October 2012

Groucho Marx famously said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” (He also reportedly said: “Quote me as saying I was misquoted.”) Associations frequently take this sentiment to heart by establishing membership restrictions and other limits on access to association services or events. These restrictions come in many shapes and sizes—limiting membership to a specific trade, profession, or market function; imposing geographic limitations; or requiring professional certification, state or federal licensure, or adherence to a code of ethics, to name just a few.
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The governing board/management relationship has evolved fairly dramatically over the past few years, according to Jerald Jacobs, Esq., partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman, LLP. “There is no perfect relationship between management and nonprofit leadership,” said Jacobs. “It is something to strive for, but we will probably never achieve.” Jacobs, the featured speaker at NYSAE’s September luncheon, gave a legal eye towards the changing relationship between staff and volunteer boards.
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Tweets. Hashtags. Likes. Pins. Follows. Friends. Blogs. Checking in. Going viral. It’s enough to make any marketer’s head spin when they think about the 24/7 world of online marketing. Social media is still relatively new, and even after learning the new technology, it can be very time consuming.

Like for-profit companies, many associations have already dabbled in social media. They have learned that there are many benefits to utilizing social media, including the ability to talk directly with members in real time, share content and announcements quickly, easily and cost effectively, and build strong relationships. But at the same time, they’ve found that jumping in without a solid strategy can cause their social media accounts to flounder or even be left dormant when the initial energy fades.
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On September 26, a federal judge upheld a three-year-old Obama administration ban on lobbyists serving on federal advisory panels. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a lawsuit brought by six lobbyists who argued that were being denied a “valuable government benefit” simply because they had exercised their First Amendment rights to petition the government. Berman ruled that serving on a federal advisory board is not a legal entitlement.
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As we move deeper into the year, investors remain conflicted. They see improvements in the economy and the markets, but still struggle with anxieties about how easily this progress could be reversed. How then can you try both to preserve your wealth and take advantage of the opportunities that will likely arise? Following is an outline of a personal viewpoint on the markets and insights into providing some answers to those questions.

The overall increase in online giving is largely attributable to a jump from 44 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2012 among the Baby Boomer generation (people born between 1946 and 1964). In other words, the survey indicates that the raw number of Boomers giving online has increased by almost one-third in the last two years.
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A business simulation experiment at Yale University gave two groups of people the assignment of deciding how much of a bonus to give each employee from a set fund of money. Each person in the group was to get as large a bonus as possible for certain employees, while being fair to the entire employee population. In one group, the conflicting agendas led to stress and tension, while in the second group, everyone ended up feeling good about the result. The difference in emotional response was created by plants—actors who had been secretly assigned to manipulate people’s feelings about the project. In the first group, the actor was negative and downbeat, and in the second, positive and upbeat. The emotional tone of the meetings followed the lead of each actor, although none of the group members understood how or why those particular feelings had emerged.
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A grade of 100 means you have mastered the subject—a perfect score when you were in school.

Why do I participate in NYSAE? For my daily dose of C. Not vitamin C (thought I think that’s important too). NYSAE provides:

• Contacts: There’s great value in exchanging ideas with other professionals in the local not for profit/association community. My NYSAE contacts were also invaluable to me in a job search a few years ago.
• Community: I feel at home within NYSAE. I know I can call on other members, and have made friendships in this circle as well.
• Content: I’ve gained a lot of information and insights from NYSAE speakers and from the table discussions at the programs. The Non-Dues Revenue Institute last March, and the Marketing/Communications SIG series were particularly valuable.

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