And the 2016 Synergy Awards Go To…

By Gina Ryan, CAE

Join us in congratulating NYSAE’s 2016 award recipients on April 20th during a reception and Synergy Awards luncheon honoring them at the elegant University Club of New York at 1 West 54th Street at Fifth Avenue. The Synergy Awards luncheon follows NYSAE’s Technology Summit, to be held earlier that morning. Those receiving awards include:

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Outstanding Nonprofit Association Executive Award
Terry Lawler
Executive Director
New York Women in Film & Television

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.

Terry Lawler has been the Executive Director of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) since 1997. NYWIFT energizes the careers of women in entertainment by illuminating their achievements, providing training and professional development, and advocating for equality.

Under Lawler’s leadership, NYWIFT has more than doubled its membership and has diversified the organization and its Board of Directors in terms of occupation, race, and ethnicity by partnering with other organizations and engaging in a regular cycles of strategic planning. Lawler has led efforts to establish grants programs to help fund independent films by women and initiate a scholarship program for students at New York University, Columbia, City College, the School of Visual Arts, and SUNY Stonybrook. Last year, NYWIFT created the Writer’s Lab, funded by Meryl Streep, for women over 40. Twelve participants were selected from 3,500 applications.

Lawler helped establish Women in Film and Television International, and is responsible for signature fund raising events, including the Muse Awards, which honors actors, producers, directors, and craft persons in the industry, and Designing Women, which celebrates the work of costume designers, makeup artists, and hair stylists. NYWIFT bestowed the Muse Award on Lawler in 2007 for her vision and achievement.

Beyond her own organization, Lawler finds time to serve on the board of Manhattan Neighborhood Network, the nonprofit cable access organization where she helped renovate an abandoned 103rd Street firehouse into a state-of-the art production facility. She has also served on the boards of the Katahdin Foundation, which produces educational films; the Astraea Foundation for Justice, which makes grants to LGBT organizations; the New York Production Alliance, from which she received a service award in 2008; and the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture, for which she was part of the founding conference.

Prior to her tenure at NYWIFT, Lawler was Director of Development and Production for Women Make Movies, National Director of Film and Videomakers Services, and Executive Director of The Film Fund. Visit Lawler’s organization at www.nywift.org.

Outstanding Associate Member Award
Tim Baer
Vice President Business Development
American Technology Services

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.

Tim Baer is Vice President of Business Development at American Technology Services (ATS), a provider of information technology and web support services. When Baer started with the company in 2002, ATS had revenues of approximately $1 million and 11 employees. He played a key role in increasing its revenues to $12 million and 70 employees.

As a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) since 2005, Baer planned or participated in events including the Annual Meeting, Tech Conference, Great Ideas Conference, Marketing and Communication Conference, Idea Swaps, and Alexandria Brown Bag lunches. Baer has also extended ATS’s reach though events sponsored by suppliers of products and services such as NiUG, an iMIS international users group; iBEF, an iMIS excellence forum; the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference; the Kctron International Users Group and the Kentico Users Group, both of which are CMS providers.

In 2013, Baer joined the both NYSAE and the Association Forum of Chicagoland, conducting educational sessions on Web Do’s and Don’ts. Baer serves on NYSAE’s Technology Committee, contributes to the Technology SIG programs, and helps execute the annual Technology Institute. He was a recipient of NYSAE’s 2014 New Star Award.

He has also participated in programs sponsored by the Association of Nonprofit Specialists, and the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. Baer is a member of the Old Dominion Boat Club, a boating and civic organization that offers support to the Salvation Army, Marine Corp Toys for Tots, and Disabled Veterans. He is also a member of Aldersgate Methodist Church, where he serves on the Financial Commitment Committee and volunteers at Mondloch House, a local homeless shelter. Visit Baer’s company at www.networkats.com.

Distinguished Service Award
Zon-Wei Cheng
Program Manager of When Work Works
Families and Work Institute

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.

Zon-Wei Cheng’s support for NYSAE goes back more than 20 years. Since joining NYSAE in 1994, she has served on numerous committees, including Awards, Technology, Professional Development and Education. She has been a speaker at NYSAE luncheon roundtables on such topics as Meeting Planners: Coping with Disasters, and was a moderator for a panel on Best Tips & Practices to Reduce Meetings Liability, at We Love New York Day. Cheng was a creator and facilitator of the 2014 Meetings and Events Institute.

Cheng served as Vice Chair of the Education Committee from 2014-2015, before assuming the role of current Chair. Her goals for the committee have been ambitious: to revitalize and re-imagine NYSAE’s educational offerings by trying new things; to focus on marketing and rebranding to increase registration; and to brainstorm and collaborate with other committee chairs. Among this year’s achievements, she created a September social event that launched the educational season and serves as a retention and recruitment strategy, revamped NYSAE’s educational summits, created a new online evaluation form, and drafted a membership survey to get feedback on educational programs, and launched a membership survey to get feedback on educational programs.

The fall Open House initiated by Cheng attracted 38 prospective members. She collaborated with Membership Committee Chair Robert Spangler to host the first sold-out Membership Summit in January, which attracted 60 registrants, including 25 prospective members. Spangler and Cheng’s efforts resulted in ASAE press coverage: www.associationsnow.com/2016/02/diversify-your-retention-rate-and-other-membership-ideas/.

