Boards of directors face many challenges that compete for their time and strategic focus.

Selecting the ideal location for your conference or event can be difficult, but in recent years social justice, equality, and political issues have emerged that have made the decision even more challenging.

Little did we think when we started our blog in 2015 that 8 years later we’d have published more than 242 posts written by thought leaders from nearly every corner of AMC. If you’ve been following our blog for a while, one thing you may have noticed is that the majority of our thought leader contributors are women.

This year—in honor of Women’s History Month—we’ve compiled a list of the 25 blog posts by women thought leaders that resonated the most. If you’re looking for insights on association management; conferences and events; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); governance; marketing and membership; and professional development, check out these posts.

 “We have had great experiences with our past presidents. The expectations of what happens after service on the board is well understood and most past presidents don't get involved or try to influence after they have served.” — CEO of a large professional society

“I just don’t understand it. I would expect that of all people, our past presidents, who worked so hard, and gave so much, would be invested and supportive of moving the association forward. Instead, they are being obstructive, feel entitled, and are a source of constant headaches.” — CEO of a large professional society

These are actual quotes from real association executives, speaking on their very different experiences with the past presidents* of their association or society.

An association has been in the news in recent weeks, and not in the way that an association (or any organization) wants to be in the news. This association is an example of when bylaws, policies, procedures, traditions, and culture are not thoughtfully aligned.

Producing an annual conference for thousands of members of a national healthcare organization is no small feat. Fortunately, AMC has this down to an art. 

You’re committed to increasing understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within your organization and want to plan a week of events that celebrate and educate, but where do you start? What type of events should you include?

Why Data Analytics?

Data helps associations better understand their members. We can use data to find efficiencies, lower expenses, validate trends, communicate effectively, and drive innovation.

Association governance change is fraught with the wall of membership or House of Delegates (HOD) approval. A task force spends months working on a strategic governance issue, researching solutions, gathering data, and reviewing leading practices before presenting their recommendations to the board.  After a healthy discussion, the board approves the recommendations. In some cases, the board can then amend the bylaws and staff are then able to implement the change in their procedures.

How many times have you heard an association executive say that they are having trouble finding volunteers for leadership positions?

Balancing a mission-driven board while ensuring financial sustainability for the association can be a challenge during the best of economic times. But add in a pandemic and ever-increasing inflation, and it can seem like an insurmountable uphill climb.

Like many relationships in life, the board-staff relationship can be really great, with the board and staff working as a cohesive and collaborative team. Or, they can be more challenged, potentially leading to feelings of distrust and disillusionment and suboptimal performance.

Many associations have recently begun their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) journeys, or double downed on their DEI efforts in significant ways. This has been a long time coming and is an important evolution of the value associations bring to our industries and professional communities.

Here we go again. As associations plan their conferences for 2022, many are experiencing 2020 COVID déjà vu.

Move forward with an in-person format? Switch to virtual as positive case counts tick up? What will the COVID landscape be like when the conference actually kicks off months from now? The uncertainty abounds.

This past week AMC celebrated our second annual diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) week. Though DEI is a focus all year long, DEI Week gives us the chance to participate in multiple events each day to celebrate what makes us all unique, take a deeper dive into learning about DEI and fostering an inclusive culture, and step away from our day to day to have some fun.

Colin Powell, a retired four-star general, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the first Black U.S. Secretary of State, died earlier last week at the age of 84, leaving an important legacy of leadership.

Since March of 2020, association board leaders have been confronted with leadership challenges that few could have anticipated when elected to serve in volunteer positions. From conference cancellations, member distress, and financial uncertainty, to virtual meetings, burnout, and even grief, association boards and staff have to lead differently.

It happened again. I was participating in a board of directors’ meeting and directors were discussing a critical issue. Discussion was flowing. Directors were offering good ideas, observations, and opinions, and suddenly everything stopped. This board was trying to run their board meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order, and one of the directors had just made not one, but two motions, one of which he explained “...was a main motion and the other one a subsidiary motion.” 

Excellent editorial work is invisible to readers, but errors are not

I often joke that to be an editor is to have an invisible profession—after all, the editor’s role is only apparent to everyone else when it is done poorly.

You hear a lot about “Zoom fatigue” these days and the draining effects of being on video meetings for hours a day. As offices in our area consider reopening and ending capacity limitations, some are relishing the novelty of being able to return to holding meetings in person with their teams and staff. “Teams need to be together in person to truly connect” is often cited as a reason for returning to in-person meetings. Do people connect better in person? Sometimes. Do in-person meetings create an inclusive and equitable space? Not for everyone.

Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering, highlighted a tweet in her March newsletter that helped to further articulate one of the troubling reasons about the possible move back to in-person meetings. The tweet referenced how disabled people have been asking for years for remote conferences so they can participate and how they have been told no, it’s too difficult to do, at least until the pandemic made remote events a necessity for everyone.  In her newsletter, Priya challenges us to “build our gatherings around the needs and insights of the marginalized.”

How do we take stock of the past 525,600 minutes or a year like the one we’ve just experienced?

In March 2021, the murky waters of COVID-19 and its crippling effect around the world began to clear. With levels of infection rates going down, indoor activities re-opening, and optimistic vaccination announcements, summer looks like it could return to some semblance of normalcy.

In 2017, I approached Mark Engle, DM FASAE CAE, Association Management Center (AMC) principal to learn about the board selection process (BSP) research that he and Professor William Brown, PhD, Busch School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University had conducted. The research explored board competencies and processes that lead to exceptional and high-functioning board of directors.

In the first post of the How Can I Write Better Headlines series, I talked about things you SHOULD do to write great headlines for association audiences and beyond. Telling you what works is helpful, but you also need to know which headline errors to avoid. So, think of this as the “what not to do” in headline writing.

Headline writing is an art. You can even win awards for it. (As the managing editor of the Awards and Personalization Association, I’m well aware that there are awards for expertise in just about everything—but headlines might be a new one for you.)

2020 was defined by many things—for associations and the staff who support them, the ability to pivot and adapt to the unforeseen were top among them. As 2020 began, AMC staff were busy preparing for the typical  20+ events we manage each year for our association partners.

According to recent industry data, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated trends that were already in the works (Association Laboratory). Will advancing towards a competency-based board be part of this trend? The pandemic has certainly forced many associations to review their volunteer leadership structure, particularly around their decision-making process and the distribution of authority to make key, timely decisions. 

In my last post, I explained how I entered the association sphere after a career in newspaper journalism. I learned a lot with this career shift and have a few tips that can apply to anyone starting a new job or switching industries.

How did I get here? It’s been a beautiful combination of hard work and sheer luck, to be honest.

As a senior content marketing and editorial manager in the Creative Media Services (CMS) department at AMC, I work with our association partners on a wide variety of projects, including managing the  production of traditional print products, such as postcards and meeting brochures; writing feature articles and crafting marketing messaging; and assisting my colleagues with client-specific knowledge as they work on search engine optimization (SEO), analtyics, and others services that aren’t quite in my wheelhouse.

2020 feels like a year filled with an excessive amount of hardship, loss, and grief.

When I heard about the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last Friday evening, I gasped and my heart sank. I knew her cancer had returned, but she always seemed to bounce back. Perhaps I was buoyed by the images of her morning workouts that are famously featured in the documentary The Notorious RBG and forever etched in my mind. She seemed eternally and unusually resilient.

Dropped Members. They can make even the most seasoned association membership professional shudder. Why would a member end their membership with your organization when you very clearly offer a ton of valuable benefits? Are they aware of the value you offer? Maybe not.

2020 is not business as usual…2021 looks scary, too.

Members are the lifeblood of associations and AMC clients. As association professionals, we’re here to serve them, and our bottom lines depend on their support through dues payments, meeting registrations, and product sales. So, when a global pandemic and a recession challenge those goals, how can we keep up?

In her Conversations by Association podcast episode, Marilyn Jansen, AMC’s executive director of business development, discusses her mentoring relationship with former coworker Lindsey Nelson, CAE, and also recalls how finding female mentors was greatly different when she was just starting her career.

Like many offices, AMC transitioned to a fully remote work environment back in March. I was happy about the change and envisioned sailing through my to-do list each day and checking off all of those lingering tasks I’d been meaning to finish. After all, I’d been very productive working from home 1 day a week for years.

At AMC, our Creative Media Services (CMS) team includes 8 editors who take great pride in correct grammar, following style guides, and beautifully worded phrases. You may have seen earlier posts on grammar faux pas and misused words, but in this age of digital communication—which is especially augmented now that many offices will continue to work remotely and organizations are taking great care to communicate their plans, intent, and social justice stances—it remains even more critical to effectively communicate what we are trying to say. At best, you avoid embarrassment, and at worst, you avoid a public scandal.

We have gathered the CMS editorial team’s top grammar blunders. We’ll break it down for you, so stop! It’s grammar time.

It would be cliché and perhaps too obvious to say that for nonprofits and associations, this year is unlike any other. And yet, here we are. Most of our in-person conferences have been cancelled. Many, if not most, of us are implementing virtual meetings and conferences. Our traditional forms of content delivery and revenue streams have been disrupted.

I have loved books ever since I was a kid. It’s more than simply the act of reading—I enjoy the tangible feel of books, the cover design. I have way too many books at home, and it’s kind of a problem.

