With the IRS counting some 270,000 501(c)3 and 501(c)6 organizations in the United States, you would think that by now, every possible interest and cause has at least one organization already working on its behalf. But the truth is, new associations and foundations are being launched every day. All it takes is an idea and someone with dedication and passion sufficient to overcome the inertia that often conspires to keep a new idea from going anywhere.
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At a recent event, for example, I talked with fitness guru Jake Steinfeld, a successful entrepreneur who has popularized a number of fitness products under his “Body by Jake” brand. Steinfeld serves as the chairman of the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports. Under his leadership, even in the midst of California’s severe budget crisis, the council has launched aggressive efforts to combat childhood obesity by forging partnerships with corporate sponsors so that the council’s programs can be run without tax dollars.
Steinfeld had just learned that he’d been reappointed to his position by recently elected Governor Jerry Brown. Steinfeld said he is excited that he’ll be able to continue two programs that he created: the Governor’s Fitness Challenge, which encourages children to be active 30 to 60 minutes per day, three days per week, and the Spotlight Awards, which reward unsung heroes in the educational system who help promote fitness. The fitness challenge has gone from reaching 10,000 youth in California in 2006 to involving more than 900,000 young people last year. And the schools that engage the most kids in the fitness challenge become eligible to win state-of-the-art fitness centers valued at $100,000 each.

Despite his achievements with the California Governor’s Council, Steinfeld is even more excited that his work on the council has led to the creation of a new organization called the National Foundation for Governor’s Fitness Councils. The new foundation will use the model established in California to promote physical activity among young people nationwide with the goals of providing a fitness center for every public school in the United States that needs one and eradicating childhood obesity.

The new foundation, which will also be funded by corporate sponsors, plans to accept grant applications from states with active governor’s councils for physical fitness that are promoting and implementing effective fitness programs. The foundation will also roll out an awards program spotlighting those schools and educators nationwide that are effectively promoting physical fitness.

“We can make change,” said Steinfeld, identifying one of the primary reasons any one would devote their time to helping establish a new organization. Not only does Steinfeld’s new foundation reflect the growing need for public-private partnerships to fill the gaps left in an era of diminishing governmental resources, it also serves as an example of how a program run successfully at the state level can be rolled out nationally once proven effective. Those are lessons from which association and foundation chief executives at all kinds of groups can learn.

Read the latest Association News magazine digital edition by clicking here or visit www.AssociationNews.com for more information.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Natural disasters and Middle East civil wars notwithstanding, there continue to be good reasons to be optimistic about the future with regard to the overall economy and to the fortunes of the association community: The Dow Jones Industrial Average – volatile as ever on a day-by-day basis – nevertheless has gained more than 2,000 points since last July, and PKF Hospitality Research recently updated its forecast for the year to indicate that average revenue per hotel room would increase 7.1 percent in 2011 compared with 2010.

Perhaps most encouraging to those of you who live and die by the periodic reports on registration for association meetings and conventions, research from Meeting Professionals International indicates that meeting planners are beginning to see longer lead times for attendees making decisions about whether to attend meetings. To association executives and meeting planners who have experienced sleepless nights during the last couple of years worrying about attendance levels and attrition penalties, that news is welcome relief. However, is it sufficient cause to breathe a sigh of relief and declare everything is back to normal?

Of course not. A recent essay by association consultant Ed Rigsbee titled “Why Today’s Associations Must Prove Their ROI” points out that the days when people joined a trade association or professional society because “they believed in supporting the industry that provided them with a living” are over.

While it is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about the impact of the recent economic recession on the association community because the impact varied so much from industry to industry, it is easy to see that association executives must pay more attention now to financial metrics. That is in large part because their members are paying more attention themselves to the dollars-and-cents reasons for why they should belong to an association. Over the last couple of years they’ve learned to question assumptions concerning just about everything.

