The Power of A

The May edition of Associations Now is hot off the press and one of the most popular pieces features interviews with a variety of CEOs all answering questions surrounding the economic downturn, the effect it’s had on their organization, and what they’re doing to recover.

Below, I’ve pulled the highlights of the most compelling responses.  As you read the answers, be thinking about what you’d say if someone asked what associations are doing to move the country forward.  If you’ve got an answer we want to hear it; comment on this post, or click Get Involved to submit a video, become a guest poster, or add an association to the growing list of PowerofA.org particpants.

(You can read the full feature here. )

Associations Now: How has the economy affected your association?

Kris Cook, National Affordable Housing Management Association: “We have a little bit of a unique situation in that we’ve been a stressed industry for eight to 10 years. Being a stressed industry, you learn to live on a shoestring, so now that everybody else is stressed, it’s like, “Been there, done that.” We’ve been lean and mean.”

Chris Bates, Independent Office Products and Furniture Dealers Association: We have two membership divisions—office-supplies dealers and office-furniture dealers—and it’s been remarkable to see how differently, in terms of degree at least, they’ve been impacted. The office-supply dealers have soft market conditions, but by and large, because they’re nimble, they’ve been able to gain market share and partially offset what’s going on.  The office-furniture dealers, on the other hand—the business is falling off the map. When the overall industry compresses in a six-month period of time by 25 to 30 percent, that’s huge.

Erin Fuller, Tysons Tomorrow: As an organization that just celebrated our one-year birthday, the lucky thing is that we only know this environment. I never had any fat-cat days.

AN: What has your experience been like with your boards through the economic downturn?

Kris Cook “We created what we affectionately called our Financial Meltdown Taskforce. Within a month, they had come up with a white paper that had 10 possible solutions to bringing back investors.

AN: Do you have any last thoughts or takeaways?

Cedric Calhoun Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals: I would throw in partnering—partnering with staff to get things done, partnering with chapters, partnering with like organizations. There is obviously strength in numbers and, depending on how you partner, potentially less risk in some of the things that you’re trying to accomplish.

Chris Vest
Director, Public Policy
ASAE

Robert W. Seligson
Executive Vice President, CEO
North Carolina Medical Society

Our organization started over 160 years ago when a group of concerned physicians came to Raleigh to meet with representatives of the General Assembly because charlatans were disguising themselves as physicians and were bringing harm to North Carolina citizens. continue reading