Associations Working Together is The Power of A

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The Power of Conversation

May 04

[updated with new posts as of May 5, 10:00am EST]

Whew, what a weekend. The first full week of the campaign and we’ve already heard a lot of insightful feedback. We want you to know that we’re listening and we want to hear more from you. In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of some of the posts, all of them thoughtful responses:

Deirdre Reid’s The Natives Are Restless - How Do You Respond?

Maggie McGary’s The Power of..Huh?

Lynn Morton’s Power of A, lets take it to the next level!

Chris Bailey’s The Power of A, So Close Yet So Far Away

[Added May 5th]

David Sabol’s The Power of…Missed Opportunities

Jamie Notter’s The Power of Frustration

Right off the bat, we’ve already made some changes based on some posts over the first week.  We’ve changed the ‘add your association’ feature to a more inclusive ‘get involved.’ We never intended to exclude non-association members from the conversation, only to track who was participating from what association. To one writer’s point, readers may have thought we only wanted to hear from other associations. That’s not the case at all. Great point. Change made.

Second, it’s worth addressing the point made in many of the posts about who the target audience should be. As we noted in the release announcing the campaign, the “top priority is to inform decision makers on Capitol Hill, particularly those individuals who comprise the group of newest political gatekeepers to the American public.”

While that will remain the primary focus, we certainly hope the Power of A demonstrates the value of associations to everyone – members and non-members, association bloggers, and the general public across all industries.

We view this to be the beginning of a larger awareness effort. We are starting with a focus Inside the Beltway because we have an opportunity right now to get in front of many new faces within the administration and on Capitol Hill, and because of the magnitude of the legislative and regulatory challenges facing these decision-makers right now.

Imagine if you were sitting across the table today with a member of the Obama administration or a legislative director for a member of Congress. What would you want them to know about your association and your members that might assist them in crafting good policy? Consider The Power of A site as your opportunity to start that important conversation.

We need the content from you to make this work:

  • Post: submit a guest post either here on the Power of A, or write about what an association is working on right now on your own blog.
  • Submit your videos: “short, sweet, to the point, and not overly produced” (as Lynn Morton described) video clips telling the story that demonstrates the Power of A.
  • Tweet about it: (yes, both positive and negative comments) using the #pwra hashtag. Your tweets will be aggregated on the Power of A homepage.

Also, I do want to address a concern I noted in a couple of posts, and that has to do with member dues helping to finance an expensive PR campaign. Perhaps this hasn’t been conveyed clearly enough, but in no way is The Power of A financed by ASAE & The Center’s member dues. The campaign is fully supported by our Associations Advance America (AAA) Fund, a separate fund fueled entirely by contributions from members who support ASAE’s advocacy and public outreach efforts on behalf of the association community.

We’ll continue to listen to the conversation and make changes. From the very beginning the Power of A was meant to be an iterative process; a site that evolved over time. As association bloggers, members, and enthusiasts, we’ll need your help and participation as the site evolves. Join in the conversation; tell us what your association is doing. We’re all ears.

John Graham,

President & CEO

ASAE & The Center

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Economic Recovery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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by: John Graham

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13 Responses to “The Power of Conversation”

  1. Deirdre Reid Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    Thank you for responding to our concerns. We really do want the public to know about The Power of A. We believe in it. We’re evangelists for it!

    I understand the wish to get in front of policy-makers at this critical time. However I wonder if that is duplicating the efforts that your member associations make via their lobbyists and member visits. We will be delivering a multitude of messages to Hill and Administration staff, many of them mixed since ASAE member associations often have opposing views on legislation and policy.

    I still believe the general public is a better target audience as far as ROI to your member associations, particularly when the value and relevance of associations are being questioned more frequently with the growth of Web 2.0.

    Thanks for letting us put in our two cents. It has given many of us a chance to think deeply about associations, public relations, membership, social media and more. A never-ending conversation!

  2. Lynn Morton Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    I want to second Deirdre’s comments! I appreciate that you do listen as an association (something I hope that my members get from my association). This isn’t the first time ASAE has responded to something I have said that could be construed as critical (or hopefully in this case empowering).

    I love the idea of The Power of A(ssociations), because combined with our members we do have the power to change the world. Our members are our Power.

    So how do we go about posting videos? Who do we send them to?

