Sector and AuSAE News

  • 26 Aug 2020 2:35 PM | Kerrie Green

    Proving print’s alive and thriving in business-to-business (B2B) publishing, The Surveyor, published by Consulting Surveyors National, has recorded a stunning victory by winning top honours in the Best Single Issue category in the 2020 Tabbie Awards—an prestigious worldwide competition for publishers of business, trade and custom magazines.

    “The entire magazine is clean and easy to read. The style and tone fit the industry and are cohesive throughout. There is no wasted space, yet the issue is not cluttered,” the judging panel wrote in its comments about The Surveyor.

    Published for the Association of Consulting Surveyors by Brisbane-based publishing house TMPC, The Surveyor is a cutting-edge business title that profiles the incredibly important work of surveyors in Australia.

    “We started this publication to tell the stories behind one of Australia’s oldest professions,” Association of Consulting Surveyors CEO Michelle Blicavs explains.

    “Surveyors from Sir Thomas Mitchell and John Oxley explored and founded our original boundaries. But today, surveyors work on major infrastructure including Sydney’s second airport, inland rail and cross-river rail as well as greenfield housing developments.

    “We are absolutely thrilled to have been recognised for The Surveyor magazine. It shows that publishing is not dead and remains a vital source of information for the association sector and our members. While many main stream magazines have stopped printing, we are increasing our readership and subscriptions each issue.

    “The outstanding success The Surveyor has achieved highlights the importance of the tactile feel and nature of receiving something in the post or a hard copy to read over coffee and share with colleagues and friends. It allows us to highlight the achievements of our members, the professionals, their practices and their projects.

    “The Association sector has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic providing support and advice to their members. This award recognition is a good news message for our industry.”

    Toni Brearley, CEO of AuSAE, the peak body for the association sector in Australia, agrees.

    “This award is recognition that associations have an integral role in providing quality information, celebrating and sharing best practice and upholding professional standards throughout their sector,” she says.

    TABPI president Paul J. Heney, says B2B journalism continues to thrive in what has been a difficult few years for publishing companies.

    “Even before the pandemic, we’ve seen a lot of turbulence in both B2B publishers and publishing associations. The last decade has been a tough one to navigate with the Internet becoming a preferred source for many readers. But each year, the editorial and design work submitted for the Tabbies continues to show the astonishing journalism that continues to happen in this space,” Heney comments.

    “Around the world, editors and designers are doing quality work, meaningful to the industries they serve—and we’re proud to help spotlight it.”

    Complete results, along with selected comments from the judges and samples of the winning entries, are available at www.tabpi.org. See online copies of The Surveyor at https://www.acsnsw.com.au/news/surveyor-magazine/

    Media Contact: Michelle Blicavs – 0425 244 055

  • 25 Aug 2020 1:18 PM | Kerrie Green

    With small teams and big aspirations, association executives need to have a grasp on the way that strategy helps to shape their team’s use of technology. That’s a key takeaway from a virtual annual meeting that took place in home offices and living rooms, rather than a convention hall.

    For many association pros, technology is a common part of life, but understanding what it actually does to make your association better can feel a bit cloudy. (And not just because most of what we do these days is being managed in the cloud.)

    Association executives increasingly need to understand the integration of technology, especially if they are in a small-staff organization where there simply isn’t room for a dedicated technology executive on the team.

    The plus side is that many executives across industries understand this need. The Gartner 2019 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey found that, after growth, the second-most-important business priority for respondents was information technology, at 32 percent. In many ways, tech is the glue holding everything together, so it makes sense that leaders need to understand it.

    For attendees of ASAE’s 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting & Exposition last week, the concepts of leadership and management were key points of discussion during multiple technology-focused sessions, and “management” was not limited to the CIO or the head of the IT department. Often, the advice targeted the broader executive team, which benefits from having and implementing the right types of technology.

    For those who didn’t attend or haven’t had a chance to dive in, here are a few highlights:

    Executives need an understanding of how tech and strategy work together. In “Digital Strategy: How to Integrate Strategic and Technology Goals,” Tecker International senior consultants Duane Capuano and Donna Dunn broke down the ways that technology challenges emerge for associations, with the session centered on a case study involving the Society for Vascular Ultrasound. One thing was clear: Executive leaders often face challenges managing a digital strategy. Part of the problem comes down to the role IT plays, a resource that’s often outsourced or handled by a team without senior management experience. This can lead to strategic chaos.

