Game Changing Accelerator. How do you build a connected community that positions both your organization and your constituencies for long term success? Having a strategic board to help Associations connect and maintain the member outcome focus can be a game changing accelerator.

Strategic Boards 

Thom Dammrich, President & CEO of Chicago, Illinois based NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association), utilizes his board to position the Association as a strategic partner driving industry results in the advocacy and business expansion arena. Industry Leaders and NMMA continue to collaborate to drive both industry and member success.

Like other successful Associations, NMMA also engaged a highly strategic board to effectively position itself as a “we focused solution community.” However, having the right skills sets and focus on your Association Board is essential, notes NMMA CEO Dammrich.

Strategic Boards with busy CEO’s insist upon the right focus and at times insist upon course corrections.

Focused On Industry Success

Strategic Board guidance and the organization’s focus on member success is proving to be a game changing accelerator of member engagement at NMMA.

Game Changing Accelerator

Very highly engaged boards who are strategic in focus and have a very high degree of understanding and strategizing about average member needs reflect two of six key capabilities that help drive Association Business Models. These Organizations report upward trending 3 year operating results, are far more likely to better understand member up-at-night issues, and engage members in acting upon those needs.

Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” for Association Executives available upon request at www.potomaccore.com

Competitive Positioning and Engagement. As domestic and international for profit competitors attempt to eat into services and product offerings once only delivered by Associations, Competitive Positioning (http://bit.ly/1g8g1J2) is a must. However, a key first step forward is knowing and understanding member “up at night” issues.

Up at Night Issues

Whether obtained in surveys, focus groups, interviews, roundtables, online community dialogue, social media tracking or other mechanisms, it’s essential to understand how the association is currently impacting member objectives. This requires securing actionable data about member perceptions of their environmental and operational challenges. Associations must structure their organizations to fluidly address rapidly changing member needs.

Rapidly Changing Priorities

Actionable data and fluidity opens doors to help Associations shift gears and respond quickly. Working together, staff and connected members provide both fluidity and responsiveness to address rapidly changing member business priorities. These shifts increase relevance and help make the case for increased engagement.

Competitive Positioning

For profit competitors are real and Associations should take their threat seriously. For example, ACCA, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America,www.acca.org, is increasing its capacity to quickly learn and adjust. Paul Stalknecht, President and CEO, and his senior team are leveraging what they’ve learned about member “up at night” issues to adapt and magnify the Association’s impact with more online educational programming. Competitive Positioning is Key Member Perspective Identifying “Up At Night” Issues Shift to Online Educational Programming.

Competitive Positioning And Engagement

Knowing Member “Up at Night” Issues Accelerates Association Growth & Positioning (http://bit.ly/ThjGjy). Having a firm grip on Member “Up at Night” Issues has game change potential for Associations. Aligning organizations with the things that their members really care about enhances their competitive position, accelerates engagement, and favorably impacts operating results.

Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” for Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com, www.verticalleapconsulting.com, and www.icimo.com.

Knowledge Sharing And Engagement. In a knowledge economy, it’s all about having just in time sources that help members drive their business and professional outcomes (http://bit.ly/1g8g1J2). With more information and knowledge sharing sources, corporate and individual members can vote with their feet and connect somewhere else.

New Norm

With today’s new norm, how do Association’s differentiate their organization from all of the alternatives? Moreover, how do organizations:

• Have the information tonight for the member question they need to answer tomorrow morning?
• Create a differentiating “experience” that makes members think of your organization first (before they Google or Bing for other sources)?
• Build a connected community that positions organizations and their constituencies for long term success?

Knowledge Sharing

Members only care about “outcomes” that address their business and professional challenges and opportunities. Change the conversation from selling and testing satisfaction to engaging members in ways that facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration with other members and watch what happens.

ACCA, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America,www.acca.org, invested in and recently expanded its online sharing capabilities. President and CEO Paul Stalknecht sees an increase in engagement in their knowledge sharing portals.

Knowledge Sharing And Engagement

Evolving technology capabilities are rapidly, and cost-effectively enabling effective knowledge sharing among members. Increasingly, associations are recognizing, especially when facing in particular stiff competition, that member engagement strategies can be their true differentiator and game changer in the marketplace.
Members value and make contributions to activities helping them achieve something they care about. Treat each member as having a piece of the puzzle and the association’s job is to facilitate 24/7 knowledge sharing which will lead to innovative solutions and increased member engagement.

Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” for Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com, www.verticalleapconsulting.com, and www.icimo.com.

Strategic Association Boards? New CEO’s who want their association boards to have a more strategic posture are more likely to be successful if they’ve first demonstrate their business and operations expertise. Having balanced budgets, a focused staff team, and satisfied members help newly minted CEO’s earn the trust they need. Once this is accomplished, they can focus their board’s attention to important strategic issues like member engagement.

Time Of Dramatic Change

New CEO’s recognize that today’s corporate and individual members view their participation with associations through a very different lens. They also understand that associations have experienced wide swings between the good times as they try desperately to identify new sources of short term revenues and to be perceived as relevant. However, getting their arms around complex and dysfunctional operations is the first order of business.

