“Most association board do not effectively govern or lead their Organizations. They waste time.

1. “Most association board do not effectively govern or lead their Organizations. They waste time. They underutilize the talent and abilities of their Directors. They are reactive. And in the biggest indictment of the association profession, they continue to micromanage staff.”

2. “Instead of boards being an asset, they are a liability. Millions of hours of association staff time each year are squandered on unproductive board activities.”

3. “Volunteer leaders continue to inject themselves inappropriately into management decisions and operations. Why? It is easier to manage than to govern. Governance requires consensus on bigger picture ideas .”

4. “The kinder gentler days when members joined because it was the right thing to do are gone and will not return.”

5. “Americans worked 568 additional hours in 2006 Than in 1979. ..Despite the time crunch associations continue to operate as if everybody has time on their hands by scheduling regular meetings, expecting major volunteer time commitments, and producing publications or communications that members have time only to skim rather than read in depth.”

6. “I don’t have time” is code for ‘I’ve got better things • to do with my time.’ People have time for: • Projects that are meaningful; • Ideas that help them perform in their work; • Initiatives that are interesting; • Causes they care about; and • Activities that are fun.”

7. “There is one major underlying assumption that is flawed: that the way to add value to membership is to add more programs, services and benefits. The more “stuff” the better.” “I have concluded that my association can never be more than a small segment of it’s members’ lives, so we strive to make that slice of time as valuable, enriching and constructive as possible.”

8. “To remain relevant and vital, association leadership and management must think differently about the range of the association’s programs and activities. They must increasingly recognize the power of a tightly focussed menu of services and initiatives. They need to learn that concentrating resources on the most important member benefits will pay off… Complexity creates communications problems.”

9. “A common reaction to the frustration with communication and awareness is for the association to increase the frequency of its promotions. They promote more aggressively by increasing the number of emails. This just exacerbates the problem. Members are bombarded with cluttered communication to the point that they simply turn off the noise…”

10. “We estimate that at least 50% of Committees don’t have a clear understanding of what they’re supposed to do.”

11. “If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times over the last 15 years: ‘We can’t change the newsletter to online delivery. Some of our members don’t have email addresses…’ The lowest common denominator mentality crippled associations’ attempts to move forward with technology.”

12. “Associations are foolish not to invest in the technology necessary to connect to members potential members.”

13. Harrison Coerverand Mary M. Byer, Race for Relevance: 5 Radical Changes for Associations (Association Management Press, 2011)