    “Every department wants something different,” Dunn said of the challenges executive staff may face, citing examples of LMS platforms, databases, or AMS systems failing to work effectively or integrate across departments. “All of those things come up, and the person in that chair is going, OK, we have some challenges here.” Another problem, she said, is a lack of understanding by the board of a need for IT resources—something that executive directors or CEOs might have to make the case for.

    Leaders need to focus on the cultural shift. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that things are working correctly on a project just because the deliverables are being met and there’s a go-live date. There needs to be a strategic focus on putting the right people on the team to ensure a large-scale technological process will take. This focus on change management was a key idea from “What Could Go Wrong? Navigating Your Technology Transformation Initiatives to Success,” led by speakers Jeremy Lurey of Plus Delta Consulting, LLC, and Lynn Plummer of SingerLewak, LLP.

    “These change efforts are complex, they’re multifaceted. It’s not just about programming the code; we can get great technologists to do that,” Lurey said. “It’s about having the right people involved in these projects from the beginning who are process owners and experts, who can deliver the process change we’re talking about.”

    Leaders who know their history may be able to make sense of the future. Lisa Rau, executive chairman of Fionta, designed her session, “The Future of Technology for Associations,” with leaders in mind who won’t attend ASAE’s annual Technology Exploration Conference, by offering insights on how to evaluate new technology with the perspective of what came before. Citing examples such as Moore’s law, Rau noted the way that technology suddenly emerges with such sophistication that its benefits are everywhere. “By the time that the technology is ubiquitous like this, it’s like we almost forget what the time was like before,” she said.

    In this context, evaluating new technologies and implementing them requires strategic thinking. “By and large, you want to be a fast follower,” Rau said. “You want to be proactive about evaluation of new technologies, but you really want to wait until the technology has achieved a certain market penetration and a certain level of maturity.” Some associations can get away with bleeding-edge technologies, she said, but most can’t.

    Whether your association is built around a small staff or a big team, it’s increasingly important to have an understanding of how these many pieces work together. Taken as a whole, this is what many of last week’s technology sessions hinted at.

    Because, let’s face it. As complex as this stuff is, there’s only so much handing off that you can do before it becomes a strategic problem at your doorstep.

    This article was sourced directly from Associations Now here, and is written by Ernie Smith. 

  • 25 Aug 2020 1:14 PM | Kerrie Green

    With budgets tight, selling association products and services can be a tough. Using personas to identify members and prospects and then leading them to services that really meet their needs can boost the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

    With the pandemic touching every part of the economy, it’s crucial that marketing tactics target the right prospects and make them realize that an association’s products meet their needs. Creating the right personas and using the right lead generation can help associations achieve this, said Aimee Pagano, senior digital marketing advisor at HighRoad Solutions.

    “It all starts with the persona,” Pagano said.

    The persona can be fictitious—based on what you believe are the qualities of your ideal customer—or based on the characteristics of current members. “You are building a persona, whether that is a fictitious persona, or if it is really categorizing members into member segments,” Pagano said. “After that, every piece of information is going to further round out that persona.”

    A good marketing automation system—or data intake process coupled with manual campaigns—can help associations fill out their persona details. The key is to understand what each persona craves and steer them toward learning, events, research, and other products that are a good fit. While associations can align current member data to personas, they can also find nonmember prospects by using small bits of free content.

    “Lead generation is gating content behind a form. We call that a lead magnet,” Pagano said. She provided the example of a fictional persona called Mary, who is new to the association. “Mary would then download that [content] and the association would get her contact information and persona identifying information.”

    Information like where Mary works and what she does, such as whether she’s a manager or not, could be required for Mary to get the free content and would provide information for your database. “You want that so you can send them into the right channel,” said Pagano.

    The information would be used to slot Mary into a persona and provide her with the type of information that people fitting that persona typically want and need to better do their jobs. “If you were promoting a conference, you would map to that,” Pagano said. “There would be a nurture journey, where you send subsequent communications—maybe two or three—and give them more free content. The ultimate ask would be at the end: ‘You can get more great content like this at our conference.’”

    Pagano said to always watch the data with campaigns like this. “It comes down to what your data is telling you,” she said. “If you run this campaign and see people are downloading one piece of content and going directly into registering, then you don’t need to add content to the campaign.”

    As your industry changes the needs of people involved in it change, it’s important to keep personas and databases updated. “It’s not just set it and forget it,” Paganao said. “Once you categorize, then you’re setting up lists and fields and filters so that you’re creating those journeys based on the persona.”

    While associations may have data in their system about prospects or members, just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to use it. Mobile phone numbers would fall into that category. “[Text messaging] gets attention because people open 98 percent of them, compared to email opens, which are 35 percent,” Pagano says. “Texting is not good for getting people to buy, but for providing information, if they’re already at a learning session or event.”

    This article was sourced directly from Associations Now here, and is written by Rasheeda Childress. 

  • 25 Aug 2020 1:06 PM | Kerrie Green

    Even having been at it for a while, you may not know all the tools and hacks that can make virtual work a little simpler. Here are a few ideas to bolster your remote toolkit.

    Nearly six months ago, you might have found yourself working remotely for the first time in your professional life.

    At the time, everyone was looking for ways to stay productive, and largely scrambling.

    With a few months of benefit, a series of new, useful tools have emerged, many of them lesser-known software offerings that can make life easier when working out of the comfort of your living room.

    These tools can boost your productivity, make conference calls more bearable, and even improve communication with your team. Check them out below:

    Krisp (free for 120 minutes per week, $5 per month for unlimited use; MacOS, Windows, iOS) Phone calls while teleworking can be a challenge if there’s a bunch of household noise in the background. One way to minimize it is to use Krisp, a tool that removes background noise that both comes into your speakers and out of your mic.

    Otter.ai (free for individuals up to 600 minutes per month; $9.99 per month for 6,000 minutes; $30 per month, per user, for teams; web-based) Taking more video calls than ever before? Want a way to more easily take notes? This service offers AI-driven transcription, including the ability to automatically transcribe Zoom calls on the fly. For those who need a record of what was said or an alternative to taking notes, this could help make life a little bit easier.

    Notion (free for personal use, $4 per month for pro version, $8 per user per month for teams; web-based) Remote work often gets lumped in the category of video, but the fact of the matter is, you often need tools built for organizing information. Notion, which can be used as a writing tool or a team wiki, offers flexibility in what it can be, giving users an opportunity to both organize and collaborate in whatever way they’re comfortable.

    Toggl (free basic plan, $10 per user per month; MacOS, Windows, Android, iPhone, Chrome, Firefox) Remote work allows for all kinds of distractions that can interfere with productivity and make it harder to manage time. Toggl, a time-tracking tool, is designed to help users build efficiency. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian recently told CNBC that Toggl helped him become more efficient after he became a father. “You find ways to cut time and to preserve time,” he said.

    I Done This ($12.50 per user per month; web-based) This daily productivity tracker tool is dead simple: Every day, the software emails team members working together on a project, asking them to check in and report what they’ve done so that progress can be marked off. It’s project management that’s a bit less hands-on and keeps out of the way for the most part.

    Focusmate (three free sessions per week; web-based) Described by The New Yorker as “part social network and part coworking space,” Focusmate is based on the idea that you’re less likely to procrastinate if you’ve committed to show up to work with someone else. The offbeat method here is that the tool sets up what’s essentially a video “work date” between two strangers who want to get something done in the same time slot. It could be just the thing to help remote workers feel some companionship and provide an extra nudge of accountability for how they spend their time.

    This article was sourced directly from Associations Now here, and is written by Ernie Smith. 

  • 25 Aug 2020 1:01 PM | Kerrie Green

    Coronavirus has forever changed the meetings industry. As a result, event professionals need new skills to best navigate this new environment. Three to consider developing.

    The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changed the meetings industry. As event professionals were tasked with transitioning in-person conference to virtual ones—sometimes in a matter of days or weeks—they often had to develop new skills they may have never considered to be a job requirement previously. Here are three skills that will benefit meeting professionals as they move forward in this new environment:

    VX manager. I’m sure you’re familiar with terms like UX (user experience) and CX (customer experience). As more associations host virtual and hybrid meetings, I believe event professionals will have to give much more thought to what I’m calling “VX,” or virtual experience. Virtual meeting platforms and other tech tools must be selected with the attendee experience in mind. For example, are they easy to use? Do they integrate well with other tools your attendees are already using? Since many of your attendees are relatively new to online events, you don’t want them to feel overwhelmed and intimidated. And, as virtual events become the norm, your attendees will expect you to deliver an exceptional experience that’s on par with your in-person events.

