A couple of feedback from participants in our recent PCAAE webinar on “Top Tips for Recruiting and Retaining Members” has prompted me to write today’s post. When we asked the attendees to name their key takeaways from the webinar, they mentioned that they now realize that membership marketing is a “science” and it involves a… Read More The ‘science’ of membership marketing

I first wrote about public policy advocacy for associations in my March 19, 2021 post where I described “grassroots and grasstops” campaign tools. These are used by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) to voice out issues its members care about and to reach out to elected officials and policymakers in Capitol Hill, i.e.,… Read More American Associations Day

Being affiliated with the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations (APFAO), I was invited by the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE) to the recent launch of its “Association Insiders” webinar series. AuSAE is the premier not-for-profit professional society representing over 10,000 individual leaders working in associations in Australia and New Zealand. The new series features monthly… Read More The State of Associations: Australia

It was the first time that my organization, the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE), the “association of associations,” has delved into the subject of public policy advocacy. It is not that we’re not interested in the topic; it is just that we do not have a body of knowledge on it yet.… Read More Grassroots and grasstops

Almost 30 years have passed since I participated in the AOTS Executive Program on Corporate Management (EPCM) in Tokyo so I was pleasantly surprised when I received an invitation from the AOTS to attend the EPCM, this time a three-hour hybrid event. Established on August 10, 1959, the Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable… Read More ‘DNA’ lessons from Japanese companies

Sometimes there is a need to highlight the adverse side of a good thing to stress its essence and importance. Such is the case for good old strategic planning. Strategic planning became well known in business enterprises in the 1960s and remains a salient aspect of strategic management. It is executed by a number of… Read More The road to ruin in strategic planning

I recently attended a webinar on “2021 Plans and Possibilities” by Kirryn Zerna and, although it was not necessarily focused on associations, I was pleasantly surprised to have something to share with associations. Kirryn, who’s from Australia, is a keynote speaker, masterclass presenter and author. She was highly engaging and her storytelling is impeccable. The… Read More Stand out with a VIP

As purpose-driven, mission-focused organizations, associations provide their key stakeholders with at least four main benefits: (1) learning (training programs, certification and credentials), (2) knowledge (specialized publications, studies and standards), (3) community (platform to network, co-create and collaborate on services), and (4) advocacy (preparing position papers, public policy work, and testimonials). So what else can associations… Read More STEPS to Next-Level Associations

This is the question many associations are now pondering on: whether to organize this year’s events—meetings, training programs, conferences and exhibitions—on a hybrid format or not, as the pandemic shows no let up. The other question, of course, is, “Are associations hybrid-ready?” This is the gist of the webinar of the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Belgium… Read More To go hybrid or not?

In January, 2018, I posted here about “Community as a Strategy,” citing that members’ sense of community is an essential driver for an association’s success. And rightly so. Community is present in your association, whether you recognize it or not. It is there in the form of special interest groups, committees, chapters, online and offline… Read More Online Community as a Strategy