The Association Ecosystem*

CDA Leadership Education Conference
March 13
11:15a—12:30p
Irvine Marriott
The Association Ecosystem*
How to Produce Outside-the-Box Strategic Results
with Your Inside-the-Box Resources
Status Quo Operations
Association staff is expected to know how to do it all, simultaneously
wearing many hats, and accomplishing much with few resources.
Breakthrough Management
Staff maximizing organizational resources, planning to fully leverage future
opportunities to consistently deliver extraordinary memorable membership
experiences.
*An ecosystem is the intersection of interconnecting elements within a designated space to form a
sustainable environment. An Association Ecosystem is designed to deliver memorable membership
experiences advancing its members’ livelihood and their professional community.
Environmental Specialists
Rhea Blanken, FASAE—Blanken Consulting/Results Technology
Susanne Connors Bowman— The Haefer Group, Ltd.
The world that we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done so far creates
problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them.
Albert Einstein
When you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it—this is knowledge. Confucius
Success is the sum of details. Harvey Firestone
The Association EcoSystem
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rheaz@resultstech.com 301.320.8711
Use These Processes And Resources To Chart Value, Balance, And Sustainability Within Your Organization’s Eco-System.
Membership Processes
These six distinctions are inter-related, simultaneous and
critical to the success of any association and the
transference of its Value Proposition.
Referrals—A timely process for following up with self-referrals and
member nominations must be continuous to provide a steady infusion
of new members—their ideas, financial support and future leadership.
Fused Resources
Mix, match and fuse the resources listed below to deliver ongoing
memorable membership experiences (feelings, encounters and
knowledge) — thus making your organization indispensable.
Events
Utilize existing association events to best positioning whether the
audience is current members, non-members, staff, the public, media
or regulators. “One-time only” knowledge events are a misuse of staff
and resources—harvesting each events knowledge for use in other
areas is critical.
Enrollment— The ongoing process of enrolling fellow professionals
into the relevance and value of your organization. Consider all the
built-in daily opportunities for recruitment members could pursue if VP
were clear and urgent.
Communications
There must be a fused communication program (in print, on web and
Welcome— A program that informs, inspires and mentors new and
live) to remind current members and showcase to potential members
renewing members into ongoing organizational participation and
the distinct value of your organization. Every day in every way
loyalty. This is the key to successful membership development and on- members, customers, the public and the over-all community must be
going involvement. A partnership between the new member and
aware of your relevance.
organization is created that includes a “call for action” to participate in
their own growth and development. The whole idea is to create the
Relationships
“experience of life long membership” – this is where the investment
Associations provide opportunities that engage and encourage people
begins.
to create professional and personal experiences and life-long
relationships. Members, staff, media, the public - all contribute to
Engagement—Membership is a series of offers and opportunities for
those relationship experiences. The more memorable the relationship,
engagement, which provide lasting and fused feelings of benefit,
the closer your organization comes to the fulfillment of its mission.
belonging and investment. The goal is the development of memorable
membership experiences.
Programs
All internal or external opportunities where the association interfaces
Leadership—Volunteer and staff leadership must be vocal and visible
with the members, the public, related associations, legislators, the
in all arenas of the membership process. Everything that is said and
media and regulators and all non-members must represent value,
done by volunteer leadership and staff, planned and budgeted,
efficiency and responsiveness.
suggested and recommended must forward the VP.
Experiences
Renewal—The retention process is highly administrative, requiring ALL Multi-sensory and immersive, memorable moments extending over
staff to be responsible for this activity’s success. The renewal process
time. It’s the intentional fusing of events, programs, communications,
marks a yearlong experience of value resulting in a member’s ongoing
relationships and the knowledge harvested and transferred from them.
engagement.
©2004-2015 Results Technology, Inc
rheaz@resultstech.com
The New Rules of Planning Take Practice
Practicing the art of strategic dialogue and
collaborations.
Emphasis on producing a strategic planning document.
Planning is an on-going learning process that
never ends.
Planning done at regular intervals—usually on a five-year cycle.
Giving environmental scanning the highest priority
and making adjustments on an as-needed, on-going
basis.
Sporadic scanning of the environment for trends.
Incremental change is challenged–while multiple
futures are explored.
Future is explained as a logical evolution of the present, and a single "most likely" future is forecast.
There is a creative search for emerging opportunities
and the deliberate abandonment of old assumptions
about strengths and weaknesses.
Traditional SfiOT (Strengths, fieaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) criteria for planning are
sufficient to guide the strategy-making process.
Board and staff are highly collaborative and
continuously engage is a dialogue about an
uncertain future.
Board and staff infrequently engage in strategic dialogues about the future.
© 2000-2015 Rhea Blanken,
Results Technology,
.
Inc
MAXIMIZING YOUR RESOURCES
EVENTS
COMMUNICATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS
EVENTS
COMMUNICATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS
©2004-2015 Results Technology, Inc
rheaz@resultstech.com
Rhea Blanken, FASAE
Rhea founded Results Technology over 30 years ago as a consultancy to both the
association and the business communities. Working with local, national, and international
organizations, she has coached and consulted volunteer and staff leaders plus business
professionals to accomplish their personal, corporate and career goals. Supporting her
clients to declare a future to achieve and then successfully live into it—that’s what she
does!
As co-author of Facing the Future, an environmental scan report published by ASAE,
Rhea investigated circumstances impacting associations and the businesses they serve.
With Embracing the Future, a companion toolkit of future-focused exercises and activities,
she sought ways to have leaders empowered to make their desired future actually
happen. The bottom line messages from these publications include: the future is not onesize fits all; there is no one roadmap providing a guaranteed route for accomplishing any
strategic scenario; and leaders acting in partnership with their staff will reveal the
knowledge needed to make the future happen.
Rhea stages memorable developmental opportunities to continuously deliver exceptional
experiences infused with value. Her motto, inside-the-box resources can be leveraged to
deliver outside-the-box strategic results, guides her consulting, coaching, facilitating, and
writing. Rhea is proud to be an ASAE Fellow.
Strategist Facilitator, Executive Coach, Creative Solution Generator, and Speaker
ASAE Certified CAE Content Provider
301.320.8711
rheaz@resultstech.com
www.resultstech.com
Susanne Connors Bowman is co-owner of The Haefer Group, Ltd. Her particular areas
of interest include assessing organization’s value proposition often leading to dues
structure changes, training and research. Prior to co-founding The Haefer Group in 1997,
Sue was Director of Insurances Services at AARP for more than 15 years. She was also
a staff member at the American Pharmacists Association.
Sue is an active ASAE member. She is the current Chair of ASAE’s Membership
Development Committee. Her other volunteer leadership roles included being chair of
ASAE’s Consultants Section Council (2010-2011) and its Membership Section Council
(2005-2006). Since September 2007, she has served as a faculty member for ASAE’s
CenterU teaching membership, marketing, management and financial courses. Sue
authored several chapters in ASAE’s preeminent membership resource book Membership
Essentials. She was the lead researcher for New Realities: The Future is Now!, funded by
the ASAE Foundation.
Specializing in Value Consulting to Membership Organizations
sbowman@thehaefergroup.com http://www.thehaefergroup.com
703-620-9315