From Relevance to REVOLUTION.... Its NOW or NEVER

Return on Management.... Is Your Team Worth Your Board's Investment

2012-02-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

As this past year ended and my review by my Board of Trustees was upon me, I contemplated a number of metrics I could provide them that could share in the big picture what our management team’s value has meant to the association over time. I needed a number that quantitatively could, in the big picture, sum everything up and that everything pointed to:

Was membership growing or declining?
How was our management cost in relation to other associations our size?
Were members participating in programs?
How was the net worth of the association performing?
Were association expenses in line?
Was meeting attendance growing or declining?

It was too much to push through and show metric after metric. I didn’t want to show tons of trends. I needed one metric, one trend line that everything pointed back to…. a metric that every number and all activities led to.

Meet the Geeks!

And then it hit me. If we were to judge an investment such as a mutual fund, we would ask ourselves annually, for the amount of money we invest in the stock, how much is it worth at the end of the year? That gives us a return on investment or ROI. Looking at this number at the end of each year over time provides you a trend analysis of whether you should continue to invest or make an adjustment in your portfolio.

As I thought this through, I realized that we could provide the very same analysis for the management of an association. We call it Return on Management (ROM). ROM shows for every dollar invested annually into the management of your association, how much money is your association worth. The calculation is an easy one to perform:

If the association is managed by an Association Management Company (AMC):

Total net worth of the association divided by the AMC annual fee

If association is NOT managed by an (AMC):

Total net worth of the association divided by the total of salaries, payroll taxes, employee benefits and the cost of office space and expenses associates with maintaining office.

ROM is Key to Inspiring Staff to Change

Here is a sample calculation: if the association’s total net worth is $800,000 and the total cost to manage it is $330,000, then the return on management (ROM) is $2.42. What this says is, for every $1 the association invested in management, it has $2.42 in net worth. Over time as management fees rise or fall and the association net worth rises and falls, the ROM metric gives you a trend line to help you quickly identify if you are on the right path or have a problem.

Keep in mind, this number doesn’t mean a thing for one year. The power in this metric is trending it over time. Seeing the direction of this number provides an incredible visual to management and staff. It shows how effective they are as a whole in delivering value and building financial strength for its membership related to the cost of management. Every activity we do as associations always leads back to increasing or decreasing our net worth. If we are making good choices as associations, the net worth will rise. If we make bad choices, the net worth will decline.

We mapped it out for our association and here is what it looked like:

In 1990, our association had $1.40 for every $1 it invested in management costs. From there, they started a slow gradual decline to .25 cents in net worth for every $1 invested in management costs in 2005. A 73-year old organization almost wiped out its reserves and didn't see it coming. If staff and board members had seen this graph annually starting in 1990, I would venture to say that somewhere along the way early in the 1990’s, change would have been considered.

Fortunately dramatic change happened in 2006 and as you can see, the ROM has turned around and has dramatically risen and it almost back up to $2.

I challenge all associations to internally perform this metric on a trend line for the last 10 to 15 years and share it with your staff. The direction of the line will quickly share with your team, if they are delivering value towards the financial strength of the organization. It also is a great visual, if its rising, to provide your board a historical perspective on the value of the management team. Sometimes its easy for them to forget that value.

Summary is simple…. If ROM is trending up, pats on the back, we are on the right path. ROM is trending down, change needs to happen and now. What is your ROM Trend?

Why Boards Need to Innovate

2012-01-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

Posted in the January Edition of ASAE's Associations Now

Associations are currently experiencing one of the biggest dynamic shifts in technology and demographics ever experienced in human history. Business is changing at lightning speed, traditional business models are no longer relevant, and each demographic group wants things differently.

Yet many boards are choosing to ignore these changes and instead make decisions that are driving their associations to become irrelevant to their members. One of the biggest challenges associations face today is motivating and inspiring their boards to face facts and take steps to move their association’s communication strategy, value propositions, and member service models into the future.

The problem, you see, is that many board members believe they are in the membership business. Success and failure is defined by asking, “How much did we grow membership this year?” That is wrong thinking.

Your association is in the business of creating a financially strong organization that has the funding to do the purpose of the organization. If you do that, people will want to join.

The questions that you, as a board member, constantly need to ask are, “What real value are we delivering to the member?” and “Is it shifting with the changing demands of our current and future members?”

Many boards today are predominantly controlled by baby boomers, who in large part rebel against making radical changes away from how its always been done to adapt their associations. Baby boomers belonged to associations just to belong, but that’s not the case with younger generations. They want value.

Engaging with the concepts of innovation and change isn’t about making some radical shift that disrupts the association so much it splits the membership. Successful innovation and change starts with small steps and continues with targeted incremental changes that sees member value, loyalty, and excitement rise year after year. (I’ve seen this in my own association, where in the past six years membership has increased 8 percent, member revenues 28 percent, and our overall net member surplus increased 582 percent.)

Some associations may actually require a radical shift, but most simply need a series of small consistent changes over time to create the wave of excitement every association longs for. Below are three keys for tapping into innovation as a board member.

1. Identify the problems you need to solve as an association. I’m amazed at how many associations embrace solutions because “everyone is doing it” without identifying the problem first. You shouldn’t be putting up a Facebook page without answering the question, “What problems are we solving by having the Facebook page?” Real innovation means matching up tangible solutions to meet real member problems while also introducing futuristic ideas to solving problems we aren’t aware of yet. The key is to define the challenges of your members and help them solve the problems they can’t solve effectively by themselves.

2. Survey your membership. As a board member, you serve the membership. That’s why you were elected. A key element to making great decisions as a board is to survey your membership on its thoughts about problems and solutions. Keep your finger on the pulse of how your overall membership views programs, services, and technology, and use the data to drive your value proposition. If they believe in the programs, they’ll remain members.

3. Look at your financial trends. There are four key metrics you need to look at over time. These four numbers tell you whether board decisions are enhancing member value or driving the association into the abyss.

· Total Member Surplus at Year End. This displays the overall success of the organization in building financial resources to do the work of the association.

· Total Membership Each Quarter. This tells you the direction of member confidence. If members have confidence in your association, retention rates are high and membership continues to grow.

· Rolling 12 Months of Revenues and Expenses Each Quarter. This helps you see the impact of your board decisions on monthly basis.

· Revenue Per Member on a Quarterly Basis. This shares how engage the members are in member programs.

Looking at these trends graphically at a board meeting will tell you within seconds if you are on the right track or if you need to do something different. It’s amazing how quickly the conversation changes when you see any of those numbers heading south.

Stay tuned for next week's blog post on a new metric many associations are fearful of looking at and sharing with their boards.... its call Return on Management (ROM).

Why Are You Hear and Do You Know Your Vital Signs?

2011-11-29T07:58:00.000-08:00

With it being the end of the year, its typically a time of reflection and a renewed energy towards making the future better. My question to you is do you know "Why you are here" (your association mission) and "Are you looking at the vital signs that can instantly tell you if you need some type of change"?

I want you to watch the following video. Its 180 seconds seconds and is a powerful message from John Maxwell, one of the leading speakers on purpose and leadership. Take a moment to listen:

You see, just as knowing your purpose is a stability for successful people, your association mission is a stability for your association. Your mission provides a confidence to your members that the industry could tumble tomorrow, but you will be OK because you are a member of our association. The question is... do you have the right mission for your membership. One they find great confidence in and is your mission clear, measurable, achievable and supports the future picture of your organization and its member's needs.

