To Join or Not to Join?

To join or not to join? That IS the question - at least for the millions of Americans who are thinking about renewing their membership in an association. In this tough economic environment, every dollar counts. So it can be safely assumed that many people are weighing the value they receive in return for their membership dues.

While each association is different, they all provide similar, broad benefits for members. According to the American Society of Association Executives (www.asaecenter.org), associations typically provide members with:

• Education
• Professional development
• Information and statistics
• Standards, codes of ethics and/or certification

These benefits, along with others, help every member of an association become - and remain - more competitive. That along should entice current members to renew and non-members to join. Think about it - if I spend three, four or even five hundered bucks to have access to key information that helps me to make a profit and grow my business, I'd consider that a pretty great investment. But I actually think there may be one more reason people continue to join associations.

I believe associations provide a forum for people with similar interests to share their thoughts and ideals. As ASAE mentions, associations provide a community of interest. It's this romantic image of being a part of something bigger - that the collective voices of many can truly make an impact - that motivates a great number of members. Many individuals, particularly younger ones, are hoping to make a difference in their community, their industry and their world. With the vision and the mission and the benefits written in black and white, the gray of "possibilities" is what likely keeps the attraction to associations fresh.

If associations communicate these possibilities - tapping into emotional connections and identifying "what could be" - rather then just framing out the black and white details, I think people would be inclined to remain or become a member. And then "to join or not to join" is no longer the question.

Submitting an RFP is more than pricing and qualifications

One of the tasks I perform at Drake & Company is proofreading and double-checking RFPs (request for proposal). According to Wikipedia, a request for proposal is “an invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service.” And of course there are millions of Web sites that can tell you how to write them and submit them. But from my perspective, RFPs are so much more.

When Drake & Company receives a RFP, a great deal of work goes into the proposal. RFPs that we submit show the creativity and innovation that our team can provide to potential new clients. Drake & Company proposals offer a strategy to grow their associations while showing that DrakeCo will be a partner in their growth.

We learn as much as we can about the association or organization that has asked us to submit a RFP. I find the process incredibly interesting – there are so many groups who are doing wonderful things for their members and their communities. You can feel the excitement and enthusiasm that goes into each RFP when you read it. It’s interesting to see how we match up our perspectives with what a potential new client wants. I know that members of our company are pretty extraordinary – I see that every day at the office, but when I see it on a complete RFP, I know that others will get to see that Drake & Company is a very resourceful company.

RFPs are much more than pricing and qualifications, terms and conditions; they are amazing works in a creative process that will bring together an association/organization with an accredited association management company – Drake & Company.

Here are three tips to improve your association's RFP.

1. Be forthcoming about your association's financial position - don't hold back because you're worried an AMC will not respond. AMC's are sensitive to your organization's financial situation and consider long-term client value not just a current balance sheet. DrakeCo crafts proposals to fit nonprofits of all sizes. But if you don't share, we can't respond.
2. Be selective with your RFP; look for an accredited AMC. The AMC Institute accreditation is an indication of an AMC's commitment to the association industry, and a great way to narrow your search.
3. Proofread. You don't want typos in your proposal; don't leave grammar and spelling mistakes in your RFP.
   

Couple Partnerships?

We had a couple interesting developments in the past 2 weeks for one our clients, the National Christmas Tree Association. First, Earth 911 called here to start up discussions on partnering again to promote Christmas Tree recycling. I had a long, but productive, phone conversation with a their marketing director and one of their agency people. They seem confident that a sponsor / underwriter / advertiser can be found to re-activate the recycling center searchable database. I really hope that develops, because NCTA benefits greatly from being able to direct consumers to that resource.

Here’s an illustration of how important it is. I just received this email from a member in Michigan:

-----Original Message-----
From: Teisha and Eric
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:40 AM
To: info@realchristmastrees.org
Subject: recycling programs near me...

I am a member, and I have been searching your sites for a recycling program near us. The "how to care for your farm-grown fresh tree" information sheet says to go to "realchristmastrees.org" and type in your zip code. All this does is bring me to a list of farms, including my own, in my area. I didn't see anything specific about recycling programs on this page. Could you please let me know how to utilize this site correctly to find any tree recycling programs in Michigan?

So, if a tree farm has trouble finding out where/when/how to recycle a tree, just imagine how hard it is for consumers.

The second thing that came up just this week was a call from an agency working for Underwriters Laboratories (UL). They apparently are interested in doing something jointly with NCTA on tree care for consumers and safety. While we’re always a little leery of groups who want to tell consumers about trees and holiday "safety", we welcome any productive efforts by groups like the UL. We’ll see what develops from that.

