If you have had a chance to read the white paper that was shared after last night’s call, you may have some questions. Here is your opportunity to post ideas, comments and feedback. What do you see as the pros & cons of some of the models, roles, & responsibilities as offered in the White Paper? We look forward to your comments. (Thanks Susan Sabo for posing this question).
Filed under: Uncategorized
Financial ~ I don’t understand how the chapter of the future could be discussed without attention to the financial health of the chapters. There is no section that addresses this fundamental aspect of chapter health.
Requirement: 7 Board members (pg 5). NSA PHL has 6 and has had 6 for the last 5 or more years.
CLC (pg 10) – this organization puts a layer between Headquarters and the chapters. The effectiveness of CLCs varies widely, as reported by my peers. Usual attendance on CLC Organization calls is <50%. Contact by CLCs is erratic and unpredictable. This volunteer organization has no 'skin in the game' nor consequence / reward for success or failure. I request the board remove this insulating layer. Each NSA Hdqtrs personnel could call 2-4 chapters per month to build a personal relationship & be in direct contact.
Chapter Websites (Pg 12 & 13)
NSA PHL strongly advocates centralization of chapter websites to leverage the budget & resources of each individual chapter. Each chapter today has a webmaster (expenses), cost of website development, maintenance & hosting… that's 40 times the cost of one standard national website. A National Standard website template & back room would also promote consistent branding.
JUst a National All-inclusive Calendar is not enough.
Require national members to join a chapter (pagae 13, item 6): This action would eliminate the question of chapter value- it would be a strong showing of unity. Again the financial arrangement needs to be addressed – one single fee for membership makes sense.
more soon….
Susan
Sorry to hear you have had a bad experience with the CLC Susan. In truth, the CLC has been erratic. We have some fabulous CLCs that have done great work. And we have a few that get emotionally involved with their chapters and become ineffective. And we have a few that do very little, but often this is because their chapters are in good shape and do not respond to inquiries. In my experience, the good has outweighed the bad many times over. I have seen many conflicts resolved, crisis averted, strategic plans improved, and resources provided. NSA staff does contact the chapter presidents at present. They would have to hire at least one more person to provide the help that the CLC gives, which they don’t have the funds to do. As in any group, we have to manage ourselves. We can best do this with good feedback from the involved presidents. We have tossed around the idea of having the chapter presidents evaluate the CLCs midyear. Based on your comment, I think we should move forward on that.
National to recruits at local level (Page 13, Item 7). Currently chapters would benefit simply by receiving a monthly communication with who has joined National. This would give us a list of folks to welcome into the chapter while they’re in the joining mood. If Nat’l takes this on, there reporting to the chapters of calls made and results would be valuable.
National to coordinate chapter programming (Pg 13, item
I believe a centralized database of speakers, programs, and special events would be priceless. This would facilitate local program directors customizing the programs. A robust Chapter-1 type library of resources would allow all chapter officers to implement proven things from fund raisers to programming.
Additional thought for Chapter of the Future:
Build the relationship between national & chapters. 24 hour response should be the norm for returning calls from chapter leadership.
Business Model review:
Nat’l administer specific functions – pay for service (Pg 15, item 2) Would like clarification on how this option strengthens the connection between chapters & nat’l. We don’t see it. Our executive director, local, has arranged free and creative meeting space based on personal connections and knowing the local landscape. She attends meetings and handles a myriad of details only someone local can do. Speakers book their own travel. Nat’l doesn’t appear to have the administrative system to even tell us of new members in our geography – it’s hard to have confidence in handling other administrative details.
BRANDING is key for NSA to grow and/or strengthen the organization and its value. None of the business models detail sending branded professional materials to chapters. Initially we see those as: Benefits of Membership brochure, Logo material, Website templates.
Regional Chapters (Page 15, item #2) – Hub & spoke model seems to put a lot of work on the large chapters. Do they want it? Will small chapters be overshadowed? Do the large chapters have the time / interest / understanding to handle vaious administration & logistics.
BUSINESS MODEL – would like to see a semi-franchise model put in place. Benefits include branding far & wide, uniform offerings, sharing of best practices, consistent leadership and easy leadership transitions. A single tag line that is perpetual and universal would be part of this.
Hope this helps.
Susan
This is from the Executive Director for NSA PHL ~ she’s been our hero for over 5 years. Connie is on top of financial things, connects us to special venues & deals, interfaces with everyone from our graphic designer / webmaster to prospective members.
Here is her Expert input::::::
I think the real problem is there isn’t a guide book for chapters to reference – National should be offering a board leader reference guide where leaders can obtain information about running a chapter and so forth. I think our chapter should show them how great the chapter does in providing value and delivering results – pretty darn good!
[SMS a little chapter love there]
National should also offer a more active point of contact from their office to answer more questions and be more available to assist in NSA questions/chapter questions – Right now the response rate is days if not more – very concerning that they want to take over a lot of management pieces of a chapter.