I'm a believer in that before you can decide your mission, you need to look at your association's vital signs to see how much and how radical your change needs to be. In my opinion, there are four key vital signs you need to be looking at every quarter on a graph to see a big picture perspective. These graphs will tell your board in an instant if they need to make change and where to make it. The following are what I feel are the four key vital signs of an association with a supporting visual for you to see what they look like for our association with a line where we made change;

Total Membership - Tells you the health of your membership. This line doesn't have to always be growing, but at least steadily moving upward because you are not in the membership business. You are in the business of doing your purpose and if done with awesomeness and clarity, non-members will want to convert to supporting members. You can see before the line in the middle, if that is all you saw, you would know instantly you needed to make change because of the downward trend. Our change has provided steady increases towards our previous highs in membership.

Per Member Revenue - This tells you the participation by members in your overall association activities. This number is simple... All revenue paid by members the previous 12 months including dues, meetings, programs, training, etc divided by the number of total members each quarter. As the graph shows, when we made change, our per member revenue rose over time from $1,500 a member to $2,000 a month. With a membership of 370, that is $185,000 of new funding. We would have had to recruit 100 new members to gain the same. We all know its much easier to get members to spend more with you than recruit a new member...

Rolling 12-months of Revenues and Expenses - This helps you to see how the flow of income and expenses are each quarter so you can quickly judge how your overall decisions are impacting both. You can see that when our per member revenue began to rise, it had a nice impact on our revenues. Costs began to rise as meeting participation rose, but seeing that on this graph, we have been able to curb expenses and keep revenues up. The reason a graph is so important is it tells you the relevance of a number at a period in time. The same number can look good or bad depending on if its on the upswing or on a downward trend. Graphs make every number clear whether they are good or bad.

Total Net Member Surplus (Net Worth) - This tells you the overall health of everything. If this number is rising, your overall health is good. If this number is falling, you have a problem because you are dipping into reserves to pay bills. Not a good thing. When you look at this graph, tell me... if you and your board were looking only at the graph to the left of the line, don't you think you would start thinking about making some changes and quick? Some of the same numbers on the right hand side look good because they are on the rise. The same number on the left is bad because its in the middle of a severe decline. Visualization of your vitals signs are empowering in motivating decision making.

The moment I created pictures of our 4-key vital signs for our board to look at, making change became easy. No board wants to be the board that drove the association into non-existence. Downward trends in the key vital signs is truly disturbing to any board because they can now see how their decisions are directly related to the health of the association.

In my 15+ years as a CEO of three different organizations, I have found the following to be keys to them all growing to be the best at what they do for their industry and members:

Graph out your key vital signs to get the big picture of where you are heading.
Establish your mission that is clear, achievable, measurable and supports the future picture.
Identify your controllable and uncontrollable threats that will get in your way of achieving your mission
Create an action plan to achieve your mission taking into account threats. Have an action item to deal with each controllable threat and a contingency action item for each uncontrollable threat if it occurs.
Make sure to continue to plot out your vital signs to watch the impact of your action plan on the overall success or needs for an "innovation adjustment" to them.
Debrief your action plan with your board and staff and look at your vital signs each quarter to look at where you said you want to be, where you are and any "innovation adjustments" needed to make up gap. The key is to watch your vital signs and make changes as needed.

Having an association that rules your industry is not that complicated to obtain. The key is to know your vital signs, know your resources, know your members needs and wants and match a plan of innovation and action that meets those needs.

Connecting With the Next Generation... Not as Hard as You Think!

2011-10-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking on my plan ride today as I was looking at our Annual Meeting attendance, our new board members to be installed at the meeting and some recent pictures of me with members and I noticed how the young blood is beginning to take shape within our association.

It frankly was quite exciting because I have heard many around the country say:

“Those young people are not joiners.”
“They don’t see our association as relevant.”
“They don’t feel like they need us.”
“They only want to connect through social media.”

As passionately as I think "the association model is the strongest business model for banning people together to take action to make lasting change", I also think "associations offer young people a special connection and bond they can’t get anywhere else."

Young people have a desire to meet face to face. They do join things that are relevant to their lives and they don’t just connect through social media.

The problem with most associations is they are not embracing the youthful ways which causes the “disconnect.” They instead are trying to force age their age old ideas on young people who think those ideas aren’t good anymore. They are seeking more!

Our association goes out of its way to make the young people feel important and give them a platform to be a part of the process. We make them feel like their ideas count. We tell them they ARE THE FUTURE! We have created a premier industry management training program that energizes them and lets them know they have achieved something. We educate them that this program is their stepping stone to serving at the highest levels of leadership in our industry.

If you want to attract the young people in your industry, take a lesson out of the military advertising where young people join by the thousands everyday. Young people believe they will see their world in ways they never thought possible, have an amazing experience along the journey and be better off in the end, all while fighting for an amazing cause.

We have followed that model and it has worked with amazement. We even end everyone one of our online webcast with, “Your not just strong. Your MTI Strong!”

I encourage every association to take a look at your next generation outreach efforts and see what will it take to let young people know they can trust you, you care about them and you do things in a way that will exciting to them. They want an experience for sure.

Associations need to "connect" with where younger people are to draw then in and sometimes that means taking somewhat crazy steps. Let me leave you with one example. Earlier this year, I found out one of our participants in our Young Executive Management Program was the 2008 National Beer Pong Competition Champion in Las Vegas. He is 24. After finishing our networking dinner at the first meeting and looking for what to do next to keep the networking and bonding among the managers lively, he said he happen to have his beer pong table in his truck. I told him to go get it, asked the banquet manager if we could keep the room open until midnight and told the other 20 participants to meet us in the banquet room for some team building.

What transpired was amazing. I sat in awe watching 20 managers from different parts of the country relax and bond as they connected with one another as they formed teams of two and played beer pong for 3 hours. They talked business, shared war stories and laughed a ton. My favorite comment came from a conservative guy called Dave from the midwest. He turned to me at one point and said, "Tom, this is so far out of my comfort zone, but I'm having the time of my life."

You see, we allowed a group of young managers to connect at their level inside a game they enjoyed in a safe and controlled environment, made it a team building event, used it to our advantage to connect and built loyalty among our next generation. Through the night they learned strategy, focus, accuracy, patience, teamwork and moderation. Most associations would have stuck them in a room with open bar and let them drink uncontrollably or let them go out on the town where who knows what would happen and been okay with that. Not us.... we wanted to create more for them.

We wanted that connection between them and our association and we got it.

I suggest all associations figure out where your connection point is with your next generation and go for it, even it it looks unconventional for associations....

WOW... This Membership Thing Really Works!

2011-09-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Over the last year, I've been hearing and reading from many people about the "so-called" change in the association membership model. How you "must" look at the "free dues" model to succeed in the future. How people will not pay you for what they can get for "free" on the internet and young people are not joiners.

I'm here to tell you I'm more excited than ever about the paid membership model because we live it everyday here at MTI and it is working better than ever because we have put out focus on three key areas "every" association must do in order to create amazing value and charge "RETAIL" dues to their members and have them love paying it.

KEY #1!

You MUST Provide services and products that your members can't provide themselves effectively. Did you hear me... provide themselves effectively. Let me share the big lie many have bought into... Members can get everything more effectively because of the internet. IT'S NOT TRUE. Here is an example. I was at a FSAE Think Tank with 35 top association executives a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about this subject and an executive right next to me started talking about the issue of "he didn't need FSAE to be able to pull together people and have a meeting like this. Members don't need an association for that anymore as much," he claimed. He has BOUGHT into the LIE! I immediately piped in and stated that, "You paid $50 to be at this 2-day event with 35 of the best minds in association management and your telling me that for the $50 you paid to be at this amazing event, you could pull together this crowd for 2-days? Who's going to do your day job?"

