February 2013

Nothing stirs membership growth more than putting yourself on center stage during a gut-wrenching national debate (witness the recent growth in NRA membership following the Newton tragedy) said Steve Wolfe, membership consultant, and moderator of NYSAE’s January Membership Institute. Most associations, however, are dealing with a double threat—a sluggish economy and competition from the Internet, which provides community (Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn) and immediate access to professional and industry information that was once only the purview of associations.
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A GrantCraft publication, Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2013, written by philanthropy scholar Lucy Bernholz, captures the changing landscape of what it means to use private resources for the public good. No longer the purview of foundations and nonprofits alone, philanthropy is now defined by an array of increasingly diverse activities, such as impact investing, social businesses, peer networks, and crowdfunding. The Blueprint outlines how these and other innovations are transforming the social economy.
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An important aspect to the growth and development of any profession is the recognition of the outstanding accomplishments of individuals and organizations within it, and the encouragement of those who seek to achieve excellence. NYSAE’s comprehensive awards program does just that—recognizes the best of the best.
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How is the line, “membership is priceless” working for you these days in recruiting new members? Not so well, you say? The heyday of trade associations and professional societies recruiting members under the pretense of nebulous value propositions has gone the way of IBM Selectric typewriters.

Stakeholders in your industry really do want to join your membership organization—even though they don’t realize it. They must, however, first understand what’s in it for them. They must see the possibility of a real and honest return on investment (ROI) for their time and treasure.
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People seem to have the same reaction to succession planning as they do to writing their wills. If you have no will, you can’t really die, the magical thinking goes. Similarly, executive directors imagine that if they avoid succession planning, no upstart underling can push them aside or show them up.

Of course, there is no correlation between eternal life and having a will, just as a succession plan does not guarantee that anyone will be promoted or someone else will lose a job. What a succession plan does is provide an association with some concrete information to help build individual and organizational capacity.
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ASAE has opened the call for candidates for the 2013–2015 class of the Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP). Deadline to apply is Friday, March 15. DELP is an accelerated leadership program of education and volunteer service in the association community. The Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau is the exclusive sponsor of DELP.
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Blackbaud recently shared trends that will have the biggest impact on the nonprofit sector in 2013: charitable giving is not likely to grow much; a revaluing of the nonprofit sector will occur; technology will play an increasingly important role for both organizations and supporters; and the world will continue to shrink as philanthropic borders broaden.
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The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) issued a new report, What Attendees Want from Trade Exhibitions. Results profiled in this report come from a new study that was originally conducted 10 years ago. It provides valuable up-to-date insights into what attendees are looking to achieve when they visit business-to-business exhibitions. Key findings include:
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