Strength in collaboration, opportunity in commitment.

President Clinton and members of his cabinet ask you to join in creating positive change.

You've been invited. Seriously. The invitation? Well, President Clinton delivered it personally, as did U.S. Secretaries Shalala, Reich, and Brown. It's about forming new partnerships, new channels of communication between associations and the federal government.

"For 75 years you have shown the importance of representation," declared President Clinton, addressing 1,400 attentive association executives and their association-supplier partners at ASAE's Management & Meetings FORUM '94, in March, at the Washington, D.C., Convention Center. "I feel I almost ought to be a member, [representing] 'The Association of All the American People.' And the members of my group want us to deal with the health care problem."

While arguable are the merits of what Clinton described as the primary components of his proposal to change the health care financing system, it was hard to argue with Clinton's expressed goals--"to preserve and enhance choice. . . . If in the long run we want the American people to be a stronger community, we must address the health care crisis.

"We ought to be in debate . . . that will genuinely solve this problem," proclaimed the president. "I ask you to support health security for all Americans. Enter the debate to help fashion a plan to meet those objectives."

Off stage

Sometimes, though, what moves an audience is not the words but the spirit behind them. Behind Clinton's speech was a man so determined to connect with ASAE members that after his presentation, he spent as much time shaking hands and conversing with members as he had on the podium. He was relaxed, almost jovial, and open. That charismatic style didn't go unappreciated.

The Clinton administration's other power hitters

Fix health care--and fix welfare: Talk about tackling the nation's tough social issues. Speaking over breakfast to several hundred early risers, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala made a case for the inextricable link between health care reform and welfare reform.

Viewed from one vantage point, the health care debate "is about whether millions of Americans who go to work in the morning have access to U.S. medical technology--the finest in the world--through their family doctors or through emergency rooms because they don't have insurance."

According to Shalala, we can't reform the welfare system if we don't reform the health care system, because the current reality is that people who take low-paying jobs often are forced to live in poverty and lose the health care benefits provided by the welfare system. We need a system, she said, that promotes responsibility, encourages work, ensures that welfare is transitional and temporary, and eliminates red tape.

Above all, we need a plan "that ensures that once in the work system, people get income that's above the poverty line and have health care and child care benefits so that they stay in the work system," said Shalala, rather than reenter the welfare system for health care and child support.

"We won't get everything we want," Shalala conceded, but of this she was very clear: "The focus will be on supporting people who are in the work force."

A one-time offer from U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich: "Trade associations," proffered Reich, "are uniquely in a position to provide [job skills training] for young people. You can identify unique skills in your trade. Provide the pathways. Find out where the skills shortages are. Survey your members [to get this information].

"I'll make you a one-time-only offer: If you're interested in surveying your members, write me. I'll come speak to your members. Free."

Reich is an economist with a vision. He's a dynamic speaker, charged with zeal and determination and a sense of humor. He described what he sees as the challenge to educate and train the work force. "We Americans have created jobs, but a large percentage of them have been paying less and less. . . . The reason has to do with technology. . . . If you're skilled, your market is growing. If you don't have skills, you compete with people around the world who also have relatively low skills."

Investment in people, said Reich, is critically important. He contended that work and education have to go hand in glove and that employees have to continually be learning on the job. Hence the Labor Department's National Voluntary Skills Standards Initiative. The goal is to provide on-the-job training for skills that don't require a college degree.

That's where associations come in, suggested Reich. With their help, Reich believes America can train its work force, thereby creating a more competitive and stable America.

More about the power of positive change: Eli Segal, president and chief executive officer, Corporation for National Service, and assistant to the president on national service, described what he called "an invitation to the imagination," namely, the Corporation for National and Community Service, which was formed in conjunction with the White House Office of National Service. The corporation supports national and community service programs.

The mechanisms for change put forth at the Management & Meetings FORUM by these high-profile administration representatives also include the newly created White House Conference on Tourism and the National Information Infrastructure Task Force. Both were described by Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown as opportunities to "redefine the relationship between government and business." Brown, whose home between the ages of 6 and 17 actually was a hotel because his father managed one, doesn't underestimate the value of tourism, especially as an export. He boasted that this administration has introduced the first national export strategy. "We're taking an aggressive posture to help American [organizations] compete." Brown also described the new sector of environmental technology, where new jobs are being created. But, warned Brown, "We have to share knowledge, to reach everyone. . . . [We] can't create the haves and the have-nots."

Brown's parting words had a familiar ring: "I hope you accept the outreach of this administration to work together."

The Association Healthcare Coalition

Representing some 60 associations, the recently formed Association Healthcare Coalition grew out of concern about certain aspects of proposed health care legislation--particularly provisions that could eliminate associations' unique specialized group health insurance programs.

Ironically, association health care plans were among the very first purchasing coalitions ever to come into existence. And they have stood the test of time by providing small employers with the advantages of large numbers. The association plans pool employer groups of a single industry and insure them under one master group policy, rather than issuing a separate policy to each small company. By aggregating various occupational risks with particular employer-based professions, associations' group health insurance programs create leverage to negotiate by spreading risk.

One of The Association Healthcare Coalition's major objectives is to educate and inform members of Congress about association-sponsored health care plans. The coalition supports maintaining association health care plans in whatever shape health care reform takes.

At the time this article went to press, ASAE's Insurance Education Committee had recommended that ASAE endorse The Association Healthcare Coalition--the recommendation would not be acted on until ASAE had a chance to review TAHC's bylaws. Endorsement of TAHC is anticipated.

If you'd like more information about the coalition, contact Frank Duggan, The Association Healthcare Coalition, 1150 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036, [phone].

Ann I. Mahoney, CAE, is editor of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT.