Believe it or not, the world of professional association managment is more than a field. It is an industry. That is never more clear than when one has the good fortune to attend, as I am doing this week, the
American Society of Association Executives Annual Meeting. SNAME is one of over 20,000 professional and trade societies, and the ASAE AM is a great opportunity to compare notes and learn from others who face similar challenges to those facing SNAME. There are thousands of folks here from around the world from organizations dedicated to every profession you can imagine.
As you can imagine, a lot of those challenges are from the impact of the recession on membership societies. More than one session is titled "how to _____ in a down economy". That blank gets filled in with such things as "fund your foundation" or "recruit new members" etc.
Nancy Ostin is also here with me, and we are comparing notes after sessions and talking about the implications of what we are learning on SNAME. We hope to roll out a few new member benefits, web content, and recruiting tools when we get back to Jersey City.
But what I am most excited to learn about here are the new and emerging technologies that SNAME can take advantage of. The session that is starting in 5 minutes is titled "Engage Your Members Using Mobile Devices" and I met the presenter at a social event hosted by our web vendor yesterday. Microphone glitches are currently allowing me the opportunity to write this blog. I am
Seemingly all of the vendors we use to keep SNAME.org in good order are here in a huge expo hall, so I am touching base with them and meeting many people who I had known through phone and email prior.
So, looking at the news this morning I saw it is a rainy, dreary day in the New York Metro region. I am pleased to report that the weather here in Los Angeles is 82 and sunny. But it was cold when I got up this morning at 4:00 AM local time. I won't be here long enough to allow my internal clock to adjust.