SMALL STAFF ADVISORY COMMITTEE OUTLINES OUTCOMES.

The commitment of Small Staff Advisory Committee members to each take an assignment that arose from its formal meeting discussions at ASAE's Management and Technology Conference and Exposition in December 2000 set the tone for a substantive and productive meeting. SSAC Chairman Ken Morgan, CAE, executive director, North Carolina Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Raleigh, urged the committee to continue advancing the agenda set by Ross Kinzler, immediate past chair. Kinzler, executive director, Wisconsin Manufactured Housing Association, Madison, had led the committee in identifying 32 recommendations, since made to ASAE, for increasing support for ASAE members leading organizations with small staffs (10 employees or fewer). The agenda for the all-day meeting was built around a review of the recommendations and the actions taken by ASAE to support the small-staff association population.

Actions taken by ASAE

In reviewing the list of committee recommendations, Morgan distributed a comprehensive report, recapping the requests and updating the committee on what actions ASAE has taken in response. He highlighted four areas of increased support for small-staff associations.

1. Addition to the "CEO Symposium" of a module for small-staff association executives. The one-day program Leading Together has been specifically designed for the small-staff executive. To ensure better access for potential attendees, the program rotates locations, with the first 2001 program held in San Antonio in January and the second scheduled for April 19 in Denver.

2. Improved delivery of presentations, papers, and other materials on legal issues. InRoads, a weekly legal review published by ASAE's Public Policy department, is available to all CEOs who have given ASAE their e-mail addresses. In addition, Dawn Latham, manager of ASAE's Legal Section, reported that the Legal Section has established a knowledge management committee to review the last five years of legal material already available within ASAE's archives. Supporting ASAE's overall role as a content-based association, the section's initiative will result in compiling and posting online this rich content, accompanied by a search mechanism to retrieve information by topic. Latham invited committee members to assist in reviewing the papers presented at past D.C. Legal Symposium meetings to identify items of value to the smaller staff. The material identified will be posted on the Web and made available to ASAE members.

3. More visits from ASAE to the allied societies of association executives to create more personal interaction with smaller, state-based associations. ASAE President and CEO, Michael S. Olson, CAE, has personally visited more than 40 SAEs in the last two years. Senior staff also visits allied societies on a regular basis. In addition, ASAE has added a new staff position held by Diane James, CAE, director of allied partners, to further develop the relationships with allied societies.

4. Improved method to summarize information from all ASAE sections. In July 2000, ASAE unveiled its Open Access policy, which enables members to join any or all of its 13 professional interest sections for one membership fee. Members have access to products and services generated by the various sections, including newsletters, listservers, and so on.

Other outcomes

By the end of the day, committee members had completed many of the goals on the agenda--and agreed to take on some new ideas that came out of the discussions. Agenda items accomplished included: 1) developing an editorial calendar for the "SizeWise" column in ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT, with nine SSAC members agreeing to author articles based on ideas they feel are relevant to their peers; 2) identifying topics to recommend for the small-staff track at ASAE Philadelphia 2001 and ASAE Management and Technology Conference and Exposition 2001, Baltimore; and 3) discussing production of a series of books for small-staff association executives. (Anna Nunan, ASAE Director of Book Publishing, updated the committee on some ideas that her department is developing.)

Morgan, has set up an e-mail list for ongoing discussion among SSAC members. "This committee has made significant progress," said Morgan, "and that has resulted in increased support by ASAE for our small-staff constituency."