    Risk assessor. As an article posted on MeetingsNet discussed, COVID-19 has laid the groundwork for event professionals to get buy-in for developing a comprehensive risk management plan for their meetings. “Your organization and events team must understand its duty of care for participants, how to assess and minimize risk, what to do in emergencies (and how to train for them), and the right way to transfer or mitigate risk through contract language and, for some events, meeting insurance,” wrote Sue Hatch. Event professionals must be knowledgeable about how things like force majeure clauses, attrition, and event cancellation insurance works. After all, having that know-how could help your association remain financially stable should future in-person events need to be postponed or canceled.

    Online education expert. Keynotes, panel discussions, and interactive education sessions are staples of in-person association meetings. But how can you best translate these experiences into a virtual space? Event professionals must be willing to be creative and take risks in order to deliver education to their virtual attendees that meets their needs. This may involve training speakers on how to deliver their content effectively in an online environment. In addition, planners will have to give some thought to how they will help create interaction in the virtual space that goes beyond a chat box. After all, your attendees don’t just want to learn; they also want to connect with their colleagues and ask questions or get clarification from speakers.

    This article was sourced directly from Associations Now here, and is written by Samantha Whitehorne. 

  • 25 Aug 2020 12:54 PM | Kerrie Green

    Apple’s recent conflicts over the size of the cut it takes from iOS App Store developers potentially reflects problems the App Store could create for digital-only offerings such as virtual events. It’s a situation associations should keep an eye on.

    If you’re a person who reads technology news on the internet, you’ve likely heard a whole lot about the iOS App Store lately—in part because one of the players in a high-profile conflict has been very effective at public relations of late.

    Epic Games blew up the internet a week and a half ago by adding in-app payments for its extremely popular online game Fortnite that specifically worked around the App Store, preventing Apple from taking an aggressive 30 percent cut from the app. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the App Store. Epic responded by filing a lawsuit against the company and almost simultaneously posting a parody animation of Apple’s famous “1984” ad. (It’s escalated from there.)

    Over the weekend, Apple got into another conflict with a developer that associations are likely to know—the makers of the blogging platform WordPress, which was prevented from posting updates to its app until it added in-app purchases to the tool. Backlash ensued, and on Saturday, Apple backed down.

    These situations both point to a potentially dynamic situation that could lead to courtroom battles in the coming months. It could also create headaches for app publishers, including associations. But buried a bit further down in the headlines is a conflict around this whole saga that associations should keep an eye on as they try navigating the digital world amid COVID-19.

    THE POTENTIAL FOR VIRTUAL CHARGES

    Here’s the gist: Apple is known for taking a 30 percent cut of in-app payments for digital services, but not physical ones. In other words, if you rent a cabin on Airbnb using your iPhone, Apple doesn’t generally take a cut, but if you take part in a class on Airbnb, as that company has been recently offering, Apple wants 30 percent of revenues. (Which, understandably, has made Airbnb unhappy.)

    Facebook ran into this very problem around the time the Fortnite battle royale blew up, after it launched a paid online events service for small businesses. The company made a point of waiving the fees it might usually charge, which Android developer Google also agreed to.

    But Apple chose not to go along with Facebook’s endeavor—a fact Facebook chose to publicize.

    “We asked Apple to reduce its 30 percent App Store tax or allow us to offer Facebook Pay so we could absorb all costs for businesses struggling during COVID-19,” Facebook Vice President Fidji Simo, the head of the Facebook app, wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, they dismissed both our requests and SMBs will only be paid 70 percent of their hard-earned revenue.”

    A lot of organizations known for specializing in physical events are making a transition to virtual alternatives at this time, and associations may find themselves mining similar territory to Airbnb and Facebook—after all, the structure of both of those offerings is very similar to what one might expect from a virtual event.

    And at least one vendor that associations might have actually used in the past could be affected by Apple’s stance: According to a report from The Telegraph, Apple recently asked Eventbrite, the popular online ticketing platform, to plan to start giving a 30 percent cut in transactions for virtual events.

    A PROBLEM FOR DEVELOPERS BIG AND SMALL

    Now, you might be looking at this situation and wondering why you should have to worry about what these large companies, most with valuations in the billions, are doing on the App Store. After all, who’s going to feel sympathetic for Facebook right now, considering they were in the same congressional hot seat that Apple was just last month?