You see, this executive didn't understand how to relate his own value to the value he was receiving from his association. It would cost thousands of dollars in raw cost, time and lost opportunity cost for him to take time away from his daily association duties to pull together a 2-day meeting of 35 association executives. Each attendee received it for $50 from FSAE. That is amazing value!

The association I manage, MTI, is experiencing this amazing phenomenon every month. This past month, we sent a letter to 45 former members to let them know if they were continuing to use a copyrighted legal document on their invoicing that was for MTI members only, they were subject to penalties and fines for copyright infringement. MTI had just spent $10,000 to strengthen the document earlier in the year and didn't charge members a dime. The phone rang off the hook and numerous former members have rejoined. Why?? Because they recognize MTI was doing something "more effectively" than they could individually.


Many Assns. Membership Model

KEY #2

Narrow Your Focus of Benefits! We don't live in a "throw it on the wall and see what sticks" anymore. It is imperative associations pick the 3 to 5 things they do better than anyone in the world and handcuff their members to it and give them a reason to love it. MTI does 5 things their members need better than anyone in the world of its industry that members CAN'T do effectively on their own:

Online training that is relevant and member driven
Monthly, quarterly and annual benchmarking to help members make great business decisions
"Instant Access" to 5 professional consultants and the largest network of heat treaters in world to get quick solutions to daily operations and technical challenges
Instant online connection to members online to like areas of expertise, demographics and years experience
Face to face conferences that allow members to combine business with pleasure and experience nice economies of scale while connecting their families with other industry families as well as business opportunities and education (becoming a nice trend for associations)

No one in our world provides those 5 things better than we do and members CANNOT do them more effectively themselves.

KEY #3

Do ALL that you do with the WOW Factor. Members want to be a part of something exciting and bigger than themselves and they want to know three things when looking at you as an association:

Can I trust you
Do you care about me and my needs
Do you do EVERYTHING with EXCELLENCE

We do everything to ensure our member experience at every level is not boring but has the opportunity to create memories and emotions that drive them to love our association. We don't just ask people to update their online profiles. We have a 60-day spectacular online event where if you update your profile, you will be placed in a drawing to win one of two $250 American Express Gift Cards for Christmas! We will hold the drawing in a video and call the person up live to capture their excitement and push it out for members to see. This shows members they are part of something exciting!

Our performance reflects that excitement: Our membership is 15% higher than it was 6 years ago. Our per member revenue is 28% higher driving our total member surplus up 572% by year end 2011 during an economy in 2009 where our members sales dropped as much as 70%. Our member sales are back to record levels and that growth in member surplus has allowed us to do some pretty amazing and valuable things for our members without adding cost to them. Now that is a valuable member model.

Don't buy the lie! The membership model works. The key is focusing in on the 3-things I've stated above. I know because me and my staff live it everyday!

Why the Traditional Association Model is Stronger Than Ever

2011-09-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

A lot of talk has been pouring over the internet recently regarding whether the traditional association model works in today's crazy fast and ever changing environment. The answer is it is more powerful than ever. Let me share why.

I like to compare the traditional association model to that of the traditional car model. Cars of today have the same four components they did in the 1960's with an engine, body, frame and four wheels. The car has always been the best and most efficient mode of transportation for the average person. Yet the cars of today outperform cars of the 1960's because of technology advancements and re-engineering.

Associations are exactly the same. The traditional model of today encompasses the same core elements as the 1960's in that associations provide groups of people with a common passion and purpose a chance to:

Organize themselves
Coordinate their efforts
Leverage the costs over many people
Do things as a group they could not do individually effectively
Build trust to take advantage of business opportunities

There is no other model that allows a group of people with common passion and purpose to pull off such great accomplishments than the association model. For all of you who believe social media can assimilate people with a common purpose, your fooling yourself because someone has got to execute and do the work. Social media allows people to talk, write and shout out a lot, but at some point, someone has to leave their computer and do the work. This is where the associations rules the day.

With technology advancements such as social media, gotomypc, go to meeting, skype and mobile the association model has made the association model stronger and more powerful because:

We have now given the smallest member in the most remote location an opportunity to be involved in the conversation
We have empowered our members to connect 24/7
We have engaged our members to have a louder voice because the voice has expanded
We have become more important as a trusted filter to the incredible amount of wrong information on the internet

The reason people view the association model as dead is because many CEO's and execs have viewed the technology advancements as a threat to their control and association model instead of the path to re-engineering that can propel their association to expand their reach to rule their universe.

I know this because our organization still runs a traditional model with a baby boomer board of directors, baby boomer members and committee structures. However, over the last six years, our association has aggressively made technology advancements and re-engineering a habit and the member satisfaction, member loyalty, engage of the younger generation and financial strength of our organization has never been higher.

Here's the deal:

People WANT to accomplish something bigger than themselves with groups common to them.
People WANT to be a part of something exciting.
People WANT to believe in an organization who can empower them to make it happen.

If any association implements technology advancements and the right re-engineering around the five core association elements mentioned above, I believe they can rule their universe and engage the loyalty of their members.

As the commercial says... "Life come at your fast. Stop talking and start doing."

Keeping it Real for Associations

2011-08-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Question…. Why do you believe “who” you believe when it comes to credible information and blog posting on growing your association? As a CEO who meets the challenges everyday in membership recruitment, engagement, meeting budgets, exciting volunteers and drive a board to make change, I read a lot that comes through my computer through Twitter. Some will work in reality. Lots are theoretical ideas that are driven by a series of assumptions due to changing dynamics of demography and technology. The truth is that many of the ideas being circulated give no thought as to the vision and leverage of an organizational structure like associations.

Do you enjoy them because they are your friends, or what they say sounds profound and they are good writers or because you can actually implement what they are saying? I’ll give you an example. At the 2011 ASAE Great Ideas conference, as the lead keynote was presenting, people were tweeting these incredible phrases he was stating. A couple of us at my table, who are run associations, began to see that he did not understand how associations run. His corporate examples of Apple, Toyota and Zappos weren’t models that were relevant to growing an association and his ideas were off base. Yet people continued to tweet his profound statements that don’t work in or not relevant to an association or non-profit business model.

Let’s face it… 1,000 companies/individuals together are more powerful than one of them. I’ll even go further to say that 1,000 companies/individuals that are organized through an association are more powerful than 1,000 companies/individuals who are joined together by social media.

The reason… SOMEONE HAS TO DO THE WORK AND EXECUTE SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST POSTS AND SHOUT OUTS.

I will restate what I stated in my last blog post… The association model is NOT dead, but is as strong as it has ever been! What is dead is the age-old thinking by baby boomer CEO’s who are in charge of associations. They are running a great business model right into the ground and think there problem is because all their baby boomer members are retiring soon.

Those who see the future as doom and gloom because baby boomer members are retiring, have they not seen that the Gen Y generation is 40% larger than those boomers. That spells OPPORTUNITY! Business 101 folks: The greatest opportunity lies when a shrinking marketplace is replaced by a larger, growing and more intelligent marketplace.

With that said, I want to give all association professionals some advice as you seek out guidance from what you read in the blogosphere. Ask yourself a couple of questions before you BELIEVE and ACT:

1) Have they ever sat in the position as an association leader?

2) Have they been successful in executing what they are claiming?

3) Has anyone in the association sphere executed what they are saying?

4) Are their measurable results from any association to back up their theories and ideas?

