The New York Society of Association Executives’ (NYSAE) Technology Institute focused on how associations and nonprofits can advance their causes and drive innovation within their communities through modernization and ingenuity. Presenting case studies from their organizations were Crista Earl, Director of Web Services, American Foundation for the Blind, and Noha El-Ghobashy, President, EngineeringforChange.Org. Pictured (left to right): David Teisler, CAE, Director of Communications, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and Co-Chair of NYSAE’s Technology Committee; Crista Earl; Denman Wall, Principal, DendmanWall.com and Chair of NYSAE’s Technology Committee; and and Noha El-Ghobashy.
NYSAE’s April Technology Institute and Vendor Showcase stressed how technology can support an association’s mission and influence change. Through two case studies, members learned what organizations have done to modernize and innovate to remain competitive and relevant.
Crista Earl, director of web services for the American Foundation for the Blind, maintained that associations need to set the stage for innovation. Among those items: a problem to be solved; leadership; a sense that you must solve the problem as well as solve the problem; passion; vision; teamwork and partnerships; creativity; problem solving abilities; skills; infrastructure; protection and support; resources; failure.
She noted that in her own organization, NYSAE’s 2012 recipient of the Outstanding Technology Innovation Award, innovation requires an accessible website for those who are visually impaired or blind. Among other features, the site allows visitors to change the way the website is displayed to make it more readable, to get repetitive links out of the way of a screen reader, to make the print larger, select text and background colors, or choose a different font. Earl encouraged other associations to also make their websites fully accessible.
Earl demonstrated new apps that, for example, allow the visually impaired to count change and convert screen text to voice. “Technology,” she emphasized, “needs to work for the people who need to use it.”
Noha El-Ghobashy, president of EngineeringForChange.org, explained how technology actually led to the development of her organization. Thomas G. Loughlin, executive director of ASME (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) was the driving force behind the development of the new organization. He challenged El-Ghobashy to come up with a way to use the power of the web to mobilize engineers to solve problems of the world. ASEM came up with $1 million to get something started. “What started out as a website became a movement,” said El-Ghobashy.
Engineering for Change provides a forum to connect, collaborate, solve challenges and share knowledge among a growing community of engineers, technologists, social scientists, NGOs, local governments and community advocates, who are dedicated to improving the quality of life all over the world by applying creative technical solutions to a broad range of humanitarian challenges. The organization has since received strong support from other organizations, including IEEE and Engineers Without Borders.
El-Ghobashy explained that Engineering for Change was founded on the following value propositions:
- Enabling access to and collaboration among a global community of like-minded individuals;
- Providing a platform for thought leadership development in applying engineering rigor to global development
- Harvesting and curating trusted sector knowledge
- Allowing innovative methods to evaluate implemented solutions for appropriateness and sustainability; and
- Offering educational and professional development programming.
“These value propositions are a lot like what associations do,” she said, “but we wanted to provide a different platform to develop on.” Launched in 2011, EngineeringforChange has more than 13,000 members from 160 countries.
Ultimately, members need to be shown the benefit and value of using technology (including social media platforms) for them to be successful.
The Institute was followed by a reception and Technology Vendor Showcase, featuring:
American Technology Services, (C) Systems, LLC, Another 9, LLC, Lnae Services, LLC, P&V Enterprises, Higher Logic