    The truth is that companies of this scale are likely in a position where they can speak out, if not quite in the way Epic did. These companies, having developed successful iOS apps for years, likely have personal relationships with Apple that go beyond an automated approval. And despite that, they’re still running into aggressive responses regarding an aggressive fee.

    I worry what smaller developers that don’t have personal relationships with Apple (or Google, which is also feuding with Epic) might run into at this time. And this may include associations, or the vendors associations use. (It wouldn’t be the first time Apple policy created headaches for association-sector developers.)

    Because of this rule, in-app purchases for virtual events could lead to lower revenues on iOS compared to the web, or require that iPhone or iPad users pay a premium.

    As I noted in my coverage of a recent report from Tagoras, many associations are dipping their toes into the pool of virtual events for the first time right now, and there is potential, given the rush of this situation, to fall into a trap like this around in-app purchases.

    This saga is bigger than any one iOS developer, but it could create problems for associations that haven’t been following the headlines.

    This article was sourced directly from Associations Now here, and is written by Ernie Smith. 

  • 25 Aug 2020 12:46 PM | Kerrie Green

    Business Events Perth has launched a new funding initiative to encourage organisations to host local business events, helping Western Australians safely meet again.

    Business Events Perth chief executive officer Gareth Martin said Western Australia’s business events industry had been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and funding was now available to assist with business event costs.

    “It’s safe to meet again in Western Australia and Business Events Perth wants to help the Western Australian industry get back on its feet and support local jobs in these challenging times,” Mr Martin said.

    “We’re doing everything we can to kick start the local business events industry, which supports thousands of jobs across a range of local businesses, big and small, and we encourage any organisation that is thinking of holding a business event, conference or meeting to please get in touch with Business Events Perth.”

    Funding of up to $30 a delegate is available, with total funding support determined by the event duration and number of delegates attending the event in-person. Eligible events include conferences, exhibitions or tradeshows, workshops and seminars, as well as corporate meetings and incentive group events with a business event program.

    The offer is available for a limited time and valid only for new business event bookings for events to be held in Western Australia prior to June 30, 2021.

    Tourism and Small Business Minister Paul Papalia encouraged organisations to safely plan their next business event at a local venue or use local suppliers and help support Western Australia’s business events industry.

    “Many event suppliers and operators had all of their forward bookings wiped in a matter of days as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s really important that we do everything we can to help get business events back up and running again,” the Minister said.

    “The State Government has launched a $5.5 billion WA Recovery Plan to help Western Australia emerge from COVID-19, which includes $150 million to support the tourism industry, and we welcome this complementary initiative from Business Events Perth to further assist the sector.”

    To enquire about funding availability for your event, contact Business Events Perth’s Business Development Team on 08 9218 2900 or visit our website www.businesseventsperth.com

    Media contact: Vivienne Ryan, Director Corporate Communications on 0412 682 129

    Business Events Perth is a not-for-profit organisation funded by the State Government through Tourism WA and the City of Perth with over 100 members representing businesses throughout Western Australia.

  • 20 Aug 2020 6:43 AM | Brett Jeffery, CAE (Administrator)

    With a new government looming, even if it’s only a reframing of the existing one, it’s important industry associations are well positioned to engage with key politicians and policy influencers on behalf of their members.

    Understanding the policy, political and regulatory context impacting your sector and your members is important, especially in a Covid-19 world where business survival can be influenced by political decisions beyond your control.

    But, the business of political decision-making, and the drivers that shape public policy and legislation, can sometimes seem complex.  It’s not always easy for associations and membership bodies to navigate the ‘Wellington Beltway’ and to engage with the right people, at the right time and in the right way.

    Just seeking a meeting with the Minister won’t help.  There’s a process to be followed and some rules that should be adhered to.