However, that love for books has translated into a passion for the act of publishing books. As a managing editor on AMC’s Creative Media Services (CMS) team, I have helped manage the publication of six healthcare-related books, and I’m currently managing two other book projects.

The Metal Construction Association (MCA) hosts two in-person educational meetings each year that typically draw 110–125 people at each event. Seven weeks before the 2020 MCA Summer Meeting in June, with COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in the United States, the MCA board and staff made the decision to transition to a virtual event this year and move our hotel contract to a similar date at the same location in a future year. With months spent planning the in-person meeting, all parties knew we needed to act swiftly and smartly to smoothly transition to a virtual event.

There is the line in everyone’s 2020 calendar where plane tickets and hotel reservations shift to virtual meeting appointments. For our personal calendars, the shift might look like cancelled vacations. For our professional calendars, it might be rescheduled annual conferences and house of delegates and board meetings: those events where consequential business still has to take place but no longer can in the traditional face-to-face format.

Connecting with your staff is always important, but during uncertain times where your team is remote or social distancing, it’s even more crucial to keep your staff engaged, connected, and, in turn, happy. We have been working remotely for 3 months now and  know it can be challenging to come up with creative ideas. Here are our 7 tips for keeping staff connected when you feel like you’ve used up your best ideas:

With COVID-19 infection rates decreasing in some areas and increasing in others, the AMC Meetings team is busy planning client conferences with four different contingency options in place: a regular face-to-face (F2F) meeting, a hybrid meeting, an all-virtual meeting, and a potentially cancelled meeting. Adding a virtual component to an existing face-to-face (F2F) meeting or converting your F2F meeting to a completely virtual one has never been a hotter topic of conversation in the meetings and events industry. But before you rush off and start talking to digital platform vendors, take a moment to think about WHY you are adding that virtual component.
Such virtual components include hybrid meetings and virtual meetings:

5 Insights from AMC’s Education SIG

Members of AMC’s education special interest group (SIG) have been at the forefront of transitioning in-person educational conferences to virtual events for our clients in response to COVID-19. With so many unknowns around the ability to meet in person in the fall and beyond, many AMC clients are already looking ahead to 2021 and considering fully virtual events or hybrid in-person/virtual events. Before you make the leap into hosting a virtual educational event, there are a few aspects that you need to consider first. As we’ve gone through the process with several of our clients, we’ve identified five considerations to keep in mind to ensure a successful virtual educational event.

How AMC’s Professional Relations and Development Team Pivoted to Virtual Options for Members, Sponsors, and Exhibitors

As associations try to field the crisis created by the coronavirus, the teams that serve AMC’s client partners and execute their conferences have had to nimbly circumvent the cancellations while ensuring that members still receive the education they need and clients meet revenue goals. With client conferences being canceled in response to Shelter in Place orders in many states, AMC’s Professional Relations and Development (PRD) Team needed to rapidly change direction to create contingency plans for exhibit sales and corporate-sponsored events. With flexibility, collaboration, and an openness to any and all ideas, PRD created a strategy for exhibits and corporate sponsorships affected by current disrupted conferences and future events that may be impacted in the same way.

Communication in the Time of Coronavirus

COVID-19 threatens not just the health of individuals, but also the economy. For the 99.9% of businesses in the United States—the small businesses that employ nearly half of U.S. workers and are crucial to the economy’s success—the pandemic is a threat to their survival. The small businesses that make up the majority of the member companies in the Awards and Personalization Association are no exception. Therefore, providing timely, reliable information to members in the face of COVID-19 is of the utmost importance.

In times of crisis, such as the current global pandemic or other disruptive, large-scale phenomena, it’s absolutely essential that boards govern nimbly and ensure that they are not just reacting to the crisis in front of them—they also must be able to continue thinking ahead in the midst of it.

Any chance you’ve been thinking of sustainability recently? Given the variety of adjustments we've all needed to make recently, it's not surprising if whatever you initially considered to be sustainable has since gone out the window. That's OK—your primary focus should be on keeping yourself and others healthy. But if you're still interested in practicing a sustainable lifestyle, how can you do that safely during a global public health pandemic? Read the below tips to learn how you can keep practicing sustainability during these disrupted times.

In this vlog, Mark talks with Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of the Association for Supply Chain Management, about current disruptions in the supply chain related to the pandemic and the importance of associations being agile and responsive to what their industries are now facing.

In his new vlog, Mark Engle talks with association leaders about what they have learned during the pandemic, the changes they plan to make in their organizations to navigate it, and the guidance and support they can provide during these challenging times.

During AMC’s very first all-remote, all-staff meeting on March 26, executive director Deb Woodall shared her reflections on how the world as we know it has changed and how she is responding to it. Hopefully, her reflections will inspire others, as it inspired our staff, to take a step back, look around, and see what we can do with what we have right now. Here are her thoughts: