NAM Leader Urges Involvement.

When he began his service as chief elected officer in October 1998, Calvin A. "Tink" Campbell, Jr., was the first small-manufacturing executive in half a century to lead the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers. On the eve of becoming immediate past NAM chair, Campbell, who is chairman, president, and CEO of Goodman Equipment Corporation in Bedford Park, Illinois, shared his insights on leadership issues with ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT.

Applying business know-how

Campbell credits the analytical skills he developed as a small-business owner with helping him meet the demands of being NAM's leader. "When you run your own business, analysis is key. You're always analyzing a cost, a product, a market, a person, or a group of people," he explains. "The analysis background is of immense help in being the chairman of a great trade association such as NAM, which is more than 100 years old and has 14,000 members--10,000 of whom are small- or mid-sized [companies]."

Campbell says analytical skills helped him determine the key issues NAM would focus on during his year as chief elected leader. "We chose to talk about the four Ts: taxes, technology, training, and trade."

As part of this agenda, NAM worked to eliminate the "death tax." Explains Campbell: "Two thirds of entrepreneur-developed businesses in the United States go out of business or have to be sold upon the death of the owner because of the estate tax, which can be as high as 55 percent."

Campbell is especially proud of three accomplishments that occurred during his term of office:

* the establishment of NAM's Site Selection Network, a free information resource for plant sites and relocations (www.namssn.org);

* an online training service launched in partnership with General Physics Corporation, Columbia, Maryland, known as the NAM Virtual University (www.nam .org /training/namvu.html); and

* an initiative to raise awareness about NAM throughout the United States by conducting meetings with members of Congress in their own congressional districts. As of mid-October, more than 300 of these meetings had been held.

Getting involved

Campbell urges members of other associations to become active volunteer leaders. "Get involved because two things happen. One is that the industry you're involved in gets better with better people involved.

"Secondly, you learn from what you participate in and observe in the marketplace," he points out. "I have talked to a lot of people and I've learned some good ideas," particularly in the area of e-commerce. As a result of insights learned while serving as NAM's leader, Campbell's company now takes a much closer look at its own Web site operations.

Creating value

Given the trend toward consolidation in the business community, Campbell predicts that the associations of the future will rely more heavily on nondues revenue generated by value-added services, such as the NAM Virtual University. "We have to bring value to our members," emphasizes Campbell. "They have to be able to say in their own staff meetings, 'We've got to remain a member because we're getting value.'"

Making a difference

During his yearlong tenure as chief elected officer, Campbell met with nearly 150 members of Congress to communicate NAM's priorities of lowering taxes, expanding international trade, and improving labor force skills and workforce productivity. The experience left an indelible impression.

"If there's anything I've learned this past year, it's that if businesspeople get involved, we can make a difference," says Campbell. "We can cause views to change. We can cause ideas to surface. We can cause laws to be enacted."