Cheng worked with several committee and SIG chairs on repurposing program content relating to communications, technology, and next-gen. Last October, she embarked on a project to enliven the Shared Interest Group website page, including a calendar for all SIG events. www.nysaenet.org/events/sharedinterestgroups

To promote these innovative programs, Cheng took advantage of tweeting, rebranding and retooling techniques, direct mail flyers, online evaluation surveys, and email thank-you notes with bonus takeaway handouts and PPT slides. She created an NYSAE master power-point template for a more professional look. Her collaborative efforts have been extraordinary, crediting colleagues such as Robert Spangler and David Teisler, CAE for their ideas and suggestions.

Cheng is an executive with the Families and Work Institute, an organization that disseminates research on today’s changing workplace, changing family and changing community. Since the Institute was founded in 1989, it has focused on issues in the workforce/workplace, youth, and early childhood. Visit Cheng’s association at www.familiesandwork.org.

Volunteer of the Year Award
Robert Spangler
Senior Managing Director, Marketing and Information Technology
New Jersey State Bar Association

The Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes outstanding committee service and team leadership.

As the Chair of NYSAE’s Membership Committee, Robert Spangler worked with both his committee members and the chair of the Education Committee to create the entirely new Membership Summit. His goal was simple—to bridge the concept created by the Education Committee with his vision for the event—providing attendees with The Strategies You Need. The Experts You Want To Hear From.

Drawing from his professional network, he recruited one of the country's top membership experts to join the panel, and worked with the panelists to carefully craft a program that would provide practical strategies and value to attendees. He previewed all of the presentations to ensure that the program provided a step-by-step guide geared to increase the results for membership departments of the participants. He also added real-world case studies to illustrate how the concepts worked, and created practical handouts as a take-away.

The goal of the sold-out signature event was to provide attendees with foundational membership skills they could easily apply in their organizations. A final goal was to illustrate to new attendees, the relevance of NYSAE their professional development.

Spangler is an executive with the New Jersey State Bar Association, the professional voice of New Jersey attorneys. It supports more than 18,000 members by fostering professionalism, advancing personal development and encouraging participation. Visit Spangler’s association at www.njsba.com.

New Star Award
Jean Dorak
Foundation Project Coordinator
International Council of Shopping Centers Foundation

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.

Jean Dorak has been Co-Chair of NYSAE’s new Next Generation Leadership Group (Next Gen SIG) since October and in her new role, wrote an article about the SIG for the NYSAE February InView newsletter. With her co-chair, Dorak works with SIG leaders and members to identify relevant program topics, contacts potential speakers, and develops strategy for future program planning and promotion. Dorak says she is really excited about the SIG’s direction and how it has been received by attendees and their supervisors. She wants to engage volunteers to get involved. This energetic new member joined NYSAE during the past year.

Dorak is an executive with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Foundation, the charity arm of ICSC. The foundation promotes and rewards the industry’s outreach efforts and provides scholarships to undergraduate, graduate and retail real estate practitioners. Visit Dorak’s foundation at www.icsc.org.

ORGANIZATIONAL AWARDS

Social Responsibility Award
Catherine (Cate) Brennan, MBA, CAE
Executive Director
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners

The Social Responsibility Award recognizes members' associations and associate members' organizations for their contributions to America.

With more than 8,400 members, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) is the professional association for pediatric-focused advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Established in 1973, it is the only national organization dedicated to improving the quality and advancement of the APRN’s role in providing health care for infants, children and adolescents. NAPNAP has 48 chapters in the United States and one E-chapter serving those outside local chapter areas. Chapters provide networking, advocacy and education on a local level, complementing the national organization’s focus on professional development, its annual conference, and opportunities for continuing education credits.

Social Responsibility Initiatives
NAPNAP formed its Foundation in 1978 to support the improvement of the quality of life for children and their families by awarding and administering scholarships and grants for advanced pediatric nursing education, research, clinical projects and special initiatives. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of pediatric nurse practitioners, an increase in the number and scope of clinical projects and services, and an increase in inter-disciplinary research studies to identify evidence-based best practices in child health.

Beyond its primary mission, NAPNAP has been at the forefront in advocating health policy initiatives in the public interest. Policy statements and collaborations include:

• Supporting the “Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015” (S. 142), which requires child-resistant packaging for any liquid nicotine vial sold in the U.S. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 28, 2016.
• Lobbying for the successful passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Fund in 2015.
• Voicing the need to assess the benefits and harms of screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in young children for whom no concerns of ASD have been raised by their parents or a clinician.
• Affirming agreement with the American Academy of Pediatrics that available formal screening tools can identify children with developmental issues early so that they can benefit from intervention.
• Teaming with the National School Nurses Association to address needs of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, the most common neurobehavioral condition in youths.

Website Excellence Awards

The Website Excellence Award recognizes the website of a convention & visitors bureau, philanthropic organization, professional society or 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 organizations, 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 that our out of date, 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 mobile apps. They are truly virtual gateways into our members’ organizations.

Outstanding Technology Leadership Award
Girls Who Code www.girlswhocode.com
Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO

The Outstanding Information Technology Leadership Award recognizes the contributions of prominent individuals or organizations from the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State region that 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

Girls Who Code and its Founder and CEO, Reshma Saujani, are presented with the Outstanding Technology Leadership Award for its efforts to inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills that are critical to the pursuit of 21st century opportunities. Saujani has galvanized industry leaders to close the gender gap in STEM education and empower girls to pursue careers in technology and engineering. Advocating for a new model of female leadership focused on risk-taking, competition and mentorship, Saujani is also the author of a new book, Women Who Don't Wait in Line.

Members of the NYSAE Awards Committee include: Gina Ryan, CAE, Chair; Gerard Thiers, CAE, Board Liaison; Mary Jane Eimer, CAE; Linda Ferm, 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 Chair of the Awards Committee. She can be reached at ceopathways@mac.com or 917-971-7524.