Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Where do forest rangers go to get away from it all?

If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

I went to a book store and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

How is it possible to have a civil war?

If you ate both pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?

Is there another word for synonym?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

About age 5 I fell and broke my collar bone. That’s how they discovered I had very poor eyesight.

Remember, this was a time when babies and toddlers did not have every inch of their bodies examined and evaluated by parents or the family doctor. Today they would have discovered my poor vision much sooner.

At any rate, I was fitted with geeky glasses and soldiered on. Of course, I proceeded to break at least one pair per year, to the escalating frustration of my parents.

Growing up in that era in one of the five boroughs of New York, about 30 minutes by subway from Manhattan, there weren’t any after-school community programs to organize and schedule activities for kids. There was no Little League or Pop Warner, no Boys & Girls Clubs or YMCAs. We, the kids, had to organize whatever sports or activities we wanted to do.

So, somewhere around age 12, my group—we weren’t a gang!—decided we wanted to play organized baseball. We tired of the hastily arranged pick-up games that always seem to be a few players short. Because my eyesight meant I could hardly see the baseball, I became the “manager”. We recruited enough for a team and then cleaned a vacant weed- and rock-strewn lot, ran raffles to buy equipment and uniforms. We were the Spades. Couldn’t we have been the Kings or the Chiefs? Anything a little more macho than the Spades?

We won some, lost some and had a great time all spring and early summer for a few years. With this success fresh on our resume, we decided to expand and start a football program.

There was a group of older guys who had carved out another better vacant lot and even had some makeshift bleachers for spectators. Since they were the Dukes, with their blessing we became the Junior Dukes.

We rented a garage across the street to use as a locker room and between some hand-me-down equipment from the Dukes and raising some money of our own we got ourselve jerseys, and were ready to roll.

As with the Spades, I was the manager, and in charge of all the non-playing activities. On a few occasions when too few players showed up for a game I was recruited. I played on the line as a guard. On offense I just had to block the guy in front of me. That was okay without my glasses, but on defense it was hard for me to discern who had the ball and who to try and tackle.

I’ll never forget on one series of plays they told me to play in the backfield. Okay, I thought, I’ll just try to block anyone coming into the backfield.

Then the quarterback called a pass play and told me I was to be the receiver. I said: “What, are you crazy? I can’t see a thing!”

He was insistent, and there wasn’t time to argue. The play went off and I was saved from embarrassment when the defensive back batted the ball down before it got to me. I was glad he could see it. At that point, I was delighted to go back to being the manager.

Looking back, I can see this was the beginning of learning and developing organizational skills. If it hadn’t been for my poor eyesight I would have been at best a mediocre player. It was never my dream or plan to get into association and event management but, looking back, I can see those early boyhood experiences helped pave the way.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. In my case, adversity was as well.

How did you get your start?

1. Read more. Read lots of books, magazines, Read more; anything and everything.

2. Understand you need to know something about grammar, but writing is not a separate formal language with a whole set of different rules.

3. Most important: Writing is telling a story on paper. Try writing like you would talk to someone to tell a story. Try dictating into a tape recorder or get voice recognition software for your computer. Or, think to yourself: “What would I say if I were speaking?”

4. You can always add the grammar when you edit your first draft.

5. You have to be an editor. It’s tough, but you have to go back over what you have written and polish it.

6. Before you start, organize your thoughts. Make notes or have an agenda for what you want to write.

7. Remember what you write has to have a beginning (an opening), a middle (the content) and an ending. The same is essentially true for each sentence.

8. Write often; write a lot. The more you write, the better you will get. Write notes, letters, reports.

What do you think?

A million years ago I got my first job in association management. I was the assistant to Dick Reucker, the executive director of the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix) Electric League. He was a great guy and a terrific mentor.

We had many spirited discussions about what to do and how to do it. The debate was always about ideas, never about personalities. There was often a lot of heat in these conversations and the other people in the office, as well as outside consultants, were often alarmed we were about to come to blows.

When these debates went on for awhile, Dick would say, “Why do you keep arguing so much?” I would usually point to a sign on his wall, which read, “When two men in a business always agree, one of them is unnecessary!”

With a sigh of exasperation, he would then make a decision and we would move on. After all, as he often reminded me, he was the boss. This was an innovating and exciting part of the job and proved to be a great learning experience.

On one occasion, his college-age son was working for me making deliveries for a promotion we were about to run. Unfortunately, he wasn’t keeping to the agreed schedule and then I caught him being less than forthright about what he’d done. After several warnings, I fired him. His mother was upset with me, but Dick backed me up 100 percent.

