As I travel and read, I discover a population where "life goes on." Most seem to be ignoring the "silly season" of American politics ... frustrated with promises of "change" from local, state and national politicians who have been politicians most of their lives. It is a summer when the President’s approval rating is only about 30% ... and the approval rating for the U.S. Congress is only half that of the the unpopular President.
What gives?
I realize that I’m a "half-full" thinker. But, again, "what recession."
Obviously, the numbers don’t lie and the economy has slowed. But ... for what seems a very large segment of the American public, life goes on.
This summer, we hosted "gas tank top offs" (where I filled cars with $20 of free gas) for both my staff and then for out-of-work folks (I prefer to say "in between successes) who are members of Businesspeople Between Jobs (BBJ).
Had a chance to read lots of books (nearly all "management" books) this summer. Some really good stuff out there for someone like me who runs a small business focused on being the staff and headquarters of not-for-profit organizations. They include:
Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing without Organizations.
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
The Future of Management
The Purpose Driven Life
Death by Meetings
The Long(er) Tail
As I get time, I’ll try to give some highlights of these books.
Last month, I attended the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) annual meeting in San Diego ... which included the AMC Institute meeting for owners and principles of Association Management Companies. I love the networking with people owning businesses such as mine. Leads to ideas and information. For example, we’re in the middle of switching association management system software and several owners who have just made the switched shared information and processes.
Two neat things to announce:
1) ASAE has awarded the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation its Associations Advance America SUMMIT Award for the Foundattion's Trees for Troops program. We manage both the Foundation and Trees for Troops. It is a really neat cause marketing campaign ... and our partners at FedEx Freight make it possible. Last year, they provided FREE more than 51,000 trucking miles to get the farm-grown Christmas trees from 850 farms and retail lots to the 17,000 military families at 40 bases! And, we're in the final planning stages for th 2008 program which we hope will let us deliver holiday memories and farm-grown trees to more than 20,000 military families. FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) will be joining us in 2008. If you want to help (donate a tree, donate funds, send a greeting), go to
http://www.treesfortroops.org/.
2) I've been selected as a speaker at ASAE's Great Ideas Conference in February. I'll be leading a discussion on cause marketing ... using Trees for Troops as a case study.
I’m headed for a week of fishing in northwest Ontario ... to a remote lake that is 100 miles from the nearest road and two hours from cell phone and/or internet connection. Perhaps that week of solitude, silence and freedom from the "modern world" will lead to a different percpective.
I’ll let you know.
Steve
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