Think about it. If you are shooting a score of 100 in golf and you want to get down to mid 80s, you don’t’ ask someone who doesn’t play golf for advice. You certainly don’t ask someone who is shooting 95s. You ask someone who is consistently shooting in the low 80s or a professional in the game who can provide just one or two tips that are executable immediately allowing you to see short term results for longer term game change.

I love reading the blogs, love new thinking and love new ideas. However, the thinking and new ideas have to be something that can actually be implemented and work successfully. Just trying to keep it real for the association community.

Go BIG, Go BOLD, Go NOW!!

2011-08-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

First I have to say that ASAE was amazing this year in their ability to deliver an incredible event in a city that many were skeptical about. Hats off to ASAE and St. Louis for providing one of the most exciting learning environments in recent memory. I flew to Washington DC and back in one day shortly after ASAE Los Angeles to be a part of a special meeting with ASAE’s leadership to discuss the failings of the event. It’s obvious they listened to the group. Thank you ASAE for listening and delivering.

What I love about a conference is that it can give people the opportunity to live out their purpose and experience their passions. My purpose is to drive people to live life in a way where they never look back and say, “I wish I would have…” but instead say “I did!” and to reach beyond themselves to experience the “ultimate life.” ASAE provides me an opportunity to engage with those who are in challenging times and need someone to help them see a positive direction for themselves or their association. There is nothing more rewarding than helping people move from one place in life to a better place in life. That was never more evident than when I challenged people at the YAPNation Network-FEST Event to come to the stage during the song I Got a Feeling and put money in the bucket for the Joplin Red Cross. During the entire song, people just kept coming with money. It was an amazing experience. We raised $2,900 that night! Thank you ASAE for giving me and YAPNation a platform!

My passion is drums. I’ve played drums since I was 5 years old and was playing in bars when I was 13 years old. Having the chance to play a dozen rock songs and then jam a solo at Jive and Wail at the YAPNation NetworkFEST event rocked my world! It was like being on top of the world performing the very thing that gives you the most pleasure and knowing your closest friends in the association world were there to experience it with you. The greatest moment was the next day when a friend tweeted during the general session, “@tommorrison is better than the drummer playing in the general session.” It will be a memory etched in my life forever… Thank you ASAE for being a path to living out my passion!

For the rest of this post, I want to lend some reality to the world of association management. I always ask the question of people when they are listening or reading on association management, is the person teaching or writing sitting in the stands or are they playing the game? There are many things from the stands that really look good, but won’t work in the real game. Now having a little time to digest my thoughts after ASAE, my goal is to lend some reality thoughts from a CEO who is living the dream and the success of an association that has grown over 500% in net surplus in 5 years, increased its membership 7.5% and average revenues per member by almost 30% in the same time frame. And I have a board and membership that looks just like any other baby boomer group (I put their picture up in my ASAE Innovation Session).

Many are not going to like to like this statement….. but we don’t have an association model problem. Did you hear that? We don’t have an association model problem. We have a leadership problem. It all starts at the top. It is no different than the evolution of cars. Cars today still have a frame, a body, wheels and an engine. Yet, cars in the 80’s would never compete with cars of today in performance because of the advancements made in the technology components and reengineering around the frame, body, tires and engine.

The same is true for associations. The core of the association model is still as powerful as it was 80 years ago. Associations who are experiencing exciting growth in their associations are making constant advancements in their association components as well as reengineering themselves like new cars which enhances the performance of their core association components. Key components associations should reengineer that will lead to incredible growth in member excitement, loyalty and revenues are:

Narrowing your focus on doing programs and services for your members they can’t do themselves allowing you to charge “retail dues.” As Heath Ledger stated in The Dark Knight, “When you are good at something, never give it away for free.”
Implement technology that allows your members to connect with people, content and their membership purpose 24/7 year round.
Create an experience for Gen Y that hits at the heart of why they want to belong to your association. If you reach this group, baby boomers leaving membership for retirement is not an issue for your association. Gen Y is 40% larger than baby boomers…. Get IT!
Developing not just a conference, but an exciting learning experience that engages member’s emotions into gaining a new perspective on their industry and refreshing their sprit personally. It’s not about the learning but the experience that brings them back. Get the spouses there, you have them for life.
Leveraging the power as an association of many to infect change in the industry. When your membership is convinced they are an army, not just a soldier, it empower them to be a part of something bigger than themselves that can help create a better marketplace for their companies.
Develop a communication structure that engages every demographic group where they are including print, email, video and social media. Do it ALL to reach ALL!
Think BIG do it all with a WOW Factor! Members want to be excited about their organization.

Growing your association is about living in a constant state of innovation and chasing the ultimate level of relevance to your membership by focusing on the 7 areas above.

And this can’t start from the bottom up as some might think. That takes a generation to impact change. When it comes from the top down, an association can turn on a dime and rule its industry. I know because I’ve lived it in the two associations I’ve ran as CEO.

Again, we don’t have an association model problem. We have a leadership challenge. When association leadership turns from being governors to business savvy leaders, we will see an exciting new breed of associations that have reengineered the components of the core association model to dominate their world.

Staff Meeting 24/7... Its the ONLY WAY

2011-07-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a staff meeting and wondered how much time was actually quantifiable as productive time in the meeting? How many of the people sitting in the staff meeting were just sitting there listening to people give updates that did not impact their day-to-day work assignments? How much productivity and labor dollars are wasted in associations spending 2 to 4 hours going over projects, meetings and committee work to make sure everyone is “in the know?” And how do we keep everyone “in the know” on the developments of the projects, meetings and committees as a staff to ensure we don’t miss any details?

No matter what size the association, keeping the information flow throughout your office efficient so that the right pieces of information get into the right minds at the right time and it be documented in a central area is always a challenge.

WELL NO MORE!

Recently I was asking these questions as I sipped a cup of coffee listening to the waves crash onto the shore. This is usually where most of my innovation happens by the way J. As I pondered the question, I then started asking myself, do we have the means already in-house technology wise to engage an inter-office structure that could equate to a 24/7 staff meeting, where when we sat down, everyone “already” knew the updates thereby making staff meetings shorter and more targeted at more effective brainstorming due to everyone already being “in the know.”

As I started panning through the various technology we have put in place the last 24-months, it struck me: Our social technology system has subgroups within main groups that can be made private. That instantly led me into creating a private group called “Staff Meeting 24/7” that is not accessible to our members. Only staff personnel can view it. I then created a subgroup for every project, meeting, committee and benchmarking survey we currently have open making the appropriate staff a member of the subgroup. I then created one discussion forum called “Status Updates” for everyone in the group to post any type of change or update on that particular meeting, project, survey or committee.

This was revolutionary in my mind because my staff would always tell me there is so much information in my brain as CEO that needs to be released to them on the projects we are working on and it doesn’t get released because of my busy schedule. Now all I have to do is post my latest set of information/questions in each subgroup and the appropriate staff receives it. And when they reply, the staff and I get that. No more claiming, “I didn’t know I was suppose to do that.” No more waiting until next staff meeting 3 weeks from now to know another persons activity’s are going to have an impact on your department. Now, inter-office communications and all association activities related to staff are centralized, fully listed with up to date information and instantaneous.

This has streamlined our operations tremendously and put focus with our staff because if something is not listed in our subgroups as a meeting, committee, survey study or project, we aren’t working on it as an staff. It has made our staff meetings more focused and shorter because our agenda is the list of subgroups in the Staff 24/7 group on our social media site and everyone is already informed through the status updates posted. Now important information is not in someone’s head, it’s posted centrally so we can all focus on the most important aspect that drives member value… driving creative ideas that solve member problems. Now that’s innovation… and it was right at our fingertips. We just had to ask the right questions and start exploring our technology.

