Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending the March luncheon of the Georgia Society of Association Executives. It was actually my first GSAE event (other MemberClicks team members attend quite often), and I had a fantastic time.

The speaker, M. Kirk Pickerel, has been the president of American Builders and Contractors for almost 10 years. ABC has 79 chapters and 25,000 members — quite a huge organization! He talked about ABC’s participation in the study that eventually led to the book, “Seven Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t.” Unfortunately, ABC wasn’t identified as a “remarkable” organization; it was one of the “good” ones paired up with a remarkable one for comparison!

However, Pickerel’s speech was a fantastic example of an association leader who saw room for improvement — and did something about it!

The seven measures are as follows:

1. A customer-service culture
2. Alignment of products and services with mission
3. Data-driven strategies
4. Dialogue and engagement
5. CEO as broker of ideas
6. Organizational adaptability
7. Alliance building

Pickerel said ABC’s biggest problem was something I’m betting a lot of organizations have trouble with: Organizational adaptability. Because ABC is such a large organization, it was difficult to institute any kind of sustaining change.

However, I think even smaller organizations can have trouble with adaptability. When you have so many things to take care of and so many hats to wear, it’s easy to get caught up in your everyday tasks and not reflect on how adaptable your organization is. Do you find it difficult to step back and identify positive changes your organization could institute?

How has your organization adapted to new technologies, processes or structures? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

I was catching up on my Google Reader this morning (I still love Really Simple Syndication to keep track of the hundreds of blogs I subscribe to) and Frank Fortin’s post about the Association of the Future caught my eye.

If you’re unfamiliar with Association of the Future, it’s a kind of experiment run by ASAE and The Center and is meant to be a form of career development for young professionals. In the experiment, a group of selected young association professionals staff a mock association and attempt to project how associations down the road will be structured, how they will operate and how they will function.

There was a session introducing AOTF at the Great Ideas Conference last week, and Frank’s post was a reflection of that session.

I don’t want to rehash too much of Frank’s awesome post (you should definitely read it if you haven’t already), and I wasn’t at the conference, so I can’t make any observations on the session itself. But as a “young professional” (millennial, Gen-Y, what have you), Frank’s post made a big impression on me.

The ideas and recommendations to “change” governance and association’s structures weren’t really remarkable or innovative, Frank wrote.

How come?

AOTF’s mantra/mission/objective was “Members come first. No silos. Listen and then talk. Go techno.” (I think it’s an awesome mantra, by the way.) But Frank wrote that he and many session attendees didn’t feel the actions backed up the mantra.

I think it’s difficult for anyone to create truly innovative change in any organization they’ve been a part of for a long time. Rather than making sweeping “innovations,” it’s easier to just tweak lots of different processes and see what sticks. No matter what age you are, if you’re used to an organization functioning a certain way, it’s difficult to take a step back and see what could be. I honestly don’t think anyone is immune to the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” attitude.

Frank wrote that none of the suggestions and changes AOTF presented focused on the actual members. Why not? Isn’t that the point of an association — to facilitate relationships among people who share a common interest of career, and to provide them with resources and education to further those interests or careers?

I’m not sure why AOTF only looked at an association’s structure and governance, and I certainly wasn’t at the session, so I’ve love to get some feedback from people who were in attendance.

However, I think Frank hit on a key learning point and takeaway of this experiment: doing things the same way and expecting different results rarely works.

What do you think? How could AOTF produce innovative, startling changes with positive reactions?

I had a chance Tuesday to speak with Debra Helwig (you may know her on Twitter as @dhelwig) to find out more about her organization’s operations. Debra is the marketing and communications manager at IGAF Worldwide, an accounting association with more than 130 member firms across the world.

What makes IGAF Worldwide unique — and why I was so interested in speaking with Debra — is that the organization’s staff works virtually all the time. The staff of six work across North America, and three members serve jointly as members and regional coordinators in Asia, Latin America and Europe.

None of the staffers live in the same town, and only two are within 45 minutes of the remote office location. IGAF Worldwide has been fully virtual since October 2005.

All data is Web-driven and can be accessed through a Web interface. IGAF Worldwide uses a Virtual PBX, so when you call a phone number and input an extension, a cell phone or landline can ring wherever it needs to. Debra said the IGAF Worldwide staffers communicate primarily through e-mail and Instant Messenger, and they haven’t had a face-to-face staff meeting in more than a year.

