The year in review.

The new year is always flush with possibility and promise, and that certainly holds true for ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership in 2005. With the momentum we have generated across the past year and so many new initiatives in the works, it is tempting to put our blinders on and push ahead. Why look in the rearview mirror when the road before us is so uncharted and exciting? The simple answer: Because the places we've already been help us map out our direction for the future.

The leaders of ASAE and The Center must remember where we came from to exercise our memories of what we have achieved and what still qualifies as unfinished business. This infamous quote is really a warning to us all: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ASAE and The Center have come far in the past year alone. And in recalling some of the steps we've taken along the way, we will be more prepared for the challenges and opportunities that await us in 2005 and beyond.

A merger of historic proportions

Of course, much of the past year--my first full year as president and CEO--was spent in discussion with The Center for Association Leadership, the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, and the ASAE Foundation, working to define a new relationship among these entities and ASAE that would make us all stronger, more responsive, and better equipped to meet the needs of our members across the country. After careful consideration and with the support of the volunteer leadership of the four entities, we have emerged from those discussions as two organizations that are partners in every sense of the word.

I want to thank all of the ASAE members who took an interest in our deliberations this year and who voiced their concerns and opinions at the town hall meetings held at various times and in various locations across the country. This is your professional organization; we are merely the stewards. With your support, we have made a business decision that we absolutely believe will enhance our programs and services, our response time to you and other key stakeholders, and our ability to serve as the voice of this profession. I want to report to all of our members and industry partners that the partnership between ASAE and The Center is working even better than we anticipated it could at this early stage.

The staff of ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership, numbering about 135 in total, is functioning as one team. They are working across departments, communicating with each other, and finding out that they can learn much from one another. Attaining staff buy-in on the new partnership was critical to realizing our vision. The results we have seen so far are extremely encouraging.

Equally heartening is the attitude and enthusiasm of the volunteer leaders of both organizations. ASAE Chairman Thomas R. Kuhn, CAE, president, Edison Electric Institute, and Center Chairman Ralph J. Nappi, CAE, president, American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, were great champions of the consolidation, as was every other member of the Joint Leadership Team, which developed and approved our combined organizational structure. We have leaders in place who have guided this partnership every step of the way and who are committed to giving us the resources and the support we will need over the long haul as we begin to fulfill our organizational promise.

Signs of our progress were evident throughout 2004. Following are some of the highlights:

Annual meeting deemed a success

ASAE and The Center had a highly successful 2004 Annual Meeting and Exposition in August in Minneapolis, with roughly 5,000 attendees and a sold-out exposition with 752 booths and 520 companies represented on the show floor. Building on the success of the Minneapolis meeting, The Center for Association Leadership is taking over planning of the educational program and overall meeting experience for next year, and booth sales for the 2005 exposition in Nashville are running well ahead of last year's pace.

Updated CAE content outline unveiled

This year, the CAE Commission completed a lengthy research project into the knowledge and skills essential to the association management profession and developed a new CAE exam content outline based on the findings. The exam content outline is updated approximately every five to seven years. The last update was in 1997. The study was designed to collect input from a wide range of association professionals; to document what knowledge is seen as essential to the profession, and what has changed in recent years; and to provide statistically valid data on which to base the content of the CAE exam. The new test specifications will take effect starting with the May 2005 exam.

Measures project picks up steam

The seminal "Measures of Success" research study, started by the ASAE Foundation under the guidance of Jim Collins, best-selling author of Built to Last and Good to Great, continues its work under The Center for Association Leadership banner. The study and control groups for the project have been identified, and field investigations started this fall. Using the methodology Collins employed in Built to Last, the measures project began by surveying CEOs and senior staff of associations around the country to identify benchmark organizations that have persisted through difficult circumstances while consistently delivering on their mission. Ultimately, we will learn what visionary associations share in common that is distinct from their counterparts in the control group.

Advocacy efforts continue

Fax update. ASAE has also been working hard this year as an advocate for the association community on Capitol Hill and in meetings with various regulatory agencies. ASAE and the Fax Ban Coalition were able to successfully petition this fall for a new six-month stay of the Federal Communications Commission's new fax regulations. Associations and businesses now have until July 1, 2005, before the rules are set to go into effect--time that will be used to obtain a legislative solution that restores the "established business relationship" provision so that legitimate, business-to-business and association-to-member fax communication can continue unimpeded. ASAE and the coalition will turn their attention to the Senate in the coming year to secure support for this important legislation.

Governance reform. Nonprofit governance reform gained a lot of momentum prior to the political conventions and the Labor Day recess. In fact, ASAE submitted testimony to the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing in June that focused on charity reform and participated in a roundtable discussion in July with Finance Committee staff who are drafting legislation that more clearly defines expectations for nonprofit governance. Only the elections and Congress's focus on appropriations toward the end of the last legislative session kept this issue from progressing further in the Senate. We expect the issue of nonprofit governance to heat up again in the coming year.

In response to this increased attention, ASAE released a report in September entitled "Changing Expectations for Nonprofit Organization Governance." The purpose of the report was not to set a rigid set of guidelines for organizations to follow but to give them a starting point for considering the current climate and whether their governance practices are up to par.

Our value to you

ASAE is revisiting its value proposition--everything from soup to nuts that applies to membership, with an aggressive goal to grow membership by 5 percent this coming year. We are also reviewing our recognition and awards programs, as well as our committee structure, with the idea that we want the right opportunities in place for members of ASAE to become leaders in this organization. And we want the right recognition vehicles in place for those who contribute significantly to our profession.

ASAE and The Center have also been working this year to create a dynamic environment to enable business partners to better meet their marketing and sales objectives within the association community. As a starting point, this summer ASAE renamed its Associate Alliance the Industry Partner Alliance. The Industry Partner Alliance is an important group of volunteer leaders from ASAE's broad business partner community who represent business interests to the leadership of ASAE and The Center. The decision to change the name of the alliance is part of an ongoing analysis of all business partner initiatives and services, including a review of ASAE membership categories. Industry partners can expect further enhancements to their relationships with ASAE in the near future.

Susan Sarfati, CAE, president and CEO of The Center for Association Leadership and executive vice president of ASAE, and her staff are developing new learning initiatives to enhance the effectiveness and professional success of ASAE's members nationwide--initiatives such as The New Great Ideas Conferences taking place in Orlando, Florida, this month and in Phoenix in February 2005. The Center is also deep into planning next year's Annual Meeting and Exposition in Nashville, August 13-16, and will have surprises in store for attendees no matter their experience or organizational role.

Together with The Center for Association Leadership, ASAE is now moving with purpose. I have seen it in our volunteer leaders, in our staff, and in feedback from our members. ASAE is today more effectively positioned to fulfill its potential as the national organization representing the association management profession. We are not at the mountaintop yet, but we are committed to getting there--to exceeding our own and our members' expectations, to over-delivering on our promises. I look forward to sharing our progress across the coming year, and I thank you for your continued support of ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership.

JOHN H. GRAHAM IV, CAE

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J. H. Graham IV

President and CEO

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