But wait, there’s more: As the Baby Boomers begin to gradually fade into the background – taking their passion for associations and their yearning for community with them|–|the Millennials are bringing with them new ways of thinking. Research indicates that when Millennials go looking for solutions to problems, they’re more likely to look to their peers for advice than to experts for definitive answers. They’re more apt to pose an open-ended question via Twitter than to raise their hand during the Q&A portion of a conference session. According to researchers, Millennials consider themselves collaborators who are not particularly prone to classifying themselves as either leaders or followers.

To many association executives – a profession predominantly populated by people who enjoy being in control – this new demographic can sound terrifying. For those associations hoping to thrive in the future, however, this demographic change is a key part of the much-talked-about “new normal” and one which savvy association executives need to embrace.

For more information on the expectations of the next generation of association members, please visit Ed Rigsbee’s website, www.Rigsbee.com.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

For most associations, meetings are a central part of their core purpose and a primary way to make membership in the association tangible. For many groups, the revenues derived from meetings, conventions and trade shows are a critical source of funds that help advance the mission of the association. Two years ago, a consortium of 14 groups that serve the association community and meetings industry under the umbrella of the Convention Industry Council joined together to commission the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct the most thorough study ever to quantify the real impact of the meetings industry. The Destination & Travel Foundation, which I chair, was one of the largest funders of the landmark study.

The PwC study is the first to apply the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s definition of a meeting to the United States meetings industry. The WTO defines a meeting as any gathering involving 10 or more participants lasting more than four hours that uses a contracted venue. Data was gathered from more than 6,000 meeting organizers, including associations, venue managers, destination marketing organizations, meeting attendees and trade-show exhibitors.

According to the PwC study, 1.8 million meetings were held in the United States in 2009 and contributed $263 billion in direct spending to the U.S. economy. The meetings industry accounts for a total of 1.7 million jobs, $60 billion in U.S. labor income, $14.3 billion in federal taxes and $11.3 billion in state and local taxes.

When indirect and induced spending are included, the total economic activity resulting from meetings is a staggering $907 billion. This larger measure of impact reveals that indirect supplier and induced attendee spending creates a total of 6.3 million jobs and $271 billion in labor income, $64 billion in federal tax revenue and $46 billion in state and local tax revenue. Had the study not been completed during 2009—one of the worst years on record for the meetings industry—it’s likely that total economic activity related to meetings would have exceed one trillion dollars.

The study also revealed that of the $263 billion in direct spending generated by the meetings industry, 43 percent (just under $113 billion) was devoted to travel costs. The remaining 57 percent (just over $150 billion) was spent on meeting planning and production and venue costs. In other words, nearly $3 out of every $5 spent on meetings is spent in local communities on things such as printing, shipping, signage and equipment rental.

The PwC study also shows that, based on its contribution to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and the number of people it employs, the meetings industry is considerably larger than the auto industry. Perhaps with this data in its arsenal, the U.S. meetings industry can finally make the case that it deserves the vocal support of political leaders at every level of government. Indeed, every association that plans meetings should incorporate the impact revealed by this study into its legislative talking points since each industry or profession represented by an association plays a role in creating the impact the study quantifies.

For more detailed information on this landmark research as well as a tool-kit for putting the study’s findings to work, please visit meetingsmeanbusiness.com.

Timothy Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

The good news revealed by Meeting Professionals International’s annual FutureWatch study for 2011 includes the findings that the number of meetings, meeting attendance and overall spending on meetings will all increase in the coming year. According to the study of 459 MPI members, the overall number of meetings planned in 2011 will increase by 8 percent and the average amount spent on those meetings will increase a healthy 5 percent. The study, which surveys both meeting planners and industry suppliers, also revealed that the role of business meetings will continue to face tough scrutiny.

In the current environment, strategic meetings management and providing return on investment are critically important. Even as the economy continues to recover, the study predicts meeting planners will still be expected to make a compelling ROI case for every event they plan.

