I usually start my day reading a page in “Our Daily Bread,” a 365-day devotional booklet where I find inspiring human stories and biblical passages to deepen my faith. Since it’s Holy Week, the most sacred week in the Christian church year, I’m sharing a few short captions from the publication. I labeled these anecdotes in relation to associations, their work, and advocacies.
1. Living on a mission recounts the story of a toddler whom his grandparents are taking to a trip.
As they pulled out of the driveway, grandma enthusiastically told her grandson that they are going on a vacation. To their surprise, the little boy responded, “I’m not going on a vacation; I am going on a mission!” While it was not clear where the young child got the concept of “going on a mission,” it made his grandparents ponder.
Associations used the lull during the pandemic to think of how best to serve their members. After all, associations are mission-driven organizations and need to be constantly mindful of their reason for being.
2. Building a community tells the initiative of a neighborhood which set up its own website to inform and help one another in cases of emergency or even in simple things such as finding a lost pet or pitching in to provide childcare to those in need of one.
Such relationships and belongingness are also distinctive features that association members value as their main reason for joining and staying. Associations are stronger when members engage with each other and work together.
3. Contributing to a cause narrates the passion of two brothers using their entrepreneurial talent to contribute to ending childhood hunger. They put up a restaurant with a “buy-one-give-one” philosophy whereby for every meal bought, they donate money to meet the nutritional needs of malnourished children.
Advocacy work is one of the foundational reasons associations exist and members join. Their focus, however, varies based on the multitude of causes they represent and execute.
4. Caring for others relates the experience of a housecleaning service company owner who, in one of her calls, met a cancer-stricken woman unable to afford cleaning services because of rising medical expenses. So, the business owner started a non-profit organization where cleaning companies donated their cleaning services to women battling cancer. One woman who donated her services to clean a house confidently declared, “for the first time, I actually believed I could beat cancer.”
Associations exercise their duty of care to their members, volunteers, and staff. It is by caring for others that associations can thrive and be sustainable.
5. Fostering generosity is an account of an airplane passenger who gave up and exchanged his first-class seat to a mother and her sick baby who were in economy class.
It is laudable that those who work in associations give their best and do the extra mile even beyond the call of duty. Associations are people organizations which exemplify generosity and kindness.
Devotion is not only about faith or religion, but also about love for, and commitment to, a cause—something that associations live by every day.
This article was published by the Business Mirror on April 21, 2022 and may not be reproduced without prior consent from the writer and Business Mirror.
The contributor, Octavio ‘Bobby’ Peralta, is Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE) and concurrently, President of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations (APFAO). The purpose of PCAAE – the “association of associations” – is to advance the association management profession and to make associations well-governed and sustainable. PCAAE enjoys the support of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), and the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Email the author at: bobby@pcaae.org for more details on PCAAE and on association governance and management.
Association Man 