I’m terribly late in writing this up (sorry, stuff got in the way), but I want to share a bit about a meeting I attended in Denver back on April 16th and 17th. As the incoming President of Core (a Division of the American Library Association) ALA sent me to a CEO Symposium put on by ASAE, the American Society of Association Executives, an organization that provides training for the leaders of non-profit individual membership organizations. The CEO Symposium is designed to provide training for both the chief staff executive and the chief elected officer of an organization. So, I attended the symposium along with Julie Reese, the Executive Director of Core. We were the only library organization reps at the meeting. There were all kinds of organizations represented: the American Institute of Architects, the Academic Pediatric Association, the Association of Equipment Management Professionals, National Women in Roofing, etc. The folks from the Montana Realtors Association said that they have an executive board that consists of 57 members, which sounds like an absolute nightmare to manage!

The presenters discussed the nature of volunteer associations, which are unique because the same populations are the owners, customers, and workforce of the organization. Associations are effectively a collaborative network rather than a traditional hierarchy, which means they have to be managed in different ways than a business. We also discussed the lifecycle of organizations, the need to provide value to members, how to lead an executive board, fiscal responsibilities, and numerous other topics. The most useful parts involved exploring the relationship between the chief staff executive and the chief elected officer. Julie and I worked a lot together to discuss our values, our approaches to work, our trust styles, and just generally got a much better sense of how we will work together in the coming year.

Because the attendees were the leaders of organizations that regularly hold conferences and conventions, the rooms at the hotel were very nice and the catering was fantastic. One of the ASAE staffers joked that ASAE stands for “Always Sitting, Always Eating.” We also got pitched hard by the Denver Visitor Bureau, who brought in guys who did custom laser engravings of photos on wooden coasters or leather key chains for the attendees (I got one with a picture of our Boston terrier Stubbs). Packing for Denver in the middle of April was an adventure. The temperature hit 80 on the first day and on the second day it snowed for four hours!