GSAE Connections

Creating Member Value: TMI?

Summer 2014 --
When the Professional Photographers of America looked to revamp its member experience, staffers found that pacing engagement proved far more effective than racing. PPA found that while this may be the information age, there’s still such a thing as too much information. It’s a practice that has proven valuable; member ranks continue to swell.

Finding Radical Value in Core Competencies

Summer 2014 --
Rising college tuition costs, shrinking numbers of seats, and new technology based delivery systems are combining to create a perfect storm in the adult education world. With specialization in industries and professions moving at an ever-increasing rate, college students often arrive on the scene with skills that are already out of date. Shelly Alcorn, CAE, shares how the coming disruptions in the educational system couldn’t come at a better time for associations. Association staff and volunteers who fully grasp these tectonic shifts in education, will be able to position themselves to create radical value in new opportunity areas that simply didn’t exist ten years ago.

2014 Communications Benchmarking Report

Summer 2014 --
With the growing communications landscape delivering more messages and advertising to your members than ever before, it’s getting harder and harder to rise above the static to get your message heard. The 2014 Association Communication Benchmarking Report helps to establish a point of reference for comparing your communication strategies against an aggregate of other North American associations. It also includes recommendations and tactics that may help your association cut through the clutter so that more of your messages reach your members.

Strategic Structure

Fall 2013 --
Follow ACEC Georgia through their restructuring journey, which included revamping its committee structure, simplification of its bylaws to make the association more nimble, and streamlining the qualifications and application process for membership, bringing the association more in line with the national ACEC.

Improving Governance and Board Meetings

Fall 2013 --
If your last board meeting was less than effective consider these quick tips from Bob Harris, CAE, for improvements in board service.

The Internship Experience

Fall 2013 --
Learn more about the GSAE Internship Grant Program through this first-person account of a Meeting Expectations internship experience.

Brand Aid

Summer 2013 --
Branding is as much about the audience as it is the product. What works? For most, it’s a potent cocktail that merges the tangible and the ethereal with a clear vision of the customer. Three GSAE members share their best practices when it comes to marketing and branding.

Road to Relevance: The Competitive Association

Summer 2013 --
"Road to Relevance" authors, Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers share their take on the tools associations need to compete and maintaining relevance in today's marketplace.

The Three Keys to Great Presentations

Summer 2013 --
Public speaking is an increasingly important professional skill for your members, your volunteer leaders, and your association’s staff at all levels,especially senior and executive staff. If you suffer from performance anxiety when you get in front of a crowd check out these proven strategies to help you overcome that fear and deliver an excellent presentation, no matter what the format or audience.

The Nature of Nurture

Spring 2013 --
At Meeting Expectations, the secret to workplace satisfaction is a delicate melange of careful hiring policies, career pathing and an eye toward work-life balance. Oh yeah, and monthly tailgates.

The Fine Line...

Spring 2013 --
The battle between patting yourself on the back, thereby eschewing the support of your volunteers, and completely distancing yourself from the successes that you ably and tirelessly work to create.

Five Ways to Inspire Creativity at Your Organization

Spring 2013 --
Listen, nurture, lead and frame your brainstorming sessions with these tips in hand. Before you know it, you...ll be delighting your members, volunteers and board with your newfound creativity, and having more fun than you thought possible during the collaboration process.

Membership: More Than a ‘Pet’ Project

Winter 2013 --
When staffers at the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association sought to grow their ranks, they found success in getting to know them. The GVMA team — Clare Reagan, CAE, Executive Director, Beth Burt, Membership Coordinator, and Scott Piper, CAE, Communications Director — share its recent successes in building a stronger membership base through better communication and advocacy work.

Mutually Beneficial: A look from two sides of The Georgia Economic Developers Association Internship

Winter 2013 --
The GSAE Foundation Internship Grant provided Rebecca McGee, a recent University of Georgia graduate, the opportunity to work with Mike Pennington, CAE, CEcD, the President of the Georgia Economic Developers Association. Here McGee and Pennington share their first-person experiences with the internship process, and their takeaways from the experience.

Social Media for Association Executives

Winter 2013 --
As featured in the March issue of the GSAE eNewsletter, Corey Pearlman -- the featured speaker at the April 17 GSAE Luncheon -- shares three simple strategies to getting better results from social media in 2013.

Understanding and Leading the Evolution of Board Governance

Fall 2012 --
Gabriel Eckert, CAE, explains that as association executives, we are responsible for understanding our boards and guiding them through the current evolutionary process that many are undergoing. In this feature he asks the question: Has the focus on board structure improved governance?

Extreme Makeover: Association Edition

Fall 2012 --
Outdated bylaws, an 80-year-old logo and a cumbersome process meant a major overhaul for Associated General Contractors of Georgia (AGC Georgia). We sat down with Chief Executive Officer Mike Dunham to learn how the organization made it happen.

Living Legends: Abit Massey

Fall 2012 --
Learn about how a chance encounter led tireless legend Abit Massey, CAE, to association work and to GSAE.