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.

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.

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.

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.

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?