Fresh Starts for your Leadership Letters: Engage members with creative written messages. (Board Primer).

As a volunteer leader, do your responsibilities include writing "Dear member" letters? These could include regular introductory messages for your association's newsletter, a theme letter for your annual report, or a cover letter for your annual meeting brochure. Whether you craft these messages alone or work closely with a staff writer or editor, the challenge is to be both vibrant and relevant.

Savvy communicators keep idea files to help spark creativity. But sometimes these files run dry. Here are some ideas that might help you get started.

1. Pick an anniversary. Even if your organization is not celebrating a milestone year, you can highlight memorable association events. These include the date you held your first annual meeting, moved to your current offices, changed your name, reorganized your association, or launched a special program. Anniversaries provide an opportunity to look back and to look ahead.

2. Talk to new members. Ask them why they joined, what benefits they are seeking, and what they can contribute.

3. Prepare a quiz. Ask questions about your association's history or the industry or profession it serves, and vary the level of difficulty. Put the answers in the publication or on your Web site. Be sure to relate some element of the quiz to your organization's programs and goals.

4. Find out how key subjects in the industry or profession that your association serves are being taught in high school, technical school, and college. What's new? What has stayed the same? In what ways have new technologies changed the profession?

5. Cite statistics from a government survey or a private study. Explore the trends, extrapolate the results, and weigh the implications.

6. Look for an unusual angle to a current event. For example, the most recent presidential election sparked discussions not only about the importance of every vote, but also about traditions and technology.

7. Pose this question: What was the most important innovation in your profession in the past 200 years? Adjust the number of years, if necessary, to fit your association. Offer an answer, or ask members to share their ideas.

8. Go outside your organization for perspectives. Possible idea-generating sources include trend-related magazines and Web sites. Look for opportunities to tie things together. Even if your message will not be on your Web site, the concept of linking is becoming today's communication norm.

9. Write from the heart. Talk about why you joined the association and why you became a leader. Then ask members to think about why they joined. Challenge them to get involved and become leaders. Or, laud an unsung hero in your organization.

Ron Polaniecki, CAE, is manager, dental society services, American Dental Association, Chicago. E-mail: [e-mail]. This article is adapted from a piece that ran in the June 2001 issue of Communication News, published by ASAE.

RELATED ARTICLE: Writing Tips

Keep these suggestions in mind when preparing your message.

1. PLAN SEVERAL MESSAGES IN ADVANCE. This helps build continuity and gives you more time to do research and develop your themes.

2. ENLIST THE SERVICES OF A MINIMUM OF TWO PROOFREADERS. Pick one for his or her sensitivity to political implications; pick another for his or her knowledge of grammar.

3. BE BRIEF. Blaise Pascal expressed it like this: "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter."