At the Florida Apartment Association’s Leadership Lyceum Module I, members of local affiliates gathered to learn, brainstorm, and grow.

 

The Leadership Lyceum program is designed to give members the opportunity to absorb knowledge that often helps them attain leadership roles within their local affiliate and beyond. The first of three modules took place Feb. 6 during the 2017 FAA Legislative Conference in Tallahassee.

 

Before students broke off into brainstorming groups, they took part in an icebreaker and listened to an introduction to the power of associations. They heard that approximately 150,000 501(c)(6) associations exist in the U.S., three new associations form every business day, and associations are the largest provider of adult education services in the country. The main takeaway from the introduction was that the strength of FAA, and any association, is the sense of ownership and involvement of its members. To fortify this idea, Lyceum students separated into groups to brainstorm ideas about the future of FAA and its local affiliates.

 

When asked how an association can remain a critical part of its members’ success in an age of online information and competition from suppliers and management companies, one group had the idea to "create a website or app that can pull market survey data for communities in a given region." This group also suggested "setting up a vendor directory that will showcase past job pricing and satisfaction as a resource for property managers and as a form of advertising to the vendor."

 

Another brainstorming question dealt with how an association can encourage and challenge its volunteer leaders to embrace their responsibility. One group had an idea to create a mandate that would encourage current leaders to identify, nominate, and mentor future leaders and participants, which would lead to more overall growth in the association.

 

Students had a variety of ideas for how to improve FAA as a whole. One group offered the idea of creating leadership advancement opportunities through education, mentoring, and industry involvement with new education classes offered at the state and local level. Another group expressed desire for more basic maintenance courses that would enhance awareness and involvement.

 

Ideas regarding how FAA and its affiliates can work together to create a strategic collaboration that benefits all included one group’s suggestion for FAA to share more ideas with local affiliates and vice versa.