For those of you wondering who the Metal Treating Institute uses for social technology, we use the MemberFuse platform by Avectra. I would highly recommend no matter what vendor you use, seek to use it to its fullest. Live in discovery zone as you ponder how to help your staff be more efficient. The technology you need may be right under your fingers.

Success at an Annual Conference: WHAT'S THAT!

2011-07-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

So you've registered for this event called an annual conference with hundreds or thousands of attendees and an overwhelming number of learning labs. You spent the time convincing a supervisor, CEO or yourself the return on your investment is going to be worth the effort to pack clothing for four to five days, the time away from the frantic pace of the office, spending long days learning and networking and the money spent.

When you consider time, effort and money, a tremendous amount of resources go into attending an annual conference. Yet I personally am amazed at people who get to the end of a conference and say the words... "I really didn't get much out of the conference!" REALLY? I'm thinking... "I learned the one idea that is going to reshape our membership or revenues or our entire value proposition." What sessions were they in?

Having reviewed conference surveys for a number of years, how do have one attendee that says, "I've been coming to conference for 30 years and thought the keynote was the best EVER," and another person says... "I didn't get the keynotes presentation?"

10 years ago I implemented a system for myself to attack any conference to guarantee I would come away with ideas that could transform our association over the next 12 months. Remember, true success is not about a one time dynamic shift in all you do. It's a small set of incremental changes made over a period of time. Staff and boards can handle small incremental change much easier than sweeping change.

Using the simple system noted below has provided me the ideas that has helped our association over the last five years grow its member surplus over 450%, increase per member revenue 28% on just 7.5% growth in total members. All this through the up and down economies of 2009 and 2010.

So here are the keys to getting the most out of any conference you attend:

Decide whether you want information or ideas - I always ask people the question... "would you rather return with 12-legal size pages of great information or 2-sentences of an idea that could transform your association? I find people are so focused on writing down what the presenter is saying, they never transform what they are saying into something actionable. Me personally... I want the GREAT IDEA!

Define and write down the 2-top challenges your association needs to solve now and the 1-top challenge it needs to be looking at solving in the next 24-months. This keeps you focused in the presentations to listen and write down the actionable ideas you know will work for those challenges.

What to write down at conference - I don't require myself or my staff to write any notes what the speaker is saying at any session. I only require we make note of the following items for each day we are at conference to review at the end:

1) A new idea or new way of doing something we already do
2) What are we going to do differently on Monday when we return
3) One person I met who can help us make the change we need

Putting focus on these three items each day of a conference has helped us cut through the mass of information and zero in on ideas and people that have led to the amazing growth and excitement we have experienced. And it is continuing in 2011. We are slated to grow our member surplus by another 17%.

A couple of closing comments. Don't get caught up in the information. Get caught up in the ideas that you can actually implement that are clear, achievable, measurable and support the future vision of your association. If you have reached the end of a conference and don't have any ideas, you need to change the crowd you hang with at conference. I personally could miss every session at conference and still walk away with a great return on my investment because I feel I hang with the most innovative minds in the industry. We like helping each other solve our challenges so we can achieve the greatest success both personally and professionally.

So get your pad or mobile device out.... Define your challenges you are looking to solve... If you are looking and listening, you will find all the answers at conference.

How to Be a Real Change Agent in Your Association

2011-02-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Associations are currently experiencing one of the biggest dynamic shifts in technology and demographics every experienced in human history. Business is changing at lightening fast speed, traditional business models are no longer relevant and each demographic group wants things differently.

One of the biggest challenges associations face today is motivating and inspiring their Boards to face the facts and take steps to move their association’s communication strategy, value propositions and member service models into the future.

The problem is this means “change” which many Boards do not like. Take a look at some of the trends impacting associations in the next 3 to 7 years Boards need to start thinking about NOW:

· Social Media growing as a predominant mode of communication for those under 30

· Association’s value proposition being questioned more than ever

· Internet providing so much information for free that associations use to have control over

· Associations struggle to connect the membership dots for Gen “Y”

· Mobil communications putting information resources in the palm of every member’s hand

The question is…. What is your Board going to do about it?

So many Boards are controlled by a predominantly baby boomer generation, who in large part rebel against making any radical changes away from how “its always been done” and adapting their associations into the technology age. Even knowing the under 30-year old member is a fast growing set of members who communicate differently, Boards still persist to keep traditional ineffective models of driving member value and communication.

Having influence on getting your Board to consider the wave of change is an art and a system of communication. The following are the keys to being a key influence of change within your Board:

Establish the Problems You Need to Solve as an Association

I’m amazed at how many associations approach solutions because everyone is doing it or without identifying the problem “first.” People only make change when two things happen:

1. They are aware a problem exists

2. They are sufficiently disturbed about the problem to make change

If you, as the “change agent”, cannot articulate the problem to your Board and cannot share the relevant information to disturb them enough to make change, you will never see innovation and creativity to keep pace in today’s fast changing environment at the Board level When your Board fears what will happen if they “don’t” make change more than the changes needing to be made, then and only then do you have a Board ready to make radical innovations to maximize their value proposition to the member. The key is to define your problems.

Survey Your Membership for Their Thoughts and Input

Your Board serves your membership. That is why they are elected. A key element to influencing your Board into change is to survey your membership on their thoughts to problems and solutions. If your Board is pushing you to go one direction with an initiative and a survey says that 70+ % of your members feel the value isn’t there and you should go another direction, your Board will be hard pressed to push the initiative knowing less than 30% of the members feel it’s the right move. Make sure to keep your finger on the pulse of how your overall membership views programs, services and technology and put that data in front of your Board for their review.

Network With Your Board to Understand Pushback

As you are setting the ground work for any type of change, its important you be having open conversations with all your Board members individually to see who is going to be the “nay sayers.” Not changing because you just don’t like change is not a valid reason for not making change. You need to find the nay sayers first and help educate them why change will be a good thing.

Pick Champions on the Board Who Will Carry the Message

The best people to be pushing change are other Board Members who believe in the change. As you network with your Board on issues of making change, discover who your “change agents” can be and provide them enough information and support for them to be effective in driving your Board to make change.

Present the Facts of Why Change is Needed and What the Risks are Doing Nothing

If you are looking to make positive changes in your association in any area, its imperative you present relevant facts so Your Board can see the reasons why they need to consider options for solving the issue presented. They also need to know what the ramifications will be for doing nothing. The best example in everyone’s face right now is “social technologies.” Over 97% of all under 30-year olds communicate through a social network. If you knew this as an association, it would make sense that your association needs to implement some type of social technology to bring your future members together in a format they really like using. Doing “nothing” could leave your association open to future members have the perception you are not innovative enough for them and your not relevant because what you offer, they can get for free somewhere else. Remember the KEY Component to membership value, engagement and retention…. Doing things for members they cannot do themselves effectively.

Put Responsibility on the Board for Choosing the Right or Wrong Solution

In my experience, if you have laid the problems out very clearly, communicated what potential solutions are and what the ramifications are for the association if they do nothing, the Board will almost always choose change because they don’t want to be known as the Board who stood in the way of growth. Make sure they understand they are the ones making the final decision, not staff and they are responsible for the negative results that could happen if they do nothing.

Your Board Has to Have the Confidence YOU CAN PULL OFF THE CHANGE

This goes without saying, but I have to say it because I see some CEO’s who are frustrated at their Boards for not making change and when I listen to them talk about the issues, I can hear the Board doesn’t think the CEO has the ability to make the change happen effectively so lets do nothing. Make sure you have what it takes in leadership skills and staffing to be the “change agent” in your association.

Tom Morrison is CEO of the Metal Treating Institute. Through using the above plan, over the last 5 years MTI has seen a 7.5% increase in membership, 28% increase in per member revenues and 482% increase in overall net member surplus.

What's All the Fuss About? GET A CONFERENCE PLAN!

2010-09-02T10:05:00.001-07:00

I have read with great excitement all the various blogs discussing the "good", the "bad" and the "ugly" of the 2010 ASAE Conference. Later you will read my thoughts on the various blogs that sought to share the failures of ASAE at this year's LA Conference.

First I wanted to address why I feel people didn't think they received a good return on investment at this years or any other years conference. There are 2 main reasons you will never receive at even a good conference a great return on investment:

FIRST.... You don't have a plan to gain what you need because you haven't identified what you are looking for. Had everyone attended the webinar I was asked to give by Peach New Media 2 weeks before conference, you would have easily made a return on this years conference because I shared a easy plan for people to gain that return. You write down the following each day:

1) One New Idea I learned I can implement for a specific need for my association
2) One New Thing I'm going to do differently on Monday when I return to the office
3) One New Contact I made who can help me make the change

With that one piece of paper with simply 3 easy things to look for each day, you will find what you are looking for. I know because our association by the end of this year will have grown its member surplus 465% since January 2006 because of attacking every conference I attend like this.

I hang around the best of the best at ASAE and I can tell you that if I didn't attend ONE session, I always walk away with those three questions answered and I make great change after each conference. Did I say 465% in member surplus in 5 years. It happened again at ASAE 2010... I walked away with 3 new ideas to implement, 3 new things I'm going to try differently and 3 new people who can help me make change. Most of them happened walking down the hall or hanging after hours with friends discussing what went on in the classroom. Learning is NOT all about the classroom.

SECONDLY... if you are not getting a great return on investment, you are hanging around with the wrong crowd. You only learn as much as the attendees around you can conceive. If you hang out with people who aren't great innovators in their associations and they are looking to learn, your return is going to be little. If you are hanging around the BEST MINDS, then your return is going to be huge. If your crowd isn't a great return on ideas at conference, find a new crowd!

The one thing I can say about this year's conference is I'm glad to be a part of an Association that is at least trying new things. Granted many didn't like the "Guilt By Association" sitcom, but hats off to them for trying something new. Hey, we were in LA! What did you expect? At FSAE's 2010 Conference, I worked with a team to produce our Friday Night Dinner video.... a parody on "The Hangover". It was funny, the crowd roared at the end, but 5% to 10% were still indifferent about the video. If you want to check it out: CLICK HERE.

Bottom line, I feel the conference was a success and not as bad as people stated. Anyone who has planned a conference knows how hard it is to put an event on to make 100 people happy, much less 6,000. Are there things to improve on? Absolutely. Do you take a bat out and start swinging? No. You stand up to be a part of the solution and take action.

Now regarding the comments of all the blogs.....

I think all of the comments were warranted in a variety of fashions. Without the critic, we can never choose to make different choices and achieve greatness. We would continue to bask in our own minds of greatness and never seek to innovate and create new things that are meaningful. When associations say to the critics, who many agree with, "we don't see what you see" it says they think too highly of themselves and have become self focused and not member focused.

Its the critics with a good heart and passion for the cause that call us to be the best we can be. Thank God someone is willing to stand up and say what they don't agree with. To many times in life, like relationships, our friends tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. I applaud those who stand and say what you don't want to hear as long as it isn't selfish, self serving or a vendetta. I know practically EVERYONE who were bold and shared their dismay with the conference and so far I haven't read any negative comments that were not spot on and deemed selfish, self serving or a vendetta. Some just are direct and some are tactful in how they phrase things. The huge question is "will ASAE listen to the changing dynamic of members?" or will they defend their actions and refuse to contemplate changes.

As a counselor friend of mine always says... "Never listen to what people say. Watch what they do." I not only say that for ASAE, but also to the attendees. Do you sit on the sideline and criticize or do you get in the game in which you don't like the game plan?

What I love about this process is that a passion has stirred as organizations have done in politics. Bad things happen because good people do nothing. I challenge everyone from this day forward to not speak with your words.... BUT SPEAK WITH YOUR VOLUNTEERISM AND ACTIONS.

Individually we are mere soldiers. BUT TOGETHER we are an army that can't be stopped.

I love my job. I love this industry. I love the people in the industry. I love the associations that bring us together. Thank you ASAE for all you do.

Crowdsourcing... the KEY to Online Engagement

2010-07-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

The hardest issue right now for associations trying to understand "What are the practical engaging applications of Social Media for our association?" So many have been talking theory or what they THINK is good. TomMorrison.tv delves into the successful and practical ways a private social network can engage participation from your membership. MTI has engaged members into:

Connecting online when they don't come to meetings
Solving industry issues
Having general industry discussions
Generating more activity from quieter Board and Committee Members
Create better programming at live events

These are just a few of the many ways associations can use social media to drive engagement to their members.

CLICK HERE to watch TomMorrison.tv.

Crowdsourcing Strategies, Your Key to Member Engagement - Part 3

2010-07-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

In order to have effective and maximized engagement in your social network, you must have an optimum participation between staff and the members with centralization of content and full transparency.

Last week we covered the three more essentials in Crowdsourcing, which are:

- Clarify the Process
- Have a Deadline
- Reward Good Behavior

This week, we cover the last five essential keys to Crowdsourcing and Effective Member Engagement, which are:

- Staff Involvement

- Giving Feedback

- The Crowd Rules

- Grand Central Station

- Transparency

CLICK HERE to watch Part 3 of Effective Crowdsourcing Strategies at TomMorrison.tv.

Crowdsourcing Strategies, Your Key to Member Engagement - Part 2

2010-06-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

Crowdsouring is the key to engaging your members in a private social network. Whether you want market information, choose a new logo for your organization or engage in industry discussions, Crowdsourcing is the ultimate member engagement tool to find innovative solutions that reach your members where they are.

Last week we covered the first three essentials in Crowdsourcing, which are:

Define Your Objective For Reaching Out
Define the Crowd to Reach out To
Be Loud and Clear in Your Objective

This week, we cover the next three essential keys to Crowdsourcing:

Clarify the Process
Have a Deadline
Reward Good Behavior

CLICK HERE to watch Part 2 of Effective Crowdsourcing Strategies at TomMorrison.tv.

Crowdsourcing: Your Key to Member Engagement Pt 1

2010-06-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to begin getting serious about a weekly post of key information that can be significant in helping fellow associations establish and sustain an effective Social Media Strategy. I feel public social media sites like Facebook are not the long term solution. It is very important associations start today to develop a strategy to launch a private social network giving them total control of their online process for member engagement.

I am going to start this week with an 8-week video blog series on the biggest element of online member connection: Crowdsourcing. Each Monday morning, a new video blog post will appear from TomMorrison.tv. The power of TomMorrison.tv is that it comes from the view of an Association Executive just like you.

To view Part 1 on Effective Crowdsourcing Strategies at TomMorrison.tv, CLICK HERE.