    The rules

    Here are some simple rules for effective government relations:

    • Know your issue thoroughly.  Be able to articulate your arguments clearly.  Have mitigations ready for counter-arguments.
    • Learn the policy- and legislation-making process.  How and where does it start?  How does it progress?  What are the timelines?  Who’s involved?  What are their roles?  Where are the influence points and who are the influencers?
    • Understand what’s possible and what’s problematic politically, and in terms of the policy landscape.  Frame your approach in a way that’s most likely to gain traction – don’t ask ACT to increase beneficiary payments, nor the Greens to support National’s roading policies.
    • Know the people with whom you need to engage at all levels of the process.  Spend time building relationships.  Wellington runs very much of a who you know basis.
    • Always propose, never oppose.  Go to the power-brokers with solutions to your problems; solutions that pass the ‘what is politically pragmatic and practicable’ test.
    • Speak truth to power.  Don’t try and ‘spin’ an issue and don’t sloganise.  Be credible and transparent.  This helps to build trust.
    • Build a solid and succinct business case that defines the issues and details their impacts, proposes solutions that are evidence-based, quantifies any risks with mitigations, outlines the full cost/benefit argument and explores how the solutions relate to government policy objectives.
    • Use the media judiciously to help generate awareness of the issue and the solutions you are proposing.  But never to attack government.
    • Build coalitions and support for your cause or argument.  Involve your members where possible; their real-life stories will be powerful. And engage key sector stakeholders.  Motivate them to support you and mobilise them into action on your behalf.
    • Don’t forget today’s Opposition Parties.  They could be tomorrow’s government and you may need their support as well.  

    Finally, be prepared for things to take time (unless it’s a gun buy-back scheme you are after).

    The most recent lobby we undertook for a client took this government’s full three year term to generate the desired result.

    Written by Daniel Paul, Director, The PR Company Wellington

  • 20 Aug 2020 6:30 AM | Brett Jeffery, CAE (Administrator)

    Associations were once at the heart of many professionals’ social lives. Take London’s Royal Society, for instance. Founded in 1660, the Royal Society published many of the world’s most crucial scientific papers in its signature peer-reviewed journal. From Isaac Newton to James Cook, the Royal Society’s members were responsible for paradigm-shifting discoveries.

    Today, however, people have a seemingly endless array of groups to join and ways to discover new information. From local clubs to volunteer organizations, Facebook groups to Reddit communities, there’s no shortage of options for finding community and knowledge. 

    Exacerbating the issue, many of these groups are free to join, posing a challenge for associations that rely on membership dues. 

    Associations could expend needless energy fighting against this widespread pattern—or embrace and adapt to modern changes. 

    The Open Garden model proposes a shift away from focusing exclusively on attracting and retaining members. Instead, associations should focus on engagement as their North Star.

    Read on to discover three compelling reasons why engagement should be any savvy association’s number one goal.

    Engaging Content Can Educate the Public

    Many organizations embrace opportunities to create educational resources that can lead their industries in new, innovative directions. 

    But taking the time to create these educational resources is only the first step. Unless an audience reads and shares your association’s hard work, your educational efforts aren’t as effective as they could be. Smart associations use digital marketing tactics to drive engagement. 

    For example, you could:

    • Publish a weekly newsletter featuring educational tips and insights
    • Host a podcast featuring experts within your organization
    • Post digestible tips and resources on social media channels
    • Pitch journalists who might be interested in citing your work
    • Forge syndication or partnership agreements with other stakeholders in your space

    The key is to make sure the public has ample opportunities to discover — and learn from — your association’s work. 

    Engagement Can Support Your Core Purpose

    If your association’s core purpose includes advocating for changes within society, attracting a highly engaged audience can directly advance your mission.

    For example, Sunny Knoll Ecofarm serves as a living example of just how effective self-sustaining agriculture can be. Unlike commercial farming, Sunny Knoll Ecofarm uses free range livestock to manage a thriving, productive, and sustainable farm.

    As more members of the general public become invested in Sunny Knoll Ecofarm’s journey, their attitudes toward commercial farming may begin to shift. With time, they may also start to prioritize purchasing groceries from sustainable farms, advancing Sunny Knoll Ecofarm’s overall core purpose. 

    Engagement Can Turn Into Membership

    While many members of your audience might only engage with your content occasionally, some will connect on a deeper level — and seek out more ways to engage. With time, these core fans will become your biggest advocates, sharing your association’s content with their networks and encouraging others to engage.

    Though the Open Garden model encourages associations to prioritize engagement as a key metric for success, memberships still matter. Your biggest fans may derive enough value from engaging with your content that they take the membership plunge themselves. 

    Making engagement your association’s top priority doesn’t mean ignoring your other goals — it often means accomplishing them more effectively.


