By Gina Ryan, CAE
Join us in congratulating the newest NYSAE award recipients on April 15th at the Synergy Awards Reception and Luncheon at the elegant University Club of New York at 54th and Fifth. Those receiving awards this year include:
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Outstanding Nonprofit Association Executive Award
Carter Keithley
President & CEO
Toy Industry Association
The Outstanding Nonprofit Association Executive Award recognizes an executive who has contributed significantly to the advancement of the association management profession as a key leader in a philanthropic, professional or trade organization and has demonstrated outstanding achievement in advancing the mission of that organization.
April 30th marks the retirement of Carter Keithley from a decade of leadership with the Toy Industry Association (TIA), which has been the highlight of his 40-year career as an association executive. TIA is the not-for-profit trade group representing all businesses involved in creating, producing and delivering toys and youth entertainment products for kids of all ages. TIA's more than 750 members account for an estimated 90% of the annual U.S. domestic toy market of $22.09 billion.
Keithley assumed his role in May 2006 during a period of upheaval for TIA and the industry. The Toy Center buildings, located in midtown Manhattan, were closing after serving for many years as the site of New York Toy Fair. Barely a year into Keithley's term, the toy industry was faced with yet another crisis when hundreds of playthings were recalled by the U.S. government.
During his time at the TIA, the annual budget of the organization grew from less than $14 million to nearly $18 million, and the association's membership base skyrocketed from 470 members to more than 750 companies, including manufacturers, retailers, sales reps, licensors, toy inventors, and more. An office in Washington, DC, was also established to accommodate a robust external affairs team comprised of nine industry advocates and technical / safety specialists.
Having been a practicing attorney before becoming an association executive, the emphasis of Keithley's association management career has been on strategic regulatory and legislative issues. His consistent objective on behalf of every industry he has served has been to develop and implement policies and strategies that will serve the public interest as well as those of the industry. He was awarded the Chairman's Award by the American National Standards Institute.
Keithley, who has been a member of the NYSAE Public Affairs Committee for the past five years, chaired the Public Affairs Conference in 2010, was a Board Member from 2011-2013 and served as Board Chair from 2012- 2013.
Outstanding Associate Member Award
Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Esq.
Partner
Venable, LLP
The Outstanding Associate Member Award recognizes the contributions made to an associate member's organization that have significantly improved, promoted and benefited his/her company within the NYSAE community.
Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Esq., is a Partner with the law firm of Venable LLP and chairs its Nonprofit Organizations Practice Group, where he has served since 1999. He is one of the nation's leading nonprofit attorneys, and also is an accomplished author, lecturer, and commentator on nonprofit legal matters. Based in the firm's Washington, DC, office, Tenenbaum counsels his clients on the broad array of legal issues affecting charities, foundations, trade and professional associations, think tanks, advocacy groups, and other nonprofit organizations, and regularly represents clients before Congress, federal and state regulatory agencies, and in connection with governmental investigations, enforcement actions, litigation, and in dealing with the media. He also has served as an expert witness in several court cases on nonprofit legal issues.
Tenenbaum was the 2006 recipient of the American Bar Association's Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer of the Year Award. He was the 2004 recipient of The Center for Association Leadership's Chairman's Award, and the 1997 recipient of the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives' Chairman's Award. Tenenbaum was listed in the 2012-15 editions of The Best Lawyers in America for Non-Profit/Charities Law, and was selected for inclusion in the 2014 edition of Washington DC Super Lawyers in the Nonprofit Organizations category. Tenenbaum started his career in the nonprofit community by serving as Legal Section Manager at the American Society of Association Executives, following several years working on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant.
Tenenbaum has been an active member of NYSAE since 2008, participating in numerous NYSAE seminars concerning New York's Nonprofit Revitalization Act, which significantly helped NYSAE members at all levels. He has been generous sharing his time and talent with NYSAE as a speaker and author of many articles on legal and governmental issues in NYSAE's InView.
Through Venable he continues to conduct complimentary seminars on timely topics concerning the association/non-profit community. He is an active participant in the nonprofit community, currently serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of the American Society of Association Executives' Association Law & Policy legal journal, the Advisory Panel of Wiley/Jossey-Bass' Nonprofit Business Advisor newsletter, and the ASAE Public Policy Committee. He previously served as Chairman of the AL&P Editorial Advisory Board and has served on the ASAE Legal Section Council, the ASAE Association Management Company Accreditation Commission, the GWSAE Foundation Board of Trustees, the GWSAE Government and Public Affairs Advisory Council, the Federal City Club Foundation Board of Directors, and the Editorial Advisory Board of Aspen's Nonprofit Tax & Financial Strategies newsletter.
Distinguished Service Award
Valerie J. Cammiso, CAE
Executive Director
International Council of Shopping Centers Foundation
The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a member who has made extraordinary contributions to NYSAE by his/her skillful performance in aiding and assisting in areas such as special projects, new programs or with ad-hoc functions.
Valerie Cammiso, CAE, has headed the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Foundation since 2007. The $8 million charity carries out educational and community initiatives that support the interests of retail real estate. In this position she provides leadership to the board, staff, grantees, and partners who identify programmatic needs. She manages the daily operations, finances, communications, marketing, and fundraising efforts. In her role as the foundation's Executive Director, Cammiso serves as a senior staff team member of ICSC, a $75M trade association with 68,000 members and is responsible for both association and foundation board orientations.
Cammiso, who earned the CAE designation in 2012, has served on the NYSAE Education Committee (2008-2011) and the Awards Committee (2011-2013). She was Committee Coordinator and Moderator for the Volunteer Institute in 2009, was NYSAE Website Administrator from 2009-2011, organized a CAE study group in 2012, served as a CAE Proctor in 2014, and has hosted the NYSAE Executive Women in Nonprofits Special Interest Group since 2013, providing meeting space, AV equipment, and breakfast for the participants. She continually helps colleagues to find speakers and make connections. Adept at social media, she regularly sends out tweets related to NYSAE programs and events.
Outstanding Program Development Award
Bryan C. Harrison, PMP, QAS, CSC
Senior Manager of Networks
Specialty Equipment Market Association
NYSAE's newly established Outstanding Program Development Award recognizes an executive or manager who has contributed significantly to the development of innovative, visionary programming within in a philanthropic, professional or trade organization and has demonstrated excellence in advancing the mission of that organization through one or more recognized CAE domains, including: organizational management; leadership; administration; knowledge management and research; governance and structure; public policy, government relations, and coalition building; membership development; programs, products and services; and marketing, public relations, and communications.
The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), a global automotive aftermarket trade association, tasked Bryan Harrison to lead a cross-functional team to achieve three goals: increase recognition of women's contributions to the automotive aftermarket; promote awareness of industry career opportunities for aspiring young women; and highlighting the wide variety of car parts/services that SEMA member companies produce. In following Harrison's vision for executing audacious programs, he championed an idea that never occurred before—to launch the first all-female car build, The SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women. To accomplish his goals on a shoestring budget, he built a coalition of SEMA member companies that were female owned/managed and motivated them to volunteer their time and resources to participate.
As SEMA's Senior Manager of Networks, Harrison leads the operations of all its automotive professional societies or mini associations (2,600+ members) including the Young Executives Network, SEMA Businesswomen's Network, Emerging Trends & Technology Network, and Manufacturer's Representatives Network. Harrison's focus is on project management, strategic leadership, association management, event operations, NextGen, female advocacy and volunteerism.
In his prior role as President of Evo Street Racers Motorsports Association, he was featured on the national media circuit, including: ABC News Good Morning America, ESPN's E:60, ra: NPR's Talk of the Nation, CNN, Fox and NBC Affiliates. Additionally, he has consulted on the development of reality TV, novels, and feature articles on the topic of reducing illegal street racing.
Harrison utilizes LinkedIn for advancement of the following topics/industries: automotive, nonprofits, motorsports, women advocacy, young professionals (GenY, NextGen, and Millennials), animal welfare, and the environment. He is also a frequent contributor to NYSAEnet.org's Association Open Forum, focusing on generational issues and member service.
Volunteer of the Year Award
Brian Kell
Senior Director of Communications and Marketing
American Thoracic Society
The Volunteer of the Year Award, broadening the Outstanding Committee Chair Award, recognizes outstanding committee service and team leadership.
For the past 10 years, Brian Kell has managed direct communications and marketing for the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the world's leading respiratory medicine association. Kell was awarded Presidential Commendations in 2009 and 2011 for embracing new initiatives and creatively communicating the society's mission.
Kell has 30 years of experience in communications, public relations, marketing, publications, government and community relations, and special events, largely at institutions of higher learning and healthcare organizations. He has a special interest in environmental and sustainability issues.
At ATS, he increased media coverage of the society's journals and conferences by 400 percent; and produced the first integrated marketing campaign for society's annual international conference, targeting key non-member audiences and resulting in record number of paid attendees. He initiated programs with 28 scientific journals that resulted in $300,000 in free advertising for the society's conference in exchange for the periodicals being distributed at the event. He also launched a telemarketing program to encourage former members to rejoin the society, which yielded a 25 percent positive response and produced 480 additional members.
Kell is recognized for outstanding service to the NYSAE PR and Marketing Committee and for leadership as Co-Chair of the Communications and Marketing Special Interest Group. The SIG, which meets throughout the year, has recently covered such topics as: Behind the Scenes of Effective Copywriting; Social Media; Grabbing Headlines for Your Association; and The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Effect: What's My Video Strategy?
