Association Leadership - July/August 2008 - (Page 7)

chairman’s column TSAE is all about holding hands and sticking together. It’s about meeting other members, sharing the lessons we’ve learned and growing as professionals to best serve our own organizations. Jim Boon, CAE TSAE Chairman Texas Society of Association Executives Lessons Learned – Advice from unlikely places No matter where you are in your career, this issue of Association Leadership has something for you. Read and learn from the six great perspectives on “Lessons Learned.” Also, learn from the people around you – your seasoned staff and your “experts-in-training.” Learn from your members and your industry leaders. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. Keep your eyes and ears and mind open. Robert Fulghum reminded us in “All I Need to Know I Learned from Kindergarten” to “remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the ﬁrst word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.” Sometimes our professional education comes from unlikely places, so it’s important always to be open to those lessons. I don’t think Fulghum ever worked for an association, but his advice still applies. Here are a few of my favorites from his list, with some lessons I’ve learned: • Share everything. The ﬁduciary responsibility we have to our members and volunteer leaders calls for full disclosure on all we do, not just ﬁnancial. Have systems in place that facilitate this. Be transparent in your actions and decisions and do them for the right reasons. • Don’t hit people. Never put anyone down. Treat everyone equally and with respect. Your most bothersome volunteer could be chairman of your board someday. Your most junior employee could be the one that has the best idea for your association’s future. • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Everything we do in our associations started as an idea in someone’s mind. Even if it seems like a bad idea at the time, give it a chance to germinate and be open to where it can take you. The rest of Fulghum’s list bears review as well. What lessons have you learned that ﬁt these principles? • Play fair. • Put things back where you found them. • Clean up your own mess. • Don’t take things that aren’t yours. • Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. • Wash your hands before you eat. • Flush. • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. • Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. • Take a nap every afternoon. • Goldﬁsh and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we. And ﬁnally: • When you go out in the world, watch out for trafﬁc, hold hands and stick together. TSAE is all about holding hands and sticking together. It’s about meeting other members, sharing the lessons we’ve learned and growing as professionals to best serve our own organizations. Enjoy this issue of Association Leadership and mark your calendar for TSAE’s next big learning event: “New Ideas 2008: Education for Association Professionals,” Sept. 28-30 in Corpus Christi. Under Sandra Nelson’s great leadership, our planning committee has created an outstanding array of learning sessions for professional growth and personal enrichment. Corpus Christi always shows us great hospitality, and this will be an event to remember. I hope to see you there, and be sure to bring your staff. They are waiting to learn from you! ◆ July/August 2008 | Association LEADERSHIP 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Association Leadership - July/August 2008

Association Leadership - July/August 2008 Contents Chairman’s Column Homepage 60-Second Solutions Cover Feature: Association Lessons Learned Perspectives Association Case Study TSAE Annual Conference CEO Strategies New Members Community Spotlight Government Relations: Resources Technology: Web Site Redesign Global Summit Photo Page Great Ideas Beaumont New Mexico Index to Advertisers Advertiser.com The Lighter Side of Associations

Association Leadership - July/August 2008

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