About two weeks ago, ASAE-GW held the latest Super Swap. This one had a slightly different format: in the morning, we had three short presentations, each of which included some structured activity/discussion time, followed by a table topic networking lunch, followed by the more traditional concurrent swap sessions.
Kylee Coffman kicked off the day with a presentation about creativity. Best statements:
“All I want to be is someone who makes new things and thinks about them”
“I’m smart, I’m brave and I’m strong.”
Then she led us through the same word association exercise Shelly Alcorn used to help us kick off 2012 right, and, unsurprisingly, just about everyone was channeling spring and new beginnings.
Then I presented on “so long and thanks for all the fish.” For the exercise, I divided the room into four groups and gave them each a task regarding retired and retiring members:
- Create a category of membership that offers realistic benefits at a realistic price
- Plan a fundraising campaign that uses their skills, experience and contacts to good advantage
- Design a mentoring program that focuses on industry/profession skills and knowledge for young professionals
- Design a leadership mentoring program for volunteer leadership succession planning
Finally, Adele Cehrs helped us all think about opposition strategy. Our associations need to scan trends and plan in advance how we’re going to address big ones, negative or positive.
Her tips included:
- Don’t ignore lies about your organization
- Address misperceptions directly
- Learn from negatives
- Identify your own preconceptions
- Understand your own weaknesses
She urged us to try to answer the question: “What are your competitors NOT talking about?”
The lunch discussions were a little bumpy because ASAE staff was trying to turn the rooms, and it took a long time for everyone to get through the lunch buffet line. Maybe box lunches next time?
In the afternoon, I chose the session on free and cheap tech tools, led by Rhea Steele. She, in turn, drew a lot of her content from Beth Z, aka “Your Nerdy Best Friend.” Rhea pulled together a great list of the tech tools people shared in the session that were in addition to Beth’s tools, and I’ll bet if you tweet to her, she’ll share them with you, too.