  • 19 Aug 2020 6:41 PM | Kerrie Green

    Welcome back to our AuSAE Member Chat Series – Half an Hour of Power. This week we are delighted to have sat down with AuSAE member, Donna South, National Manager Membership & Marketing, Weld Australia.  

    In a short 30 minute interview we discussed four key questions with Donna to reflect on the last four months and look forward to the future post this crisis.

    What do the next 6 months look like for your association and your members 

    Anyone who tells you they know what the next 6 months is going to look like is lying. I think it’s safe to say we are all in a state of uncertainty and trying to plan and lead in this environment is extremely challenging.

    In saying this since the onset of this crisis I have been pleasantly surprised by the impact and reaction from both our members and internally within our own organisation. From a member perspective the news isn’t all bad, we have a broad and diverse membership which means the impacts are felt differently across all levels of our membership. Some of our members particularly at the SME level are experiencing an upward trend, harnessing the opportunities of new business from clients who would normally go overseas and are now coming back locally. 

    As an association the next 6 months will be challenging but it is full of opportunity. This crisis has forced us to push the reset button – reminding us why we are here, what we need to do and how we need to do it. Our members have never needed us more and in the next 6 months we will continue to increase member value through personal touch points, check in calls, and find new ways to communicate with members to ensure we understand what their challenges and opportunities are going to be moving forward.

    Areas of concern 

    The main thing on my mind as I look forward and begin planning for 2021 is the uncertainty. The uncertainty not just about the pandemic but the economic impact and the flow on effects as we move forward. There is no guidebook for this, and as I constantly say to my team, we’re building the ship as we’re sailing it. I think once we all accept this level of uncertainty in our operations, we can start to look at the risks we can control and plan around this as a starting point.

    Like all associations we’re exploring changes to our member value proposition to meet the needs of our members now. I am conscious that we are changing and adapting our member benefits for a very specific moment in time. This won’t be around forever so the changes we have implemented will either stop or continue and I want to ensure we are forward planning for this from a time, resource and investment perspective.

    Of course, another area of concern is the ongoing impact on our members. I have spent every day on the phone conducting welfare calls to our member base and I’m hearing that members are okay for X amount of time as long as things don’t shift and change too dramatically. However, not one member I have spoken to has said ‘I will be okay indefinitely’. 

    Areas of opportunity 

    I am a big believer in never wasting a good crisis. The opportunities and the rate at which these have unfolded would never have been possible normally. For example, we have been working on transitioning our products and training into an online environment for a number of years, and meeting resistance from our authorising body in Europe. Since the pandemic this has changed and the flexibility is now on the table to offer our training modules online for members. We have launched two of our most popular courses online and have sold out of every session. The success, uptake and feedback from members has been incredible.

    As an association we are able to go back to grass roots, we have been given the opportunity to stop, breathe and assess our role as an association and what we can do for members now and into the future. We are all guilty of getting caught up in the day to day activities and rolling out programs and events year on year. But we’re all in a position now where we have to basically throw it all out and start again, keeping our members front of mind in this next stage.

    Since the start of this crisis, Australians have stepped up to support local, whether this be ordering coffee from your local café, eating at a local restaurant or purchasing Australian clothing. We are becoming supportive and educated buyers who want to understand where our products are made, and this has instilled a level of patriotism in all areas of the supply chain. We have a real opportunity here to advocate for our members and harness this consumer behaviour to keep manufacturing and fabrication on shore.

    Celebrated moments in the last four months 

    One of our biggest moments to celebrate during the last few months was the speed and quality our team injected into the roll out of our online education courses. As mentioned above the uptake and feedback from members has been overwhelmingly positive and it’s a project we have waited years to see come to fruition.

    We have been pleasantly surprised with the increased engagement with current members as well as the number of new members we have welcomed since the world turned upside down. The team has worked tirelessly to increase communication and ensure we are opening the door to new members with a broad range of topics that effect our sector.

    I am also very proud of how the entire organisation embraced and successfully adapted to working from home. Everyone has welcomed this change, remained flexible and adapted to their new environments.


The Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE)

Australian Office:
Address: Unit 6, 26 Navigator Place, Hendra QLD 4011 Australia
Free Call: +61 1300 764 576
Phone: +61 7 3268 7955
Email: info@ausae.org.au

New Zealand Office:
Address: 159 Otonga Rd, Rotorua 3015 New Zealand
Phone: +64 27 249 8677
Email: nzteam@ausae.org.au

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