The AMAZING RACE to ASAE TECH 10... The Tom Morrison Story

2010-02-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

It all started at 11:00pm on Monday night. It was 3 days before the start of the 2010 ASAE Tech Conference in Washington, D.C. I was looking forward to having a great birthday on Tuesday and then leaving on Wednesday to catch up with many great friends within ASAE and Young Association Professionals (YAP) while learning the newest things I needed to know to take my association to the next level of social technology. I knew the weather wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t too worried about it.

As I was sitting on my couch enjoying Facebook with some friends watching television, a friend who knew I was going to DC sent me two words through Skype that changed my entire week. She simply said, “You there?” Looking back, I couldn’t imagine what was to come from those words.

As I replied, she began to share with me that flights which were set to take off Wednesday morning at 6:20am were never going to make it out because of weather in Washington D.C. She strongly suggested I get on the phone with AirTran and seek to move my flight up 24 hours. I said, “You mean like 7 hours from right now?! Tomorrow is my birthday and I don’t want to travel!” She replied, “If you want to make it to Tech Conference, it’s your only choice.” Being the spontaneous person that I am and knowing how much ASAE and my friends mean to me, I jumped and said, “I’m going to do it!”

For the next three hours, I was on the phone with AirTran. Finally at 1:30am, I got someone on the phone and was able to find a seat going to Reagan National airport leaving at 6:20 am…. Only 4 hours from now. After hanging up with my confirmation number, I’m thinking “I CAN’T GO TO SLEEP AND THIS IS CRAZY!” But I wanted to go to the Tech Conference and nothing was going to stop ME!

Around 4:30am, I made my way to the airport. Everything began to go as planned. I checked in, went through security, bought my Starbucks and boarded the plane on time. After landing in Atlanta, I got some breakfast to quench my appetite. I was hopeful yet cautious, knowing that with every hour that passed, the snow was getting closer to Washington D.C. At 9:45am, I proceeded to walk to my gate for my 11:00am flight where I learned that the flight had just been cancelled. To top it off, there were no more flights through AirTran to any of the three D.C. airports today OR tomorrow. I was struck with shock and wondered what to do. The gate agent said that I could stay until Thursday and fly out then, or they would send me back to Jacksonville for free. My friend who Skyped me the night before sent me a text as to see if I was going to make it with the weather issues. I replied letting her know that my flight had been cancelled, but not to worry- I would get to DC at all costs! I was going to make it to the conference and see my friends!

It was now 10:30am on Tuesday and I’d been up for almost 29 hours without sleep- and this is where the Amazing Race began! With a cancelled flight, I immediately called Delta and was able to book a flight from Atlanta to Baltimore for 7:25am the following morning. Knowing I had that flight and that it would most likely be cancelled, I went to work on finding another way to D.C. that day.

My next mission was to locate my luggage, which was now in limbo with my flight being cancelled. Checking with the baggage clerk, they indicated my bag would eventually come out the baggage return system. As I was waiting for my bags, I overheard someone say they were flying to Richmond, VA. I immediately pulled out my iPhone GPS and found out Richmond was only 100 miles from D.C. I thought, “I can make this happen.” Upon learning this encouraging news, I called my association friend, Jamie Notter, who’s in D.C., and asked his opinion on the conditions tonight if I drove in from Richmond. He shared that the snow was moving in fast and that it would be a roll of the dice, but may be worth a shot. He and I agreed that I needed to call another association friend, Ben Martin from the Virginia Association of Realtors, and ask his thoughts about driving from Richmond to D.C. today since he was making the same drive also. I hung up with Jamie and got on the phone with Ben. Ben assured me that things wouldn’t be good later, but if I was going to arrive at the time I planned to, I should be OK to drive from Richmond and D.C. shouldn’t be under snow yet.

With that news in hand, I called Delta and cancelled my Baltimore flight for the following day, went back to AirTran and booked my change of flight to Richmond VA at 1:00pm, booked a rental car from Richmond to D.C. and then worked with baggage claim to get my bag that still hadn’t shown up. It was noon and I was waiting to get my bag so I could just take it as a carry-on instead of checking it. As it grew closer to my flight time, it was imperative for me to get through security and on my flight to Richmond. The AirTran baggage reps were very nice and said, “Get to your flight. I’ll personally see that the bag gets on the 1:00pm flight.” Famous last words. Having heard the bag was in their hands, I agreed and I was on my way to Security.

As I boarded the flight, I felt a huge sense of relief that I was actually going to make it and that the worst had taken place on my trip. Little did I know what was to come! As norm for this trip, the 1:00pm flight to Richmond was delayed until 2:00pm, which put me closer and closer to fighting an incredible snowstorm in D.C. At 2:10pm, my flight took off and arrived in Richmond an hour late- 3:30pm. My excitement at baggage turned into desperation as the baggage gates closed and just as I thought… my bag didn’t make it. I thought, “Wow, if I don’t get my bag soon, they’ll have to deliver it and will never get through D.C. because of the snow.” After checking with baggage, I learned that it didn’t make the 2:00pm flight with me, but it had made the 5:00pm flight and would arrive at 7:00pm. I asked if they would deliver the bag to my hotel and they assured me it would be delivered within 4 hours of touch down. Again, famous last words. I had planned to go out until midnight with friends so as long as my bags were there by then, I was good to go.

Next mission objective was to secure my car and get on the road to beat the D.C. snowstorm. As I was at the Enterprise counter getting my car, a nice couple beside me asked if I was going one way to D.C. They were in a similar situation and wanted to split their car rental fee. They seemed like a nice couple so I agreed. Their son was picking them up one exit before I had to get off to go to downtown D.C., so it worked perfectly for all of us.

As I’m getting in the car, I’m now realizing that I’ve been up for 32 hours and fortunately am not tired, but I am wearing down. For the next hour and forty-five minutes, I enjoy a great ride and good conversation with a very nice couple. The roads seem safe and the snow isn’t catching because there are plenty of cars on the road. Life was grand at this point.

Upon reaching Exit 7B, we stopped off at the Comfort Inn just off the highway for the couple to say goodbye to me and be picked up by their son. I ran to the restroom, and got back on the road for the last 8 miles of a seemingly-safe ride in the snow. The next 8 miles turned out to be 8 of the most treacherous and life-fearing miles I’ve ever traveled. As I was driving on the highway, I heard a loud funny noise coming from the wheels in the back but didn’t think much of it because the car seemed to drive fine. I chose to ignore it and concentrate on keeping the car straight on the snowy and dangerous highway. At this point, all my friends were calling wondering when I’m arriving. I let them know that I was only 7 miles away and would be there momentarily. Little did I know what was ahead!

Having never driven through D.C., I worked my way around using my iPhone GPS. I was driving very slow, taking everything easy and making good progress. Everything was fine until I missed the Memorial Bridge overpass. This was when I felt my life was in danger. As I passed the bridge, I noticed I was moving into roads not well-traveled where the snow was building fast. The small Sentra, with tires that couldn’t grip a sticky road, began to slip, slide and clip the snow banks on each side of me. Over the next 30 minutes I went up and down roads trying to find my way over the water to downtown D.C. Going back to the Memorial Bridge was impossible as my rental car would never make it back through the snow. Time after time, my car felt as if it was going nowhere and I thought I would eventually have to just shut the car off and do whatever I could to stay warm. At one point, I truly felt that the car was about to stick in the snow in the middle of nowhere leaving me stuck in sub-freezing weather with no cloths, no food and no hope of anyone being able to get to me for 2 days. The thought of waking up in a freezing car under 5 feet of snow where no one could find me wasn’t my idea of the 2010 ASAE Tech Conference. I HAD TO GET TO DOWNTOWN D.C.!