The “right sizing” of meetings means continued growth of smaller gatherings. During the economic downturn, many organizations discovered the strategic advantages of smaller, regional or local meetings. According to FutureWatch 2011, that trend will continue even as some meeting planners experiment with re-combining events with site selection criteria that keeps the specific meeting purpose in mind.

Meeting planners need to be highly attuned to their events or hold multiple events at the same time and in the same place. The study indicated that associations are likely to continue to seek out alliances. While groups that have attempted this in the past report that cultural differences among organizations oftentimes undermine potential synergies, the times demand that such partnerships continue.

Meeting planners need to continue to advocate within their organizations for the strategic importance of business events. According to the study, meeting planners continue to feel that they often have to battle with their organization’s senior leaders to convince them to hold meetings. For them, educating their employers on the importance of meetings and events is a critical part of their job.

Both meeting planners and industry suppliers agreed that weathering the economic storms of the past few years has lead to greater collaboration between planners and suppliers. For further details or to order a complete copy of FutureWatch 2011, please visit mpiweb.org.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

In discussing the mix of information we present in Association News, our readers often tell us that selecting sites for their meetings is
one of the most colorful and exciting aspects of association management. That does not mean, however, that all aspects of meeting planning are colorful and exciting. Indeed, thanks to forces at play in the economy and recent trends in the travel industry, a case could be made that meeting planning is more complex now than it ever has been.

Chief among the trends that associations and their meeting planners will be dealing with in the coming year is the fact that people who travel are making their plans much closer to their anticipated date of departure than ever before. According to research from Y Partnership, 25 percent of leisure travelers took a last-minute vacation—a trip booked within a week of their departure—during the past year. Meeting planners have seen this trend reflected in the number of attendees who decide at the last minute to register for their events. Several meeting planners I’ve spoken with report that as many as half of their attendees don’t sign up until the last four weeks prior to the event.

There are plenty of explanations for the emergence of this trend. Economic uncertainty has caused business people to delay—sometimes until the last possible moment—decisions about whether certain trips are necessary. On both the business and leisure sides of travel, online travel agencies and travel websites have helped create the impression that there may be a financial benefit to waiting until the last possible moment to book a hotel room. Hotel companies and airlines offering “flash” sales on last-minute travel bargains have further fueled that perception.

None of this is good news for associations and meeting planners who must book a hotel and negotiate room rates far in advance, sometimes many years ahead of when their events occur. The traditional cut-off date allowed in hotel contracts for group discounts—four weeks in advance of the event—is now laughably anachronistic. So, too, is any hope that the hotel will provide an accurate report of your group’s pickup when much of the positive impact of your presence at a property will be lost if a guest room is booked after your cut-off date or at a lower rate outside your room block. The trend toward last-minute registrations also complicates matters when it comes to estimating food, beverage and room set-up needs, whether you’re meeting at a hotel, convention center or some other venue.

In this volatile climate, the best protection for meeting planners is to address these issues in the hotel and meeting-facility contracts they negotiate. Ideally, these provisions would include a guarantee that your attendees will receive the lowest possible room rate, a cut-off date that’s closer to the event’s dates and an in-person audit of the hotel’s entire housing list so that your group receives credit for the room nights it generates.

Additional suggestions for successfully negotiating hotel contracts can be found in the recently released second edition of “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members.” For more information, please visit SchneiderGuides.com.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

With 2010 about to come to a close and all eyes turned to 2011, association executives and their boards have a right to be a bit weary. However, there is reason for optimism about the year ahead. As the grimaces on your members’ faces start to relax, perhaps they will take a step back and see how much help their associations have given them over the last couple of years.

You read the same economic predictions I do: Yes, there is a recovery occurring; it’s just not going to be as fast as any of us want it to be. Most associations are wrapping up at least their second full year in which they have had to deal with scant resources, while their members have needed their help more than ever. Still, there are at least two very good reasons for association executives to feel positive as one year ends and another begins.