Debra said the IGAF Worldwide staff doesn’t use Skype, but they have used Second Life to collaborate.

One of the main benefits to working virtually, Debra says, is that a number of their member firms are international. It’s not uncommon for Debra to be on conference calls at 9 or 10 p.m., or have to answer an e-mail to a European member at 5 a.m.

The light at the end of the silo

Debra worked for a large-staff association for 10 years prior to joining IGAF Worldwide, and she says the biggest difference is the lack of silos in a small-staff. At a larger association, everyone has their own specialty and role, and that’s not the case at IGAF Worldwide and other small-staff organizations.

“Having your hand in the entire process helps you see where efficiencies are,” Debra said. “There’s little to no communication gap at a smaller association.”

Every day is different for Debra, and it’s not uncommon for her to have to spend a few hours occasionally stuffing envelopes!

The self-proclaimed “relationship and service queen” lives by the philosophy of Seth Godin’s “Tribes” – everyone who works for an association leads a tribe.

“It’s vital to have an intense interest in what your members do and what they need. At a small-staff, you have that ability,” Debra said.

Although Debra has limited knowledge of the accounting industry (we’re actually both proud UGA journalism school alumni!), she’s greatly invested in her member firms and says she has a good sense of who the people are, what they need and how to connect them with each other.

“We’re here to help. That’s it,” Debra said. “If we as a staff communicate better, we can help more people.”

Working virtually hasn’t hindered IGAF Worldwide’s ability to serve its members. Debra says all the staffers have a fantastic relationship with their “visionary” president, and that trust is the most important aspect of working virtually. She visits member firms often and attends business development sessions, and because IGAF Worldwide is a small-staff, they’re able to build great relationships with their members.

“We don’t have to have all the answers. We just have to have the ability to hook our members up with people who do have the answers.”

Read Debra’s blog or connect with her on Twitter. If you work for a small-staff association and would like to be profiled, please e-mail me at socialmedia@memberclicks.com.

Photo source

Happy Monday! I hope everyone attending ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference made it to Colorado safely, and if you’re not able to be there in person, be sure to follow the Twitter hashtag #ideas10 for some great takeaways.

So, March is an exciting month for those of us here at MemberClicks. Generally, we send out a newsletter to our customers each month full of info about our training webinars, product updates, book reviews, useful PDFs (Beyond the Big Three, anyone?) and more.

This month, though, we’re launching a new, non-customer-focused e-newsletter, The Small-Staff Journal. We collect so much information about small-staff operations and want to give back to the community. You don’t have to be a MemberClicks customer to receive it, and we hope you’ll choose to connect with us in this way.

So, if you’re interested in receiving the first edition — which comes out tomorrow! — e-mail me at socialmedia@memberclicks.com. And trust me — if you like giveaways, you want in on this one to be one of the first people in the know. (It’s a biggie!)

I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start!

When you survey members to gauge their satisfaction with their memberships, do you ask them to rate programs and services in terms of “usefulness” and “criticalness?”

Rather than striving stay relevant in this fast-paced society, aim higher. Be indispensable.

There’s a reason there’s an association for everything. Each one is designed to meet the needs of a special audience. Those of us at MemberClicks are reminded of this every day, as we serve many small-staff organizations specifically tailored toward their members’ unique needs.

It’s vital for association staffers to remember that there is no such thing as a typical member, so stop trying to cater your organization’s programs to fit an “average perception.” Don’t be average. Be extraordinary.

Even though members’ expectations can vary depending on their situations, it’s still possible to incite passion and commitment among them.

Does your mission statement reflect what makes your members special?

Does your communication drive the entire association?

Do the staff’s actions  create value “both within the marketplace and within an organization?”

Do you have a grander vision for your association?

Offer programs and services intrinsic to your members’ wellbeing. And don’t be afraid to get rid of programs that are highly rated as “useless.”

Just because your association has a high renewal rate doesn’t mean nothing should change within the organization. Make every effort to form a genuine sense and commitment toward indispensability.

Everyone in your organization should know how to best present the mission and energize members, volunteers and board members.

Once your team has a clear vision of the association’s mission, they will be able to more effectively demonstrate how and why the organization is irreplaceable in its members’ lives, which should be the all-encompassing goal.

Image credit