  3. Power of A, lets take it to the next level! « SNAP’s Blog Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    [...] Sabol - The Power of Missed Opportunities Jamie Notter - The Power of Frustration John Graham - The Power of Conversation (From The Power of A site, they’re [...]

  4. The Power Of A…So Close Yet So Very Far Away | Gravit8 Social Relationship Marketing :: Chris Bailey Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

    [...] 05.04.09 - Update #2 Two more blogposts today related to The Power of A campaign: Dave Sabol’s The Power of Missed Opportunities Jamie Notter’s The Power of Frustration And finally a response from John Graham, President and CEO of ASAE and The Center: The Power of Conversation [...]

  5. Jeff Hurt Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    Thank you for the response. I’m glad you and ASAE are listening.

    There were a couple more blogs that wrote about The Power Of A that should be added to your list:

    David Sabol’s The Power of…Missed Opportunities
    http://www.associatedknowledge.com/2009/05/04/the-power-of-missed-opportunities/

    Jamie Notter’s The Power of Frustration
    http://www.getmejamienotter.com/getmejamienotter/2009/05/the-power-of-frustration.html

    I also have a couple questions.

    1) Isn’t this campaign as currently designed duplicating efforts of many associations?
    I agree with Deirde that I suspect you’re duplicating the work of many associations at this time. I know the association I work for has our own lobbyist currently meeting with policy-makers and the message we are taking forward is not “The Power of A.” We have more pressing issues than that affecting our members’ businesses that need immediate attention. I think educating the public about the importance of associations is far more important right now.

    2) Has ASAE asked its members if they already have a lobbyist working the Hill and administration so as not to duplicate efforts or seem fractured in the approach?

    3) Are you going to do more education with ASAE members to get them involved?
    I agree with Lynn Morton’s blog comments that there has been a lack of education to ASAE’s members on how to contribute, the type of content needed and that there should be a more coordinated effort. I also agree that currently the site seems to be ASAE ego pitching and ASAE-serving.

    4) Lastly and most importantly, I’m going to ask the question that many people are asking each other privately in emails, direct tweets and IMs: Did you, John, really write this response? Or did a ghostwriter or someone from Oglivy PR firm write it for you and then you approved it.

    In this day and age, authenticity, trust and honesty are extremely important. Since I’ve never seen you respond to a blog post before, I’m not a friend of yours in Facebook of FriendFeed, nor have I ever seen you send any tweets in Twitter, I just want to know that these are really your words. I think you can understand my doubt since you’ve never personally reached out to people in the social media space in the past and I have a hard time believing an entire organization culture changed overnight with the hiring of Oglivy. Trust is the currency in this economy and if you want our attention, involvement and trust, you have to earn it. The Power Of A is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t mean we all trust you right out of the gate. Many bloggers are asked this question so it’s not only you that is getting singled out. Even author, blogger and social media influencer Guy Kawasaki recently announced that he has ghostwriters for his twitter account. So, the association world is watching and wanting to know the truth. Did you really write this post or did someone else write it for you and you approved it?

  6. Maggie McGary Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 9:54 am

    I admit I was pleasantly surprised to see your post, and think the “get involved” change is great. I hope lots of people take you up on it and share their stories and videos, because I’m looking forward to reading/watching them—and hopefully contributing myself.

    Also, I wasn’t so much concerned about members’ dues being spent on the campaign; I was more disappointed that the first any of us heard about it was after it was a done deal. Dave Sabol makes a really excellent point in his post (link above in Jeff’s comment)–I would have loved to have seen a call for volunteers to develop the same stuff Ogilvy did. I’d be willing to bet that many enthusiastic, talented members would have come forward and could have put together a campaign/website at least as good as–if not better than–Ogilvy’s. The unfortunate reality is that many association professionals are out of work now and I’m sure would have appreciated not only the opportunity to have a project to focus on but also being able to add it to their resumes. Ditto for the many association staffers who do have jobs but who have creative skills that they aren’t able to use in their current positions.

  7. Chris Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 9:58 am

    Lynn thanks so much for your feedback. Click the newly created “get involved” link http://www.thepowerofa.org/get-involved/ for ways to submit content, including video. We’ll keep an eye out for your clip!