At another point down the road, Dick did get somewhat upset with me. Someone who we both knew inquired as to whether I would be interested in changing jobs. I didn’t take the conversation all that seriously and I was fairly convinced I wouldn’t like working for that person, but Dick found out about it.

Dick told me in no uncertain terms that if anyone offered me a job or I sought out another job, he wanted to know about it directly from me, not from a third party. If I agreed to that, he said, as long as I stayed there, he would work my tail off, teach me everything he could and when the time came he would help me find a better job.

He lived up to his commitment and I lived up to mine. In fact, he recommended me for my next job at the local TV station and again a few years later when he was approached to take over a large association in Los Angeles. He told them he wasn’t interested, but that I was the right person for the job.

I was a bit reluctant to pursue either one of these new opportunities; I felt being Dick’s assistant was the best job in the world. Even though the compensation was limited, I wasn’t sure I could function as effectively on my own.

Looking back, I now realize that without the experience of working for Dick Reucker, I could never have made it on my own.

What do you think?

In my last blog I outlined what I perceive to be the eight emotional stages of event management. Let’s discuss a little more stages 6, 7 and 8; depression, exhaustion and recovery. I think they all tend to blend together somewhat and are not as easily separated as the earlier stages.

In the letdown after it’s over, you have to be careful. It’s important to maintain your vigilance and be on guard because the depression and exhaustion is coming.

Early in my career I was given responsibility for putting together and running an awards banquet. This was my first solo responsibility and I was anxious to do it right. It all went off quite well and when it was over I stayed to pack up all the props and paraphernalia.

It was a warm summer night. The hotel had turned off the A/C, so I took off my new blazer to get everything wrapped up and put in my car. When finished I went into the bar to fetch my boss who I had to drive home. He appeared pleased with the night’s event and invited me to have a drink.

We didn’t stay too long and when I got home I realized I didn’t have my brand new blazer. Early the next morning I called and went back to the hotel, but there was no sign of it. If I didn’t feel bad enough now, I knew I had to face the wrath of my wife.

That was my first lesson in vigilance. A few years later after a first very successful consumer show, I had agreed to accept an invitation to attend a session of the Arizona Academy as a “recorder”. The academy was a group of high profile civic, business and academic leaders who met twice a year for four days to discuss and make recommendations on issues of importance to the state.

I had worked night and day for more than a year to produce this event and when it was over I was exhilarated with the success and exhausted. My job as a recorder was to summarize the discussions of my breakout group to the group, as well as the plenary session at the end of each day. The task was interesting but demanded a lot of attention.

It was difficult because I was over tired, couldn’t sleep and was “wired” to the hilt. My performance as a recorder was not my finest hour.

I learned I needed to be more careful about the invitations I accepted.

About the same time as my event aftershock I had occasion to talk with a gentlemen who ran a counterpart organization in another city. He told me after his show he would go to bed for 5 or 6 days. I was young and thought he must be kidding. Made more fun of him than I should have.

As I advanced in years I never went to bed for 5 or 6 days, but I better understood why he did.

When the event is over you have to be careful and cognizant of these last stages in the event let down. Each of us is different and has to find the right amounts of rest, solitude and increasing levels of exercise and socialization that works best for our recovery.

What do you think?

I first became aware that a pattern exists in the emotional and physical stages of producing an event or managing an extensive project when I read the book “Seven Crises” by Richard Nixon. In the book, the former president described the events that occurred during critical times in his life.

Although the real purpose of the book appeared to be Nixon’s need to justify his actions during each time of crisis, what struck me was how Nixon went through the same emotional and physical stages in each of the described situations. Nixon detailed the excitement, the tension and the energy it took to pour himself into each of his crisis situations. He depicted the singular focus he employed in his activities during each crisis and the abrasive effect it had on his family, friends and co-workers. According to the book, Nixon’s most vulnerable point in each crisis surprisingly occurred after the crisis was over. It was at this point in time that Nixon admits he committed his greatest errors.

It was after it was over that Nixon excoriated the press for aiding his opponent in defeating him for Governor of California and chastised the two young State Department aides for his mistaken belief they had mishandled the crowd control during his trip to South America. He admitted to similar misjudgements in the hearings on Alger Hiss and the rest of his critical moments in the public spotlight.

As I began to reflect on Nixon’s plight, I realized that although his crises played out on a much higher plane, it’s really the same for all of us in the event- and project-planning business.