Trust From the Board

Although boards had confidence when they hired their new CEO, they want their hiring decisions confirmed. This is best accomplished with balanced budgets and sound business operations says Christopher E. Laxton, CAE, Executive Director, AMDA, www.amda.com,The Society for Post Acute and Long Term Care Medicine:

Move Association Boards to Mission Focus

With a solid foundation, boards are more likely open to conversations about strategy and the mission. After having earned trust and confidence, CEO’s are ready to ask questions to redirect the board’s focus from tactical to strategic outcomes. As Board Members and Staff are busy putting out fires, CEO’s can now ask the “why?”, “why us?,” and “what’s the relative impact?”

Strategic Association Boards?

Without question, having a strategically focused board magnifies an Association’s positioning and impact. Highly engaged and strategically focused Boards have a very high correlation to the Association’s operating results (see 3/19/14 post) http://bit.ly/Uh09AY.

Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” for Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com, www.icimo.com, and www.verticalleapconsulting.com.

Engagement Drives Results. The degree to which leadership understand and strategize about member issues and engage members in creating new solutions has far greater correlation to the following 3-year operating results: Member Retention, Annual Operating Revenue, Registrations to the Primary Annual Meeting, Annual Revenue from Fee-for-Service Offerings, and Timely Membership Renewals. Research provided through the Strategic Member Engagement Survey  indicates there is strong evidence that strategic member engagement can be an accelerator to Association growth and positioning strategies.

Future Positioning

The fact remains that organizations who perform well frequently report very highly engaged and strategic boards who have strong understanding and strategizing about average member needs.

Engagement Successes 

Strategic member engagement has huge implications for an Association’s business model and positioning. So much so that Christopher E. Laxton, CAE, Executive Director, AMDA, www.amda.com,The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, has consistently utilized strategic member engagement and a strategic board focus to accelerate his organization’s competitive position in two prior roles as CEO.

In his current and former roles as CEO, Laxton works to focus volunteer leaders on members success and create opportunities to facilitate strategic board discussions about member objectives.

Engagement Drives Results

At the majority of associations, member engagement takes a back seat to fighting fires and meeting budget expectations. However, with members navigating the rapids of economic, technological, and political turbulence, Laxton and other CEO’s are strategically engaging their boards. The focus must be big picture and on long term impact. The successes achieved as a result of strategically focused boards by Laxton and other Association CEO’s reflect a definitive trend leading to Strategic Member Engagement.

Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” for Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com.

Is Association Member Engagement About Selling Stuff? Imagine the discussion that took place when an association’s founders first convened. Did they say: “Let’s go hire some staff and ask them to sell us stuff.” Likely not at all. Why? Intuitively, founders understood that people seek out others who have a common interest, and become most engaged with those who express appreciation for their contributions. Ultimately, Association founders recognized they could achieve more powerful outcomes collectively than individually.

Defining Strategic Member Engagement

In the eBook (http://bit.ly/Q9SUI4 ), Strategic Member Engagement is defined as “Creating unparalleled and sustainable value by bringing people together in ways that they find meaningful and practical, because they perceive an ability to impact something they desire, individually and collectively.”

Mission

Christopher E. Laxton, CAE, Executive Director, AMDA, www.amda.com,The Society for Post Acute and Long Term Care Medicine applies principles of Strategic Member Engagement to keep his organization focused on the mission and future positioning. Leveraging a strategic board and focusing on the needs of the average member, Laxton encourages his Board to keep their eyes focused on the mission:

Is Association Member Engagement About Selling Stuff?

At the majority of associations, member engagement takes a back seat to fighting fires and meeting budget expectations. Few association executives describe it as a “differentiating strategy”, a “growth accelerator”, or “game changer”.

There are early indicators including AMDA, and NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute), www.niri.org (http://bit.ly/1jUQESa) of new ways to think about member engagement. Executives Like Laxton, and NIRI President and CEO Jeff Morgan are demonstrating the direct linkages between their efforts, member outcomes, and their association’s business model.

The free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” is available for all Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com, www.icimo.com, and www.verticalleapconsulting.com.

How to engage members has evolved over time, driven by numerous factors as associations and their members navigate the rapids of economic, technological, and political turbulence. Associations experience wide swings between the good times and trying desperately to identify new sources of short term revenues and to be seen as relevant.

Today’s Members

Corporate and individual members view their participation with associations through a very different viewing lens than when they had relatively fewer go to sources for information and knowledge sharing. In a knowledge economy, it’s about having just in time sources that help members drive business and professional outcomes. And to really value the information, members must be actively engaged. This is the new norm.

Long Term Impact: Strategic Member Engagement

With today’s new norm, how does your Association differentiate itself from all of the alternative sources to which your members have access? How do you have the information tonight for the question they need to answer tomorrow morning? How do you create a differentiating “experience” that makes members think of you first before they conduct a Google or Bing search for other sources? And critically, how do you build a connected community that positions both your organization and your constituencies for long term success? These questions are at the core of today’s confusion about “member engagement”.

Is Your Association Positioned for the Long Term?

Strategic Member Engagement is really about long term, sustainable strategies to enhance your organization’s long term health. It is not about short term band aids. Strategic member engagement has huge implications for your competitive positioning and business model. In fact, for some associations, it can be a game-changing accelerator to your growth strategy.

The free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” is available for all Association Executives upon request at www.potomaccore.com