An Association Rebrand From Start to Finish
WHY REBRAND? Identity At the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), we have over 40,000 members around the globe. The organization was founded in 1950 and nothing about the brand had changed since then. It became clear that changing the visual aspects of the association’s messaging was a high priority. Technology has changed and the way we […]
Entrepreneurship: Limbering up for Organizational Flexibility
Entrepreneurship isn’t a word that you hear often in the association space. Why not? Is it because associations aren’t able to think entrepreneurially? If we take entrepreneurial thinking to be a focus on the mission as well as on the bottom line, our organizations are perfectly poised to embrace this framework because we have passion, vision, […]
Laying the Groundwork for Organizational Change
Language matters. It matters for many reasons; not least because when different perspectives and priorities collide, the way we communicate can set the stage for moving forward. Thinking carefully about language and communication when implementing a culture shift in your association can help establish and cement the tone of the change, and turn a potentially challenging […]
How Artificial Intelligence Improved Our Virtual Conference
What comes to mind when you think about Artificial Intelligence? Is it images of robots, machinery, and science fiction movies? In fact, AI has already made its way into our homes and offices, and that is great news, because it is successfully automating processes and taking care of the most arduous of tasks. With that […]
Trends in Education-to-Employment: Part II
In Part I of this series, I explore the wicked problem facing the education system in the United States. Part II considers what our associations can do to rise to this challenge. The value of associations There is no greater value that associations can provide than helping people get a job, keep a job, and get a […]
Our Members’ Automatic-Minds Do Not Want to be Engaged
Our brains are on auto-pilot much of the time. Have you ever climbed into your car and got lost so deep in thought that you were surprised when you turned into your destination? Car-driving auto-pilot happens because our brains rely on habits to cut down the cognitive load. When you get on a bike, you peddle, […]
Building the Best Team: Curation not Creation
“Choose your best team, not your best individuals” – Mark de Rond, Forbes Assembling a volunteer team is, I believe, about more than the sum of its individual parts. A strong and successful team should be curated rather than created – and this means thinking carefully about each member as a specific piece of the puzzle, […]
Introducing our Job Board!
AssociationSuccess.org lives entirely in the virtual world, and as such we have witnessed the relationships that can be built, the ideas that can be seeded, and the plans that can be scaffolded when the right people come together without any physical or geographical constraints. We are convinced of the distinct power of this unlimited online space, […]
The Afterlife Potential of Virtual Events
One of the great things about a virtual event location is that the ideas, insights and innovations sparked by the event do not disappear when the doors close. Given the fast pace of presentations, discussions and social media streams where interesting, rich and diverse ideas quickly fly by, capturing and then repurposing content offers you […]
Association Management and Corporate Management: How Do They Diverge?
Coming from the corporate world, when I first started working in an association 27 years ago I thought the job of an association executive would be a walk in the park. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Fast forward to today, and I am still learning. I am involved in at least three other associations, one […]