As I see it, and confirmed from Nixon’s book, there appear to be eight emotional and physical stages that occur for most event producers and project managers:

1. Excitement. This is when the initial energy starts to bubble. You can’t wait to get started.
2. Intensity. This stage adds the energy and commitment to get it all done.
3. Apprehension. What if no one comes to the event?
4. Wired. It’s about to happen. The tension mounts. This is when it becomes hard to communicate with family and co-workers. You do not want to be distracted.
5. Elation. The event was a success.
6. Depression. It’s over—be careful.
7. Exhaustion. You feel like a zombie.
8. Recover. You get back to normal.

You may not experience each of these states exactly as I have described them, but you will probably go through most of them in one way or another. Because these stages come into play time and again, it is important to recognize and prepare for them.

Alert the people around you to stages 3 and 4 and tell them you may be a little short with them. Be especially careful in stages 6 and 7. Those are the most critical times to misread or offend.

What do you think?

Almost 35 of the 45 years of my business career have been spent in and around the nonprofit association community. It has been a fascinating adventure filled with the excitement of many victories and accomplishments, while facing a great variety of challenges, as well as a few small defeats.

During the last 25 of those years, I have tried to maximize my efforts to find ways to expand my income by serving the nonprofit sector as an independent management contractor. I have been somewhat successful in pursing this goal but all the while puzzled by a strange phenomenon that seems to permeate most of our society. Let me illustrate:

1. On a number of project proposals over the years, I offered to provide a service to a group and finance the project because they had no money. Based on the success of the program, they would get a royalty in addition to the P.R., etc. It didn’t always work out that way but that was the risk I was willing to take.

2. In comparing the results of a nonprofit association offering a trade show or a publication, for example, competing with a profit-making entity, I have heard the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the “association” excused as “well, they are a nonprofit.”

3. In a business dispute, a retired judge acting as a mediator said, “My sympathies go to the association because you are a profit-making company and they are nonprofit.” I could not figure out what that had to do with the merits of the dispute.

Don’t misunderstand. The wealth of opportunity that abounds has contributed far more to my success than the agony of this frustrating lack of economic understanding.

There are certainly many associations that are both effective and efficient in serving their constituents, but there are many that are neither. Nonprofit status should not create an aura of invincibility that automatically gives it preference in performance over a profit-making entity.

What are our schools and colleges teaching about free enterprise? What do we need to do to provide a basic education in reality economics?

There is nothing magic about being a nonprofit corporation. It is relatively easy to attain nonprofit status. Somewhere, somehow, nonprofit organizations are going to have to meet certain standards of accountability just as is beginning to happen in the education arena. The educational system is in total disarray and not the least of the contributing factors has been the dogged determination of teachers and administrators alike to resist any and all attempts at performance standards and evaluations of both fiscal and results-oriented achievements.

How far behind is the nonprofit sector?

What do you think?

Here are a few thoughts to carry you through the year.

A good life is simple—all you have to do is:
1. Find something to do
2. Have something to look forward to
3. Have someone to love

How hard are you willing to work and what price are you willing to pay in order to achieve success?

The past is history. The future is a mystery. The present is a gift to savor and enjoy.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal.

An optimist believes we live in the best of all worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.

When two people in business always agree, one of them may be unnecessary.

The future ain’t what is used to be.

In the next month…
• Take time to work, it is the price of success
• Take time to think, it is the source of power
• Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth
• Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom
• Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the gods
• Take time to share, life is too short to be selfish
• Take time to laugh, laughter is the music of the soul

And one final thought: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

I hope 2010 will be a super year filled with good health and happiness, as well as continuing success in your career endeavors.

What do you think?

In the first part of this paper we looked at the numbers and duplication of associations, as well as the mounting pressures which may force consolidation and/or merger of associations. We also looked at my first involvement with attempts to merge two groups.

In another scenario a well endowed national organization made overtures to a successful regional group to consider a “merger”. This overture was encouraged and promoted by the outgoing president of the regional group who probably felt he could become active on a larger playing field.

The cultures of the two organizations were quite different. Although by numbers the memberships were about the same, the national group had mainly the big players, the regional group had mostly smaller, local members.

The national group focused mainly on lobbying while the regional group created many innovative programs on education and certification. The national felt the addition of the regional membership would enhance its lobbying ability.

After a number of somewhat contentious meetings the board of the regional group rejected the proposal because it appeared to be more of absorption than a merger.

A second attempt failed a few years later because again the regional group did not see how their members would be served as anything but stepchildren. This attempt too was promoted by an outgoing president of the regional. Egos always play a big part in these activities.

Just a few years ago the western regional group found a more suitable merger partner with an eastern regional who had grown and offered a more common base of interest. The two groups were more similar in the type of members as well as their culture.

