Book Beat

TThe Art of Membership: How to Attract, Retain, and Cement Member Loyalty

If your organization is struggling to recruit or retain members, you are not alone. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles we face—from increased scrutiny about how we spend money to readily available alternatives to the benefits offered by associations. Some organizations have found success, and their stories, as well as research data to support the basic principles they follow, have been compiled in The Art of Membership: How to Attract, Retain, and Cement Member Loyalty (©2014, Josse-Bass), by Sheri Jacobs, CAE. The book provides CEOs, membership and marketing directors and managers, and board and volunteer leaders with information, strategies, and principles to give members what they need when they need it. The book includes case studies, research, and a "how to" checklist for associations to use, so they can create an action plan based on the unique aspects of their organization.



The Conscious Leader: 9 principles and practices to create a wide-awake and productive workplace

Being a leader requires navigating the underground psychological terrain of your staff, including egos that run amok, putting personal success ahead of the association’s mission, and palpable, underlying anger that surfaces in response to the organization’s polices, ill treatment by a board member or another executive, or even the CEO’s own grandstanding. The Conscious Leader: 9 principles and practices to create a wide-awake and productive workplace (©2014, LID Publishing), by Shelley Reciniello, describes the fundamental but often neglected truths about human beings and their workplace behavior in jargon-free, accessible concepts and examples. Topics covered include: when leaders don’t know their achilles heels: what you don’t know can hurt you; when organizations repeat family dynamics: who’s your daddy?; when conflict, anger and power destroy performance, profit and peace: learn how to wear the cap; when people regress in groups: teams or gangs?; and when change is a constant: chaos or containment?



The Board-Savvy CEO

The Board-Savvy CEO (©2014, Governance Edge Publications), by Doug Eadie, is a handbook for association and nonprofit CEOs, tells you how to strengthen your board's governing capacity, transform board members into satisfied owners of their governing work, and maintain a healthy board-CEO working relationship. The book explores three key roles of board-savvy CEOs:

  1. Taking the lead in developing the board's capacity to do the kind of high-impact governing work that makes a real difference in an organization's affairs;
  2. Helping the board to map out processes for actively engaging board members and transforming them into strong owners of their governing decisions and judgments; and
  3. Working closely with the board to ensure that the board-CEO working relationship is healthy enough to withstand the inevitable pressures that every organization experiences in this rapidly changing world.


Achieving Global Growth: Establishing & Maintaining Global Markets.

The ASAE Foundation released a new report, Achieving Global Growth: Establishing & Maintaining Global Markets. The report kicks off a new series of research called the Association Global Management Series, which will examine strategies associations can employ to develop and sustain global growth outside the U.S. market. The report outlines the factors and strategies of those associations that that are experiencing growth in international membership and revenue (referred to as "growers"), compared to those that have experienced stagnation or decline. Among the key findings from the report:

  1. 62 percent of growers reported that international business was important or very important to the financial health of the organization;
  2. Almost twice as many growers have at least one board member from outside of North America;
  3. Growers are more than twice as likely to develop partnerships with international governments;
  4. Two-thirds of growers have at least one FTE at the association’s headquarters dedicated to international activities.