

Paulette is right on. Whenever I call my mother to tell her about something I'm doing in the association community, she always asks me to hold the phone. When she comes back, I ask her, "Did you just get a piece of paper and a pen to write this down so you could explain it to other people?" Her reply is always yes. Why is association work such a mystery to people?

More when Jim Collins takes the stage.

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 08:47 AM | Permalink