  8. Maddie Grant Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 11:58 am

    off topic - can you set up the twitter stream to show who’s tweeting? thanks! :)

  9. Kerry Stackpole, CAE IOM Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Kudos to John Graham and the ASAE Team for being such focused listeners. While the Power of A(ssociations) is great, the Power of A(ggregation) is even better and that’s why this ASAE effort is vital. Yeah, sure it feels a little like “inside baseball” to those of us in the profession, but the data is clear. Decision-makers on the Hill really don’t know or understand much about associations. In today’s overhyped and fully saturated communication channel getting the message out isn’t the problem, having it seen, read, heard and understood is. Associations are partners in progress and change and the more ways we find to make that crystal clear to policymakers and influencers who don’t understand it, the better chance we have at helping all associations realize their missions and achieve success.

  10. Lynn Morton Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Chris - Should have something for you guys in early June, we’re going to try and get on the spot member testimonials while we’re at conference. :)

    Maddie - If they are using the RSS feed, Twitter won’t give you the usernames. Sadness.

    I appreciate what ASAE is doing and I hope that as association professionals we can really take this to the next level.

  11. Matthew D'Uva Says:
    May 6th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    I have been following the excellent and interesting coversation regarding #PWRA as a larger campaign for associations. I really think that there has been some excellent comments and suggestions from very experienced players in social media (for example) I have learned a lot that I will use in my organization about member feedback and participation! Thanks to the many professionals who are offering great insights.

    I feel compelled to offer comments though admittedly I am less comfortable with social media channels (though I am reluctantly moving there, and I have never had anyone ghost write my postings) to offer the following comments about what I believe are some of the programs and feedback channels that I have supported as an ASAE member that have led up to this campaign. I have served as aa member of the ASAE Associations Advance America (AAA) Committee for a number of years and there has been lots of member driven discussion about how the committee and ASAE can do a more effective job in promoting the power of associations.

    During my time on the AAA Committee, we have seen the number of awards submissions continue to raise. This has led to lots of discussion on the part of the AAA Committee and recommendations to staff and the ASAE Board that the organization do more to promote the profession using the AAA Fund. I was pleased that they responded to this need.

    The subsequent discussion has provided great feedback for improvement and ways that the community can be more involved. But I am proud that ASAE has started this campaign and launched something that can be powerful for our profession.

    I think that many associations (like mine), whose main purpose is not to lobby but to educate, look to ASAE to educate on our behalf and promote the work that professional associations do to advance business and industry. I am pleased that ASAE began the campaign focused on Capitol Hill and was pleased to see the ads run while I was watching Meet the Press.

    Additionally, I participated in the ASAE Day on the Hill in March and was pretty surprised by what I perceived to be a lack of participation by the community in support of lobbying on the power of associations. In relation to the number of ASAE members, there does not seem to be a huge number of members supporting these legislative events or even the association’s political action committee. Hopefully, this call for member involvement will change that and provide additional incentive for members to get more involved in these programs.

    I truly hope that this campaign is the beginning of a larger engagement process where ASAE members get involved in the discussions and opportunities to connect and programs that exist that are focused on delivering these messages. Finally, as a member, I vow to do my part to listen, read and research so that I can offer comments about how we can ensure that these “more established” programs are timely, relevant and fresh going forward.

  12. Gary LaBranche Says:
    May 6th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Just a quick note of thanks. Thanks to ASAE & The Center for taking this important step - and for putting serious resources behind it. A number of folks have urged such an effort for a long time. Speaking of resources, thanks to those who have provided the resources through their support of the Summit Awards dinner and the AAA Fund. We have to put our money where our ambitions are. And thanks to those who are shaping this effort by engaging in constructive dialogue. It is highly appropriate that we demonstrate the power of collaboration in associations by, well, collaborating in our association.

    As a participant in ASAE’s Legislative Fly-in, and also as someone who lobbyed in Illinois and Chicago on behalf of the association community, I can testify to just how much this effort is needed. I support targeting those on Capitol Hill as an effective way to use limited resources and get the most “bang for the buck.” (I remember just a few years ago when a big wad of ASAE cash was used to fund a few one-time AAA ads in major public newspapers - which amounted to a huge waste of resource in my opnion). That said, I am hopeful that the dialogue on this site, and the campaign itself, will inspire many more of our colleagues to financially support the AAA Fund so that this effort can be taken to a wider public.

    So kudos to all concerned. Together, you are really showing just how much power there is in association. And that is the best testimonial of all.

  13. Sad14 Says:
    October 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    If she is happy your life is happier. ,

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