Developing partnerships between our clients and other groups / organizations / companies, etc. is actually one of our specialties. We’ll try to make the most from these recent opportunities.

How "Smooth" Are You?

I spent last week off-site for a client's annual convention & trade show. During the course of the week, more than a few attendess commented on how "smoothly" the event had gone. A compliment for our staff team and efforts - of course. But what exactly does it mean in terms of convention planning and implementation? How do you define "smooth" when you look at your association's events?

• Does it mean that nothing was forgotten or overlooked? No - just ask me about those awards certificates I left in my hotel room.


• Does it mean that there were no last-minute freak-outs or undue stress? Nope, can't say that either. In moments of weakness, I'm sure I snapped a bit at my fellow team members. But luckily, they are forgiving people. Right, guys? Right?


• Does it mean that every attendee walked away happy? That's a great goal, but we haven't achieved it yet. (And if you do - let me know how!) Our meetings are always a balance of trying to meet the needs of attendees vs. exhibitors, small businesses vs. big businesses, long-time members vs. new to the industry. And as they say, you can't please 'em all.


• Does it mean that everything went exactly the way I envisioned it? Does it ever? I always keep a mental list of things I'll do differently next year, but I think the key is being able to think on your feet and react quickly. Flexibility is the name of the game.

So, with all the little things that can go wrong during a client's event, how do we define success? For me personally, my goal is that the attendees never see all these foibles and missteps.

They shouldn't know when we've stayed up until the wee hours of morning putting the finishing touches on a presentation or when I've missplaced the speaker's handouts or when something goes off schedule. They may see us as staff sweat from time to time, but they should also know we're on top of any problem that might crop up. Conventions can be a messy business, but if we're doing our job, our attendees shouldn't see the mess.

So how do I define "success" at a Convention? When, despite what may have gone on behind the scenes, an attendee comes up to me and comments on how "smoothly" everything went.

Yep, I'll take that.

The Ultimate Slash

Like many association management professionals, I have found one of the most difficult things to do is explain to someone what I do for a living. The conversation always seems to go something like this:

-"So where do you work?"
-"I work for an association management firm called Drake & Company, we are a full-service management company for nine associations. I am the program coordinator for the National Christmas Tree Associations and three other associations."
-"So you work for Christmas Tree farmers?" (confused look...)
-"Well, not really. I work for a company that manages a national association of Christmas tree growers as well as an association of Dairy farmers and one for healthcare professionals. I assist with publications, meeting planning, public relations and various other projects."
-"So do you work for Christmas tree growers or doctors?" (even more confused look...)

Combine this dialogue with a crowded restaurant at a table with several new faces, and you are sure to get many confused looks and stares. I have learned that the best way to describe my position at DrakeCo is not by my title, program coordinator, but as the Ultimate Slash!

Though the name may sound much more dramatic and super hero-ish than it is, it is a true description of my work.

In association management, it is common for staffers to work on a designated team. Whether that team be accounting, membership, meeting planning or a designated client team, each DrakeCo employee has their niche. That was me, the National Christmas Tree Association Program Coordinator. That is, until mid-January 2009. The puzzle pieces that must fit perfectly together for an association management firm to function began to shift. This shift was welcomed as it gave staff members and DrakeCo clients the opportunities to work with new faces and explore new skill sets. The hours that I normally dedicated completely to NCTA, would now be shared with the Country Living Association, American Academy on Communication in Healthcare and Dairy Calf & Heifer Association.

Though it may seem overwhelming to work with four individual client teams, I enjoy the benefits of regularly changing gears. As I shift from client to client, I never feel burnt out. If I am consumed for several hours working on NCTA, I can rest assured that my next task will likely be with another client. Another perk of a position like mine is that each client has its own personality and characteristics. Working day in and out with different kinds of people is what makes my workday interesting. When dealing directly with members, I work with Christmas tree growers SLASH dairy farmers SLASH a variety of healthcare professionals (hence my self-proclaimed title, the Ultimate Slash).

The logistics of my day-to-day work in the office are full of variety. Each week I have a meeting with three different client teams, I report to an complete projects for multiple executive directors and find myself regularly learning more about different industries. I like that I have a good understanding of several of DrakeCo's clients, their activities, conferences and day-to-day functions.

Even though explaining my job to a group of acquaintances is not the easiest task, one question I do not find difficult to answer is what my favorite part of my job is, and that is all the slashes.

