Guest Author: Joe Rominiecki, ASAE
For an association with a troubled chapter system, the path to resurgence is no walk in the park. It begins with a board of directors both bold in vision and open to all possible solutions. With so many members and volunteers holding a stake, it may be one of the toughest leadership challenges a board can take on. Here’s how three associations have done it.
Imagine your association as the human body. The board of directors is the brain, making decisions. The staff is the heart, steady at work. And your network of chapters, components, or special-interest groups is the circulatory system, carrying all your energy out to the surface, where the action happens.
When that system of veins and arteries isn’t healthy, it puts a lot of strain on the body. And, just as when the doctor prescribes a full-scale lifestyle change to reduce your risk of heart disease, the call to fix a struggling association chapter system will be both undeniable and supremely imposing.
“You’ve got to do the obvious sometimes,” says Paul Stalknecht, president and CEO of Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), “and sometimes the obvious is a very professionally gutting experience.”