The economics of a joint operation were appealing particularly as the industry began facing pressures of a squeezing business climate.

Another merger attempt in this arena occurred when I was the CEO of a local organization feeling the increasing pressure of government regulators, to curtail the efforts of our industry to expand or function.

There were three other associations in the state with similar memberships and programming. There was also a regional organization under the aegis of all the industry leaders.

My proposal was to have each of the four local groups operate as “chapters” of the regional group in order to have more authority with the antagonistic forces at the state capital. The regional group board would set overall policy and the regional staff would run the new larger state associations.

Wow. You should have heard the outcry. I was labeled as crazy by just about all concerned. Although we had the largest of the locals, the others thought they would lose all independence, although I’m not sure what they were going to do with that “independence”.

The regional didn’t want the work or the responsibility. Nobody could figure out my motive and that scared them. I saw the handwriting on the wall. They didn’t.

Two of the locals don’t exist anymore. The other two barely function and the regional is a shadow of its former self.

There are often benefits to merging, but it is not easy. It takes a lot of thought, patience and salving of egos.

There are a number of consultants available nowadays who can be brought in to do an evaluation of an association’s operations and effectiveness. ASAE offers a squad for their purpose as well. All of this is good when you need an objective outlook and/or you are trying to facilitate a merger.

You may be aware in the “charity” field these are two organizations Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy who attempt to assess the operations of charities almost entirely based on the IRS 990 Forms they submit each year. It is a capsule view, sometimes helpful, sometimes a little misleading.

With the advent of the Internet and the voracious appetite of computers to gorge data, I don’t think it’s too far in the future to see one or more similar WEB sites develop to assess 501(c) 3 and (c) 6 organizations. Whether membership is individual or company based, a lot of many is spent in association participation. Big companies especially are going to be more and more anxious to assess the value of their expenditures.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

What do you think?

I would like to share a few thoughts on the provocative subject that there might be too many associations.

First: by sheer numbers, there are an enormous number of nonprofit organizations.

Second: there is obviously too much duplication and wasted effort within these numbers

Third: the pressures which will likely force consolidation among associations.

Fourth: the difficulties of merging associations.

Fifth: outside help for mergers and critical evaluations.

According to the Urban Institute, there are about 75,000 (c) 6 associations and more than a million (c) 3s. The number of (c) 3s has grown by more than 50 percent in the last ten years. I realize the (c) 3 number includes an awful lot of groups we don’t normally include in the sphere of associations, i.e., charities and foundations. At least half that 1,000,000 number, however, probably fall into our definition of associations.

You have to admit that is an awful lot of tax-exempt organizations. That should raise a red flag all by itself. There are more than 35,00 different organizations of war veterans alone.

In the past, the IRS has made an occasional foray into clamping down on the tax exempt non profits. These efforts have not been all that aggressive outside of the law which created the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).

In this current climate, don’t be surprised to see more action on the part of the IRS to question the validity as well as the purpose and activities of nonprofits. The game is on to increase tax revenues.

Our current economic situation is already putting strong pressure on many associations and may well be a clarion call for associations to carefully examine the possibility of gaining more stability by considering consolidation with one or more other organizations. Survival of many associations may well depend on pursuing this course of action.

In many industries or professions there are certainly many organizations that do not need to operate independently to serve essentially the same membership. Amalgamation would serve the industry far better.

In the reality of a struggling economy there are only so many dollars companies, as well as individuals, will be willing to continue committing to join and participate in associations and their functions. It is almost impossible to find any group who have increased membership or convention attendance this year.

It is not likely these forces will change very soon. Consolidation, amalgamation or merger may be heresy to a lot of people. If you are not considering it, some of your members may be. Doing it, of course, is not easy and has many problems and pitfalls.

I have personally been involved with several attempts to merge associations. Each one was a struggle and left a lot of broken noses and hurt egos along the way. You have to be careful in considering joining forces whether in fact it is a merger or an absorption. The cultures of each group is a vital consideration. The important decision point is whether you can still accomplish your goals and serve your members.

My first introduction to an attempt to merge two groups was really absorption. Of course, in the initial proposal it was not framed that way. One group was essentially an industry social organization. The other was a more program-oriented operation which had difficulty having any social functions because of the other group.

This first attempt failed mainly because the ego of the past presidents said “I’ll be past president of a group that no longer exists”.

A few years later a second attempt finally succeeded. It happened this time because the large industry leaders who were the main support of both groups saw the wisdom of the combination and openly encouraged their people to support it. The results were a definite benefit in creating a more cohesive industry organization.

What do you think?