When the American Society of Landscape Architects decided to look ten years ahead, it asked: What will it look like when it reaches its goals? “Begin with the end in mind” is a common catchphrase in boardrooms and offices—as one of Stephen Covey’s famous seven habits, it’s meant as a prompt to figure out your destination before setting to work. But when it comes to strategy-setting, the end isn’t always a consideration. Strategic planning is often a function of thinking about this current headwind, or that current membership trend. A plan tries to set a goal for the future, but it often doesn ..read more

The “Ask an Aging Life Care Manager” sessions are an opportunity for the association to connect with the public, while perhaps boosting membership too. May is Older Americans Month, which the Aging Life Care Association is using as an opportunity to virtually open its doors to allow the public to better understand its members’ work. Throughout the month of May, ALCA will host weekly free Zoom educational sessions billed as “Ask an Aging Life Care Manager,” where caregivers, “solo agers,” and others can ask questions about available care options. Sessions last 45 minutes and are held on four Fr ..read more

With more pressure to generate nondues revenue, leaders have to develop big-picture strategies—and rethink staff-level tools as well. “Creativity” and “revenue generation” don’t often wind up in the same sentence, unless an indictment is involved. But these are complicated times for associations, and a bit of (legal) imagination is important as they think about how they keep the doors open. That challenge is one issue I explored in the latest batch of Associations Now Deep Dives, which cover revenue generation broadly and creative approaches more specifically. For instance, I spoke with associ ..read more

The New York State Bar Association’s report is designed to respond to ethics and privacy concerns stoked by tools like ChatGPT. The New York State Bar Association has released guidelines to its members on the use of generative AI with a goal of addressing privacy breaches, ethical missteps, and “hallucinated” case briefs. The NYSBA’s report [PDF], published earlier this month, is the product of a months-long process developed by a dedicated Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, one of the first acts taken by president Richard Lewis. “We pick issues [for task forces] because they’re the issues ..read more

A new CEO survey finds a lot of anxiety bubbling under some surface optimism. Associations are well-positioned to assist. Despite an election year on top of economic and global-conflict stresses, leaders today say they’re feeling pretty good about things. According to KPMG’s 2023 CEO Outlook report, released last week, optimism is abundant. A strong majority of global CEOs (73 percent) say they’re “confident about the economy over the next three years.” There’s a twist, though—the optimism has a lot to do with how the leaders perceive other people are handling their business. As the report poi ..read more

The Future Partners report also found that planners remain concerned about inflation and a challenging political climate.  Meeting planners are troubled by escalating costs but remain optimistic about growing attendance in the coming years, according to a new survey. The seventh annual State of the Meetings & Convention Industry report, published last week by research firm Future Partners in collaboration with marketing firms Miles Partnership and Digital Edge, found that meeting planners are concerned about escalating costs around line items like food and beverage (F&B), but also ..read more

Volunteer leaders often start board service poorly oriented on governance. One expert is streamlining the process, highlighting the importance of simply getting along. Becoming a board member is relatively straightforward at most associations. You demonstrate expertise in a profession, volunteer with the association that serves it, then make your way through the association’s particular governance pipeline to get a board seat. Becoming a good, strategy-minded board member is often another matter, though. Boards don’t always come in with a solid grounding of the work they’re being asked to do ..read more

Associations’ silos can get in the way of making progress around AI, one expert says. But they can leverage other assets. A report in February found that nonprofits have been much slower than their corporate counterparts when it comes to adoption of generative AI. Jamie Notter, founder and CEO of the consultancy Propel, which works with associations, isn’t surprised. “AI is going to be so iterative—we do not know what direction this is going to go in until we actually start playing around with it,” he said. “And that’s not in the wheelhouse of associations—trying it and learning and adjusting ..read more

Leaders are under more pressure to speak out on hot topics. The right response is a function of a good plan—and some organizational awareness. The current news cycle is stressful for a lot of associations—at least two major global conflicts, an election year, plus anxiety over immigration, the economy, and more. Even if you as a leader don’t see the need to weigh in on today’s hot topic, there’s a good chance a substantive group of members or other stakeholders do want to see you speak out.  But even if you decide it’s worth making a statement, there’s the question of what the content of ..read more

The iSeatz survey features input from members beyond associations, including season-ticket holders and participants in subscription and loyalty programs. Members of a wide variety of groups are looking for value, belonging, and personalized attention, according to a new report. The Benefits of Belonging, released last month by loyalty technology company iSeatz, is based on online surveys of more than 2,000 managers and customers of membership groups, which encompassed clubs, professional associations, trade groups, and subscription programs.  Though that covers a wide range of member grou ..read more