At a recent board meeting with one of our association clients, the board discussed how to reach out to local national members who had not joined the chapter. I can relate to the non-chapter affiliation. I recently joined a professional association as a member-at-large because I knew nothing about the two chapters closest to me, and wasn’t sure which would be a good fit. Within a week of joining, I was contacted by the president of one of those chapters inviting me to attend the next meeting, which was scheduled for the following day.

Peggy challenges us all in her post Meme Time! How are you going to change the world in 2012? to post our goals for the coming year. For me it means continuing our project Association Volunteers! where we shine the spotlight on those people who give their time and talent to their professional associations. The project was launched in 2010 with the Association Volunteers! Facebook fan page where fans can share stories, find inspiration, and give thanks to those that have made a difference.

Maddie Grant kicked off a Meme, in response to Craig Newmark’s post, asking all association peeps to answer “how are you going to change the world in 2012”.

In 2012, I hope to help associations reinvent the volunteer model. With my intrepid partner, Peter, and a host of very cool peeps (like my fellow ASAE Executive Management Section Council team and good friend Leslie White), my goal is to deconstruct the volunteer model. Then, tapping cool examples from the community-service sector along with innovative ideas coming out of a few associations, we’ll explore lots of options, ideas and possibilities.

We know that volunteers are what make associations unique as organizations and fuel our success. But,  even as we in associations embrace new technologies and – to a more limited degree – new business models, we haven’t addressed the volunteer model. We are still recruiting, developing, managing and rewarding as we did decades ago even though this no longer works. ASAE's Decision To Volunteer study sent out an alarm in 2008 that we can expect a turnover rate in our most active volunteers of up to 28%.  It’s time to change.

We’ll get some help on this journey through ASAE. A group of us from the EMS Council submitted an idea for a think tank project that I understand has been selected for funding in 2012. Also, two of us from the Council have submitted a very cool session for Annual Meeting on the topic (fingers crossed!). And, we have an informal group of association execs who are exploring, through open conversations, new models and sharing their own association’s journey. (We welcome more to the table for those conversations – just contact me for details.)

Lastly, to help inspire people to volunteer for their association and to shine the light on the great contribution association volunteers make, we launched a Facebook page Association Volunteers! Join us there, like it, add your own comments, and celebrate volunteers you know!

Happy to hear from others … join the meme (hint, hint Leslie White, KiKi L’Italien, Cynthia D’Amour, Frank Fortin,  Kerry Stackpole, Kim Howard).

ASAE11 was a great experience on many levels.  But it also prompts me to ask a question. My top five reasons for giving ASAE staff, volunteers and attendees an A+:

1. Lots of variety. We had a stand-bys (general sessions, learning labs, socials, engagement lounge and exhibits). We had some new concepts including the unsession learning tours, innovation forums and the  deep dive, game changer, and flash sessions. They even had what looked like a great first-timers program – check it out. By the way, ASAE already has a slideshow to show you what you missed J.
2. Accessibility. From the meeting location to the availability of wi-fi to the vibrant social media to on-site communications, it was easy to connect. Check out the Hub for a peak.
3. People. It always comes down to having the right people in the room.  I enjoyed the mix of the association professionals (and in that phrase I include vendors, consultants and all those who don’t sport the “regular” badge).
4. Ideas & more ideas. I returned home with lots of resources, tips and ideas. Two of my favorite takeaways are from two sessions I almost didn’t attend.  From the Collective Intelligence session I learned a simple process to jumpstart innovation and from the session on gaming the idea to build a game that can help members prepare for certification.
5. Involvement of attendees. I signed up to be a guest blogger for Acronym along with a crew of members (check out the feed) like Jeffrey Cufaude, Brandon Robinson, Maggie McGary, Lowell Aplebaum, Frank Fortin, CAE, Shelly Alcorn, CAE, and Scott D. Oser. And that’s just one of more than a dozen ways ASAE tapped members/attendees to be active participants. This gave my participation an added focus that helped me dig deeper into the experience. I was a “reporter” so my eyes and ears were perhaps more open.  BTW, my contributions included:

• Getting My I On
• It’s not just the topic that counts. It’s the community.
• 3 lessons from day 1

And now the question. As association executives who offer learning events for its members and decry members who don’t take part, how come so many of us don’t take part in our association – ASAE’s – events? How come we don’t invest in our professional development as we ask our members to?

Tina Brown, Editor-in-Chief, Daily Beast-Newsweek, closed her remarks at #ASAE11 with a statement: "I hope you become our readers in every way." How easy -- and life-changing for an association -- to substitute member for reader. Let us help our constituents become members in every way.