Knowing is half the battle

Those of us from a certain era in the 1980s -- when it was OK to sell kids toys with a 30-minute violence-riddled cartoon, provided you had an educational message tagged onto the end -- remember that headline from the closing of G.I. Joe cartoon.

Strikingly, I find myself using it here to introduce a discussion about member data.

Many associations don't know much about their members, yet we need questions answered like: What is the perceived value of your association's programs? Are your members just satisfied or are they loyal (there is a difference)? What do your members need from their association? How do they want it delivered?

In Seven Measures of Success, the American Society of Association Executives identified data-driven organizations are more successful than associations that do not put an emphasis on collecting, analyzing and using data and information.

Drake & Company clients regularly survey members, industry and client customers to determine perceptions, successes, program results and other metrics. Although some clients use powerful tools and resources, such as Harris Interactive Polls, other clients have had success with free and inexpensive, readily available online survey tools such as Survey Monkey, Google Forms and online polls. We've even used Twitter polls in educational conferences.

But if knowing is half the battle, the other half is gathering the information. How do we get members to complete online surveys? One DrakeCo client recently gave away a free iPod Shuffle to a selected participant. That survey, which helped the client retain a major corporate donor, had a 4 percent response rate, which I consider pretty good for an $80 investment.

Here are some other tips for maximizing your response rate (via http://www.customer-feedback-surveys.net/maximize.asp):

• Inform respondents of the what, why, who, and how. Tell respondents as much information about what your survey is asking, why you are asking it, who will see the results, and how you will use the results. Discuss how respondents will benefit from the results and how you will put the findings into action (and then be sure to follow through on your promises).
• Address confidentiality and anonymity. If the survey results will be confidential and/or anonymous, make sure respondents know this. If respondents know their answers will not be linked to them in any way, they will be more likely to respond and more likely to provide truthful responses.
• Keep it brief. Keep the survey as short as possible, but do not make it so short that you do not get any valuable information from it. Also, tell people how much time the survey will take to complete so they know what to expect.
• Set a deadline. When you send out the initial survey notice, be sure to include a date by which people must respond. Ideally, your survey should be available from 7 to 10 days. If it is less than 7 days, people might not find the time to respond. If it is longer than 10 - 14 days, your request will get forgotten in their in-box.
• Send reminders. Send a reminder email to respondents a few days before the survey is set to end. Be sure to re-state the what, why, who, and how in the reminder email.
• Follow up. After the survey is complete, be sure to thank the respondents and follow up with them if you told them you would do so. Consider this an investment in the future. If you let people know that their time was not wasted, they will be more willing to respond to your surveys in the future.

Tell us what works for your organization. What tools, incentives and techniques can we use to win the knowledge war (and defeat Cobra. Go Joe!).

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to a two-hour commercial for Hasbro toys this weekend thanks to the debut today of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.

Generating Content (and Buzz!) for our Clients via Social Media

When I tell people that I use social media, like Twitter, at work, I always get the same unbelieving stare. They say, "Your boss lets you tweet at work? Get serious." I reciprocate their stare with one of my own as I think to myself, "And yours doesn't?"

Our world communicates so differently now (than even a couple of years ago). Social media has taken off as the new way to communicate several thoughts or ideas quickly via a myriad of avenues. With blogs, Twitter, Facebook and many more, sharing content has become pervasive and very important in regards to business and marketing. People are confused about why I'm allowed to tweet at work, until I tell them what I tweet about.

I don't tweet about what I had for breakfast or my plans for the weekend. I tweet content that is important to my company and to my clients. Since social media is important to both, I have an invested interest in the content that will affect them. If I'm not out there tweeting and helping to further along my clients' interests, who will?

The main question people need to ask about social media is, "Who cares?" Everyone cares about something. The best part about social media is that you can find things and topics that you care about, and keep up on them as much as you want! I have found with one of my clients, The American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH), that our members enjoy social media and look forward to us sharing a "different" kind of content that they find relevant.

Normally when we send an email to our members it is related to happenings in the Academy, such as upcoming conferences and meetings. On Twitter (http://twitter.com/AACHonline) we tweet about interesting findings in healthcare communication; we re-tweet important ideas from our members; and we try hard to bring an interesting perspective to the conversation. Before Twitter, we didn't really have a way to send out quick bits of information like that.

The more we tweet, the more people care. Even better, people who listen to what we have to say and share the content help us get the word out and launch our clients into the spotlight. Sharing content helps advance AACH's mission and purpose; and as long as there are people who care about healthcare communication, we have a reason to use social media. Each day I receive Google alerts on healthcare communication. When an article or blog relates to my client, I tweet it and ask our followers to re-tweet the information. It is our responsibility to our clients and to their members to be a content expert in their industry.

