Meeting News - July 21, 2008 - (Page 8)

Newsmaker Q + A Before Leaving, ASAE’s Sarfati Reﬂects on the People & the Work By Rayna Katz It’s tough to imagine working in one industry, let alone at one organization, for close to 30 years without things getting a bit stale. But for Susan Sarfati, founding president and CEO of the Center for Association Leadership, and executive VP of the American Society of Association Executives—who joined the organization in 1980, when it was the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives—the people she’s worked with and the role of the associations have kept things fresh for a long time. Now, as Sarfati embarks on the next phase of her professional life, it’s the people that are continuing to give back to her, calling in and sending countless messages of thanks and encouragement. MeetingNews caught up with Sarfati to hear her thoughts on the industry before she moves on. which I recently launched, is the most important thing I’ve done. It’s the ﬁrst step in what I hope will become an association-industry-wide movement to look at how to become more socially responsible and collaborate on social responsibility. QWhy A Q A Q A Q A is that? QWhy A are you leaving now? I’m on the fourth quarter of my life and I want to have that sense of freedom. Plus, you don’t have that luxury when you have a full-time job. For example, while I love my board and am happy to participate in meetings, I don’t love doing the minutes, I won’t miss that. Q A How did you get into this work all those years ago? When [ASAE and the GWSAE] merged in 2004, I thought I’d stay for a few years, and I’ve done that. And sometimes in life, you simply realize that it’s time to do something else; everything has a time and a season. You never want to overstay your welcome; I have seen people do that and their ﬁnal years aren’t positive. I’m not retiring; in fact, I have so many options that I’m not sure which direction I’ll be turning, but I’m sure I’ll be doing a variety of things. In a recent public statement, you said that you will continue focusing on the following in your work: leadership development, social responsibility, women’s issues, and the association and meetings industries. What What will you miss the most? The people. I enjoyed the volunteers, as well as the board. Since the members were all CEOs of associations themselves, they understood how things were done, and I felt they were collaborators. What mistakes did you learn the most from? I was working at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on education programs for universities and other chambers, and then I saw the ﬁle of my predecessor and she was working at ASAE. I called her and said that I wanted to talk and I got a job. Q Susan Sarfati Executive Vice President ASAE If something didn’t succeed right away, I tended to drop it too soon. On the ﬂip side, if a staff person didn’t ﬁt in a position, I maybe spent too much time before saying, “It’s not a good match.” I think I’m overly compassionate, which doesn’t help anyone. But I don’t have many regrets. What’s been the secret to your success? Q A will you do next? What kept you there? I worked for the same boss for most of the time and loved it. Each year was new and different. Then I got recruited as CEO of GWSAE, allowing me to continue using my knowledge of associations but as a CEO. The job was always new and growing. What accomplishments at the two associations are you most proud of? A I do plan to do some work—including some on a pro-bono basis—relating to social responsibility. I just met with an association about doing work in Ethiopia. [Sarfati declined to be more speciﬁc.] So it sounds like you do have some idea of what you’ll be doing, but maybe everything hasn’t been ﬁnalized? Q A Q A My ability to hire and retain incredible staff and volunteer leaders, and to work collaboratively with both to advance the profession. And the Global Summit on Social Responsibility, July 21, 2008 Exactly. I will probably make an announcement either just before or during the next— and my last—ASAE annual meeting (Aug. 16-19 in Chicago). But I will say this: It is important to me to pick and choose the things I want to do. I think I’ve approached the CEO job, and association work, in different ways. For example, I once had a writer interview me about good leadership for a book. Because I could tell he had the ability to think, I offered him a job on the spot, and I wasn’t looking to ﬁll a position; I just knew I wanted him on my staff. He didn’t have to create any programs in the ﬁrst year of his job, but I wanted him working on strategy. I’ve done that other times, too. Another example is, if a program we offered did well in evaluations, I’d still ask how we can do it better. I think that created a culture of innovation. At GWSAE, where I was for 13 years, the board wanted to innovate, so I launched the speaker series, and we started the Center. I’m entrepreneurial by nature, so the culture kept me interested. r Contact Rayna Katz at rayna.katz@nielsen.com www.meetingnews.com 8 MeetingNews http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - July 21, 2008

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