The first bit of good news: As the economy picks up—albeit slowly—members will feel better about their businesses and professions. Also, from all indications, meetings and tradeshows will begin to pick up a bit more steam in the first half of 2011. Attendance at tradeshows and conventions in the second half of this year has increased over the previous year, even if association executives have found their sponsors and tradeshow exhibitors still somewhat reluctant to make commitments. There is a silver lining here: Attendance is always the last metric to decline when the economy falters (think back to the fourth quarter of 2008) and the first to increase when the economy recovers (think forward to the first half of 2011).

The second piece of good news is that, while many associations have had to make serious adjustments to their operations, they are for the most part still here. When it comes to events and meetings, associations may have cut back on certain elements deemed less central to their core missions but the components that are most important to their members are still alive and well. What’s more, these events are still being held every year—and the associations still own them.

This is in contrast to some of their for-profit sector competitors, who consider your members their customers. Over the past few years, as B-to-B marketers have worked to develop shows, publications and online products to compete with associations, they often have been forced to leverage themselves—sometimes to extremes that would shock the average association executive.

Consequently, many for-profits have suffered through reorganizations that have turned their sizable debt loads into equity positions now held by reluctant creditors. Some have had to shut down their shows or sell them at steep discounts to please investors. As the economic recovery gets underway, imagine what will happen to the “communities” these for-profits have tried to develop alongside the natural communities that associations have always served—regardless of where they are in the economic cycle.

Associations can look toward 2011 and beyond as leaner, smarter and more flexible institutions. They also can be proud that they have served their constituencies well during a rough patch, fostered plenty of good will in the process and are now ready to move forward with their members into a positive future.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Having had the opportunity to serve on the boards of several associations and nonprofit organizations over the years, I’ve grown to appreciate the need for regular board training sessions, particularly for new board members. I remember one instance several years ago that vividly illustrates that need. An acquaintance of mine was appointed to serve in the newly created position of allied representative on a trade association’s board. However, the association had not bothered to create position descriptions for its board members and it wasn’t exactly clear what her responsibilities and duties were, or even if she was allowed to vote on issues before the board.

In the end, the board decided to allow the allied representative to vote and eventually got around to amending the association’s bylaws. But had this board member not pressed the subject, she could have spent her entire term on the board, reluctant to speak up, believing her role was that of a spectator with no authority to vote on the important issues facing the organization.

Many associations are now including “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members” by James G. Seely as a part of the basic training package they provide their board members. “The Legal Guide” answers all the most common questions board members raise. In the section titled “Legal Concerns for a New Era,” for example, Seely details the issues surrounding the use of the Internet for board communications and tackles the legality of conducting meetings by e-mail. For more information on “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members,” please visit SchneiderGuides.com.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

When we originally published “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members” by James G. Seely in 1995, it was the first time someone had produced a legal handbook written expressly for board members of trade associations and professional societies. The book grew out of workshops that Seely—the senior attorney at Association Legal Services and a regular columnist on legal issues for Association News—had been giving over the years for his clients to help them better understand the basics of the legal structure of nonprofit corporations.

We are happy to announce the publication of the second edition of “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members.” This new edition comes complete with updated information on some of the current issues facing associations, such as the increasingly complex provisions of hotel and convention center contracts and the impact of new laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley. Perhaps most importantly, the new edition of the book also examines some of the many issues that have been spawned by the Internet, from the association’s website to meetings by e-mail to social networking.

To review the table of contents and read a sample chapter or to order the new edition of “The Legal Guide for Association Board Members,” please visit SchneiderGuides.com.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

In the first half of 2010, several destinations have been faced with challenges, underscoring the influence that the travel industry has on communities both large and small. However, destinations have also found ways to deal with those challenges. In our annual supplement produced in conjunction with Destination Marketing Association International titled, “Why Travel Matters,” several DMO executives cite examples of challenges they have encountered, and provide insights other DMO executives may find helpful.