New Star Award
Jessenia Francisco
Former Executive Director
New York Chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America
The New Star Award recognizes the contribution of a new NYSAE member (regular or associate) with less than three years of service made to NYSAE in the areas of committee work, special projects, or new programs.
ALPFA is an organization that empowers and develops Latino men and women in their careers as leaders in every sector of the American economy. During Francisco's two-year tenure at ALPFA, the New York Chapter grew from 1,200 members to more than 3,000, became the first chapter to surpass 100 lifetime members, and doubled its corporate partners from 15 to 30. In 2013, Francisco was given the New York Trailblazer Latina Award by Ford Motors for her efforts. Prior to her joining ALPFA, she held several volunteer leadership roles within their NY Chapter Board of Directors.
She recently joined the Board of Directors of Violence Intervention Program (VIP), an East Harlem organization that addresses the growing prevalence of domestic violence within the Latino community. VIP provides a continuum of services to thousands of survivors of domestic violence each year including emergency and transitional housing programs with supportive services for survivors and their children, crisis intervention, support groups, leadership training, financial literacy, advocacy, and awareness building all aimed at the Latino community.
Francisco has worked in the association management sector for two years. Immediately on joining NYSAE this past year, she volunteered as a member of the PR and Marketing Committee and facilitated a session on storytelling for NYSAE's Executive Women in Nonprofits SIG last September. (Click here to read the article on her presentation.) Francisco is an active member of the Executive Women in Nonprofits SIG.
ORGANIZATIONAL AWARDS
Website Excellence Award
The Website Excellence Award recognizes the website of a philanthropic, professional and trade association of a regular member that demonstrates visionary innovation in use of digital technology and social media to advance its mission.
One of the most daunting tasks of the Awards Committee is a review of hundreds of websites. As the virtual door to our associations and nonprofits, websites are evaluated for their ease of navigation, design and aesthetics, consistency, timeliness, search engines, interactability, originality, vision, and usefulness. We've observed websites with no search engines, homepage calendars with events from 2013, a different font on every page, no explanation of the organization's mission, critical information buried deep within, and no graphics.
This year's winners, however, provide an exciting look at website best-practices. Their dynamic sites are clear reflections of their organizations' missions and values. They are information-packed, yet organized in ways that make them easy to navigate. They provide links to their other online communities, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. They are truly virtual gateways into their organizations.
Social Responsibility Award
The Doe Fund
The Social Responsibility Award recognizes members' associations and associate members' organizations for their contributions to America.
In 1985, redirecting his business savvy and private sector experience as a garment industry executive, George T. McDonald founded The Doe Fund (www.doe.org), devoting himself to solving a growing national problem—homelessness. The nonprofit organization was named after a homeless woman, known only as “Mama Doe,” who died on Christmas Eve at Grand Central Terminal, where Mr. McDonald had volunteered to feed the homeless for 700 consecutive nights. Harriet Karr-McDonald joined The Doe Fund in 1989, leaving behind a successful career as a screenwriter.
Together the two shaped Ready, Willing & Able, the Fund's flagship workforce development program, which provides paid transitional work, housing, educational opportunities, counseling, and career training to people with histories of homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse. These programs collectively serve more than 1,000 individuals every day.
The Ready, Willing & Able program has been formally recognized three times by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, receiving the Community Service Excellence Award, the Outstanding Partnership Award, and the first-ever Best Practices Award. Independent research by Harvard University's criminal justice expert Dr. Bruce Western reveals that three years after release from incarceration, The Doe Fund's Ready, Willing & Able program reduces recidivism by up to 60 percent. The program has been replicated in Philadelphia, and adapted to meet the needs of local populations in Washington, DC, Chicago, Boulder, and Atlanta.
Outstanding Technology Leadership Award
The Robin Hood Foundation
The Outstanding Information Technology Leadership Award recognizes the contributions of prominent individuals or organizations from the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State region who have demonstrated excellence in the field of information technology. Recipients of the award have been responsible for spearheading, building, educating, promoting, or otherwise contributing to the benefits that information technology has to offer to humankind.
The NYSAE Technology Committee selected the Robin Hood Foundation (www.robinhood.org) for its Poverty Tracker Program monitoring poverty and well-being in New York City.
Members of the 2014-2015 NYSAE Awards Committee include: Nicole Millman-Falk, CAE, Chair; Gina Ryan, CAE, Vice Chair; Gerard Thiers, CAE, Board Liaison; Gayle Brandel; Mary Jane Eimer, CAE; Alan Goodin; and Judy Sanford Guise, CAE.
Gina Ryan is President of CEO Pathways/Creative Executive Options, a firm offering interim executive director services and transition management to newly formed or recently challenged associations. Ryan is a former NYSAE Board Member and is the current Vice Chair of the Awards Committee. She can be reached at ceopathways@mac.com or 917-971-7524.