Member engagement is a "popular topic" now. I realize that in associations we must talk a topic or trend to death before we act. Soon we must act. And Tina gave us a game plan.

The countdown has begun to the #ASAE11, ASAE’s annual conference in St. Louis, MO.  There are many reasons I am excited including the session I will be involved in on Monday, August 8 at 8:45a. This session, “Design for the Future: Creating a Sustainable Local-State-National Member Community”, shares the journey the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) took to retool their local chapters for the future. With Nadine Merker, AADE director of volunteer services, and Scott Balthazor svp, customer operations, Socious, we will share AADE’s new chapter model and its new online member community.

The three of us probably had more fun compiling the “lessons learned” handout than any other part of the presentation. That’s probably natural since its fun to look back. There’s nothing like being a Monday morning quarterback. Four of the most telling lessons we’ll be sharing – by story – are: ...

This morning I opened a new container of a certain product only to discover that it was barely 2/3 full. Of course, the container was marked with the standard “Packaged by weight not volume. Contents may settle during shipping and handling,” but this was a simple powder. How much settling could have occurred? Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with the actual amount in that container—it is, after all, what I paid for. I just have a problem with the initial appearance of much more.

Day 18 ... Sports Week is a 6-day flurry of activities at Eagles Mere held once each in July and August.  It’s a sports contest. It’s friendly competition. It’s a model for chapter award programs. Why? Well everyone has a simple, achievable goal – complete at least 5 (3 if you’re 20 or older, a category called the Bald Eagles) events.

You choose from the 18 events that include everything from the lake swim to nail driving to Pele ball to the cannon ball splash to speeches. Everyone can be a winner. For those who aspire higher, there are additional awards. And for those who do things a little out of the ordinary, there are special awards.

It all begins with registering and getting your official wrist band.  The goal is to earn a “participation” award – an awesome tee shirt.  For those interested, you can vie for ribbons in most events and the “all-around” trophies. Then there are the “E” awards given each year to those who, well, do cool things. It’s for sportsmanship, for who helped most, for most enthusiastic. But, you have to complete the minimum to go higher. And, the prevailing mantra is "No Whining!"

About once every quarter, someone asks on the ASAE listserv for chapter award ideas. I’ve been helping a couple of associations look at their awards and recognition programs. And the common thread is that so many current programs miss the point entirely. They don’t reward participation. They don’t focus on mission-related outcomes. They do allow for everyone to win. I say Sports Week for all!

Day 11 ... We had been without water service since Thursday evening when the well pump began failing. By Saturday, the plumber declared the solution was a new pump. The cost to install on Monday was about one-half to install on Sunday, and the cottage owner, knowing that we were without, agreed. But to the plumber, it wasn’t worth it. You see there were priorities.  To which I say: bravo and gee I’m jealous.  How many times do we put the almighty buck ahead? We even say we’re doing this for our family. But at some point, what you’re giving up is lost forever. That’s what life balance is all about.

I was reminded of my volunteer who didn’t make a commitment in order to handle another, family-related issue. It was frustrating as we juggled things but if an organization can’t allow its volunteers to make those critical choices then the message we’re sending is wrong.  We’re not supporting life balance.

And as we move from a majority of boomers to our younger gens, the wrong message will be fatal for our organizations.

Day 10 ... Day 10 ... The trails in Eagles Mere are well-marked and so when we embarked on the Yellow trail for a 3-mile hike we didn't take a compass or a map. We didn't even study the map because all we had to do was follow the markings. And it was only a 3-mile hike. We took our "certainness". Well, we would have been better off with a compass and a map.

Much to our amazement, the 3-mile Yellow trail stops - and that stop is a bit from the cottage. In fact as best as I can now say, it's more than 1 mile away. The hike isn't too difficult but at the proverbial "fork in the road" the wrong choice would have been. At the fork, we initially chose wrong. A second guess, based on the sun setting, turned out to be right.

Somewhere about 70 minutes into the hike I berated myself for leaving the map and compass behind. At the crossroads, I knew we would arrive home by following either but if I had studied the map I would have know which turn was more direct. I would have known whether to follow the red or the blue blazes.

Later, I was struck by the intensity of the message here. Being prepared. Studying the maps BEFORE hand. Knowing how to choose the right path. I was also happy that I remained calm, looked for clues, remembered how to rely on the sun and was fit. In many ways the first and last items on that list were most important.

It's the internal and external compass we all need.