Keep It Real—The April 20 explosion of the BP oil rig and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf proved to be a challenge for DMOs in the region. “Our biggest problem from Day One was separating the perception from reality as it related to Florida,” said Chris Thompson, president and CEO of Visit Florida. To solve that problem, Visit Florida focused its advertising on providing up-to-date information about the situation, as opposed to its regular image branding.

Key takeaway: When disaster strikes, temporarily abandon your regular image branding and provide credible, up-to-date information on the situation.

Explain the Value—Following the Arizona State Legislature’s adoption of a controversial law aimed at sparking immigration reform in late April, politicians, citizens and organizations around the country began calling for a boycott of travel to the state. Steve Moore, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the convention bureau has used the situation to communicate the overall importance of the travel industry in terms of jobs and the local economy. “It’s an ongoing dialogue the bureau intends to have with future visitors and business groups,” Moore said.

Key takeaway: When politics interfere with destination marketing, remind constituents of the importance of the travel industry to the local economy.

Ask for Help—This spring, extensive flooding in Nashville, Tennessee, shut down the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for six months. City officials huddled with hotel managers in the greater Nashville area to relocate nearly 200,000 room nights that had been booked. Although some groups have opted to look elsewhere while the city recovers, Nashville has managed to find other locations in the city for several big conventions that had been planned at the Gaylord Opryland.

Key takeaway:When a natural disaster shuts down facilities, rally the community to help you find alternatives that will keep groups from canceling events.

Spread the Word—In 2008, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, suffered a devastating flood that submerged more than 10 square miles of the city, affecting nearly every downtown business and most public buildings. To help get the message out about the needs of Cedar Rapids—and its recovery— the city’s leading civic organizations joined forces to launch a website, cedarrapidsfloodstory.com, to spread the message. The city also took advantage of its gradual progress, making big community-wide events out of attractions that reopen.

Key takeaway: When rebuilding after a natural disaster, get the word out every time a venue, hotel or public facility reopens for business.

Keep Them Happy—When an Icelandic volcano unexpectedly erupted in April, it wreaked havoc on international air carriers and had a profound negative impact on New York City’s airports. With flights to and from much of Western Europe initially grounded, NYC & Company officials convinced 40 area hotels and transportation providers to offer discounts to stranded travelers and nearly 20 museums and cultural institutions agreed to offer free admission for stranded travelers as well.

Key takeaway: If travelers find themselves stranded in your destination by no choice of their own, find ways to turn them into happy tourists.

Change the Rules—At Chicago’s McCormick Place, the rising costs for groups to do business caused several organizations to cancel their dates—with the chance that many more would soon follow. As a result, convention bureau and convention center officials turned to the state legislature for help to change labor rules at the facility. State lawmakers passed legislation that made sweeping changes to the way the center does business, thus lowering potential costs to groups and tradeshow attendees.

Key takeaway: If circumstances beyond your control threaten your business, ask local and state political leaders for help.

Take the Lead—With more unforeseen challenges no doubt looming for destinations, the importance of spreading the word about travel’s impact on communities cannot be emphasized enough. When challenges for the travel industry arise, savvy DMOs should be prepared to step forward as part of their community’s leadership to convert those difficulties into opportunities.

For a complimentary copy of “Why Travel Matters,” produced in conjunction with Destination Marketing Association International—e-mail me at tim.schneider@schneiderpublishing.com. Or, view “Why Travel Matters” as a digital edition.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

In his new book, “The Core Values Compass: Moving From Cynicism to a Core Values Culture,” author Dennis Haley makes the case that to be healthy and effective in the long term, organizations must be guided by a set of core values. Haley suggests five steps for arriving at your organization’s core values:

• Ask yourself, key staff and volunteer leaders, “What do you want this organization to look like?”
• Narrow down this list of expectations.
• Translate the values identified into organizational behaviors.
• Figure out where a course change is in order.
• Settle in for the long haul.

Whether you run a sports organization, a professional society, a trade association or a destination marketing organization, these five steps can help steer your organization back in line with its core values and help ensure your long-term success. For more information on “The Core Values Compass,” please click here.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company