After 30 minutes of searching for a path through the snow banks, I gazed back down to my GPS and noticed the road I was on was a straight road that lead over the water to downtown, which put me 1 mile from the Marriott drop-off point for the rental car. I thought, “If I can make it there, I’m home free!” I pushed the RPMs hard, pushing the car to the max to make it through the snow. I could not get stuck- no one was there to help! As I arrived downtown, the next 30 minutes was a maze of one-way streets to find which ones I could actually drive down. At one point, I saw the turn for the Marriott, which was one block from me, but because my friends called to get an update, I saw the turn too late and had to go 3 blocks away to find a street my car would actually move on. Finally, I got to the Marriott drop-off point for my rental car! As I got out of the car to find out where to park it, I happen to look back and notice the back right tire was flat. I realized that the funny noise I was hearing on the highway was the tire was flat and I had been driving on it since I got on the highway 6 miles ago! At this point, I’d been up for 36 hours straight and I really didn’t care. I proceeded to find out the drop-off point was three floors down the parking garage. I drove the car with its flat tire to the bottom of the garage, dropped the keys off and jumped in a cab to the Morrison and Clark Hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, I noticed my friends through the door and they were anticipating my arrival. As I came through the door, I threw my bag to the floor, dropped to my knees with my hands in the air and screamed, “Thank God I’ve made it!!!” I leaned over and proceeded to kiss the floor and hug my friends with great relief.

With my journey complete, I freshened up and we all went to dinner as planned. Upon returning from dinner, I received a voicemail on my cell phone stating that my bag wasn’t being delivered to the hotel. The good news is that it had arrived at Reagan National Airport 6 miles away, but wouldn’t be accessible for 2 days due to the snowstorm.

For the next day and a half, I refreshed my clothes to make the best of a bad situation. My friends continued to encourage me by constantly saying to me, “Tom, there is something different about you today!” I love their humor.

To put icing on the cake, after being up 45 hours with no sleep, traveling a 13-hour incredibly challenging journey to reach Washington D.C. for the Tech Conference, ASAE notified everyone at 3:00pm on Wednesday that the conference had been cancelled. Again, shock set in. But anyone who knows me knows I would not be discouraged!

With that news, our entire group of 8 proceeded to setup shop in the hotel banquet room where we ate, drank, worked, networked, laughed, made videos, took pictures and brainstormed social technology ideas and strategies. As we were looking to make the best of an extremely bad situation, we realized through Twitter that a groundswell effort was being put in play to pull off ‘UnTech 10,’ a one-day technology conference for those who could attend in person or live via webcast. As the day wore on, we read and watched through Twitter as the entire conference and registration began to become reality. As the day ended, we realized that we were actually going to be able to experience a conference after all and that we weren’t only going to learn about the power of social technology, but we were truly living its power!

As I went to bed that night, I wondered if I would actually have my bag the following day. Upon waking up, I called the airport, confirmed my bag was there, jumped into a taxi and picked it up at Reagan National. As I put on fresh, clean clothes, I knew my friends would have the same line as I met them for breakfast. They didn’t let me down! “Tom, there is something different about you today- IT’S YOUR CLOTHES!!!”

Needless to say, UnTech10 took off that day with an incredible day of speakers, round tables, interviews, webcasts and presentations. The conference had it all and gave me everything that I could have expected from a conference, even if it was just one day. As the rest of the week wore on, I thought back many times to my lack of sleep for 45 hours, 60 hours in the same clothes, nearly being stuck in the snow with no food or clothes for who knows how long and driving on a flat tire at 60 miles an hour… all the time smiling and saying, “IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!”

So Why Social Media for Your Association? CONNECTION!

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So here you sit as an association with members in 30 counties or 30 states wondering how in the world you are going to keep them connected when meetings are a challenge to attend in this economy, provide them increasing levels of information resources to keep up with the fast changing business environment and not let the association be the bottleneck in the process.

The world of business is changing every day and it is critical for associations to tap into the innovations in technology to help enhance our value to members and create a connection between then that cannot be separated.

When members connect, a special dynamic happens that drives their emotions to be more interconnected to the association.

Let me share a real life example that happens at meetings. Many members for some reason choose to not attend meetings. They are just a dues paying member. Then one day the program strikes their interest or they are flush with money and they just decide to come. Upon checking in at registration with a feeling of not knowing what to expect, they receive their name badge which gives them access to the playground of “networking”.

Upon entering the opening night reception, the member grabs a drink and begins to walk around the room. At some point, the member begins to talk with various members. Through the various conversations, their apprehension turns into excitement due to the member beginning to understand they aren’t the only person experiencing the challenges they are facing. They begin to hear new ideas that can change their challenges into opportunities. They also begin to understand they have a lot in common personally with members regarding years experience in the industry, level of responsibility and the outside interests they both enjoy.

Returning to their hotel room that opening night, the member is quite excited about their experience because connecting with other members with similar interests, bonds and challenges was a very exciting experience and it tapped into their sense of really being a part of something larger than themselves.

Online Member Connection or “Social Networking” provides that same exact experience online. It’s like a 24-hour a day networking reception. With the Metal Treating Institute's newly launched social network called “MyMTI… Your Industry on DEMAND”, we know we have a member hooked the moment they answer our 10-member matching questions and they activate their account. The reason they are hooked is as soon as they click submit, the program automatically pops up other members they want to connect with due to similar titles, years experience, age demographics and even outside interests. The member has the opportunity to add them to their private network or send them a personal message. This powerful connection immediately shows them they are a part of something “bigger than themselves”. They now have an unbelievable network they can tap into every day to discuss challenges and new ideas right from their office.

Another powerful tool of social networking is providing a loud voice to the smallest member who cannot attend meetings due to budget constraints through “online networking groups”. With Online Networking Groups, your association can provide members who cannot attend meetings, the opportunity to participate in committee discussions, submit ideas and comments towards industry specifications and governmental legislation. Online groups engages your members thoughts giving them a since of purpose in the association.

Another key tool of Social Networking is the Resource Library function. The traditional way of providing information to members was that content had to be submitted to the association, reviewed and then uploaded to the member’s only area. With the vast array of content that is now prevalent, the association can become a bottleneck in distributing valuable pieces of information or data that members could use. Social networking provides a platform that “all” members can become content providers. This is another way of engaging members to “help” other members and contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Online social networking provides your association the opportunity to engage members in networking, group discussions and content creation that bonds them to your association in the same way face to face meetings has always provided…. but it happens all day, every day. Not just a few times a year.

Now that you have a real since of the importance social networks can play, there are a few things you need to know before you dive in:

Decide what your “strategy” is with your social network. You must have an “intentional plan” to engage your members into the network. You can’t just build it and they will come. You have to have a “reason” for them to tap into the technology. Find out what engages your members into discussion and begin to create that experience online.
Pick the right social network partner. There are numerous providers of social networking platforms. A recent white paper outlining each of the major providers was produced by SocialFish, a consulting firm specializing in helping associations with their social networking strategies.
Work with your marketing and membership teams in conjunction with your provider to have a coordinated strategy to “launch” your social network. It is imperative that you build momentum and you market that momentum to send the message that if you are not in the online network, you are working at a competitive disadvantage.
Tap into the knowledge of those who have already launched a successful social network. It has been done. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do it yourself.

Social Networks will become the industry norm for online member connection. Failure to engage your members online will leave the door open for someone else to steal your innovation and relevance.

Theh MyMTI Social Network was launched September 1, 2009 by the Metal Treating Institute. MyMTI is powered by NFI Studios Memberfuse platform, a leading social networking supplier.