Not everyone in the world agrees that social media is a) a good use of time and/or b) effective. In my experience, however, social media proves each day to be an invaluable communication tool for my clients. Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic social media manager, put it best when he said, "Social media tools are an essential part of a well-balanced communications diet."

So, although I still get stares here and there about using social media at work, I'm thrilled that I'm encouraged to do so. I get to share content that matters to people that they may not have seen otherwise. We do this with several of our clients at Drake & Company, which I know sets us apart. We care so much about our clients' industries that it just make sense to us to sit down for a few minutes each day and tweet about something that we believe matters to them.

7 Tips for A Joint Conference of Multiple Groups

Ever wondered about holding a joint national conference with another organization?

During a meeting last Friday, a past chairman of a national organization mentioned his group was in preliminary stages of working with three other national organizations to hold a joint conference. He lamented about the struggles, conflicting agendas and egos that were slowing the process.

Then, on Monday, a Tweeted question about joint meetings led to a phone call with a company asking how you split the revenues when more than one organization hold a joint conference. In this case, two groups hold a joint meeting in which both staffs are selling trade show booths.

Strange coincidences?

Both queries came as I was attending the Ag Media Summit, a joint national conference held by three independent associations. And, this was the 11th year for AMS! And, it broke all the records! More attendees. Most trade show booths. More sponsors and sponsor dollars. All during what is most likely a "down year" for meetings and conferences.

Since I've been part of the staff involved in making this meeting work from the beginning (which was more than three years before the first joint conference), I realized how lucky and/or smart we were when he developed the framework for the AMS conference.

And, told my caller I would share some tips from the "master."

So, here goes:
1) Plan before you jump in

* It took our three groups three or four years to build the framework for the first joint meeting. That included answering some of the questions for the other tips below.

2) Decide who takes home the cash box

* We went through several steps to determine how to split revenues and expenses. Our solution: Create one conference budget. Split the net revenues among the individual association partners.

3) Have a vision / mission statement

* Know why you are meeting and what the vision and mission of the meeting just as you would for your individual association. And, refer back to the mission/vision when you are in the middle of decision making.

4) Create a structure

* Volunteers and staffs from multiple organizations are involved in making the joint conference happen. Feelings can get hurt. Duplication can occur. So, build a structure

* We estalished a leadership structure (we call it the Steering Committee) that consists of two members from each organization and a chair that rotates annually between the organizations.

* For staff, we assigned specific responsibilities (sponsorships, program, logistics, registration, prmotion, finance) to each group's staff. While we coordinate efforts we defined who does what.

* After the third year, the three associations created an LLC to be the corporate owner of the joint meeting.

5) Be mindful of cultural differences

* No matter how similar, organizations have differing cultures that manifest in an annual conference. This ranges from sponsor recognition to the "type" of meeting. In the upfront planning, our groups surfaced these cultural differences and developed policies to layout how the joint meeting would work. Each group had a give a bit to create the new culture of the new meeting.

6) Build trust

* Sharing common mission, outlinging specific responsilities and working together helped build trust necessary to create a successful shared event. It doesn't happen overnight.

7) Celebrate

* Take time to celebrate the successes. Our Steering Committee -- all volunteers -- have an opportunity to do that (during the conference when it is shared with all attendees) as well as at least annually at a dinner during the wrapup and kickoff planning meeting.

I'm sure there is more to creating the success.

Questions?

Feel free to contact me.

Steve

It's All About Teamwork

"Rick, no! Don't switch the paper out of the copier yet, I was trying to print a certificate!" This is just one loud conversation you might hear in our copy room as we prepare for the National Christmas Tree Association Convention.

Preparing for a client conference can be stressful, but it can also be fun. There is always more hustle and bustle around our office while we're preparing for a conference. Boxes are in the middle of the floor, staff members are moving from one office to another discussing how many tables to order for the booth or what the latest attendance count is. During a regular work day it can be so easy for me to get focused on my own personal to-do list that before I know it it is lunch-time and I haven't gotten up from my desk! So while people may be tripping over boxes or fighting over the copy machine, it can be a nice change of pace.

Another thing I've noticed is that while everyone on our client-team is working on individual tasks to get ready for the conference, any person will gladly drop what they are doing to help another person. That's the meaning of teamwork and in my opinion, a key component to a successful conference. So if you're helping to plan a conference, just remember when tensions are high and there is still a LOT left to be done, try to take a deep breath and enjoy it too!