I have been a CSP member of NSA since 1984 and have been the Executive Secretary of the Carolinas Chapter for over 22 years. There are many things that concern me in the white paper:
1. The chapter is the HEART of NSA and our chapter has a rich history. NSA/Carolinas have always followed NSA rules and never experienced many of the concerns presented in the paper. In our 26 year history, we have had six former NSA presidents and currently have 32% of our members who are CSPs or CPAEs. Why are we this strong? Because we raised the bar, for the chapter, to provide benefits for NSA and NSA/C members who have a career in the professional speaking, training and consulting business We do allow guests to attend our meetings at a higher registration rate but membership is reserved for the serious speaker.
2. I am amazed to see that only 75.8% of chapter members are NSA members. Bill Brooks, CSP, CPAE used to say, “The AMA will not let you in if you aren’t already a doctor” so why would our association want to open up “membership” for people who are not fully committed to a full time career in the speaking business? All of these creative memberships, from chapters, which does nothing more than enhance income, has taken these chapters away from the focus of Cavett’s mission – which is to provide members benefits at a local level. If we continue to move away from that focus, we become nothing more than a social club.
3. NSA needs to allow successful chapters to function with the things that work best for their demographics,and their members’ needs. If NSA membership is the key to entry into a chapter, we enhance the mother ship from the very beginning. I find it very difficult to believe that NSA will be able to “provide adminstration invoicing, gathering of dues as well as providing chapters current membership information.” If the chapter leaders are doing their jobs, they should be up to date on all these administrative tasks. Yes, our chapter has an executive secretary to centralize all activities for the board members and it is a compensated position. I am that person. Thus, I know the amount of work it takes to keep up with members, their requests, and field of questions from prospective members daily. Can NSA provide that to our chapter’s expected level of efficiency? I don’t think so.
4. It appears we are seriously planning to alter the entire relationship between chapters and NSA. For some members, this action may encourage them to start meeting on their own and dropping NSA membership. Why not? If NSA membership is taken this lightly by the chapters, why bother to be involved in NSA at all? People may just start their own “clubs.”
5. I encourage NSA and it’s current chapter leadership to re-assess these new directions and go back to the basics. To wit, if you can’t have chapters that run only with NSA members, then let the chapters fold and become more involved with the NSA meetings and offerings held throughout the year. The chapters who are successful need not be brought down for those that are bending the rules to make it appear they are really a “functioning” chapter.
Laura Hamilton, CSP
I just finished my first Chapter Meeting as the Ohio President. A lively discussion occurred in the unofficial hallway discussions during the meeting with experienced and long tenured NSA members about the summit and possible future directions.
As I talked with Phil Van Hosser about the Summit in disucssions during our meetings the last two days and came to understand where he thought things might be going, I came to realize that as a chapter we are pretty lock stepped with NSA national.
So I thought I would reread the white paper this morning.
That was when I saw a HUGE disconnect with the premise of the whole discussion.
“Chapters are chartered groups that extend the NSA brand into the local market, consistently targeting education and community efforts to the working speaker level.”
The disconnect is that this mission statement indicates that the Chapters WORK FOR NSA NATIONAL AND THEIR BRAND. This does not focus on the needs of the members and their improvement.
The discussion about the chapter development programs needing to submit to the Academy also does NOT FOCUS ON THE NEEDS OF THE MEMBERS. Because the make up of different chapters is going to vary based on leadership, the economy, past programing, etc. To think that “one size fits all” does a great disservice for the depth and abilities of local chapter leadership.
BUT, if chapter leadership has at their core the development of the members so they can become full fledged “professional” members of the National Speakers Association and they are successful in their business of lifting and improving their customers . . . isn’t that our goal?
The first premise of the white paper and the chapter mandate is flawed. When you start to focus on internal things versus being customer (NSA member) centric, then you start down a slippery slope.
IF the chapter of the future has as it’s focus making us better. . . . to make the pie bigger (because bad products and services drive the customer away) then why is the mandate of the Chapter of the Future to help brand National? Let’s all focus on the right thing.
If the ladder is against the wrong tree you can hack at the leaves all you want . . . you are still up against the wrong tree.
After 8 years of membership in NSA and longer in NSA-DC (where I am now serving as Chapter President) it appalls me to read the Chapter Rechartering mission statement, which is all about NSA, not NSA members.
If the re-chartering mission statement read “extend the NSA brand FOR THE BENEFIT of NSA members” you would change the conversation to a constructive purpose.
In the DC metro area every day there are hundreds of meetings of one kind or another where paid speakers are helping audiences. Only 72-75 professional speakers in the area belong to NSA-DC. Why? Because many experts getting paid to speak tell me “they are doing fine” without NSA and NSA-DC. They don’t feel the need for our monthly programs or for the NSA conferences and conventions.
There is one need that unites everyone who wants to get paid to speak–getting more business. If NSA and the chapters put all of its resources into branding and marketing to the extent that when any meeting planner or person responsible for engaging a expert who speaks immediately went searching for an NSA member, that would create value of membership with NSA and the Chapters that would be undeniable.
So instead of focusing the chapter rechartering effort on the how the chapters support NSA, why isn’t all this effort and the incredible thinking power and creativity of our members going towards making the NSA brand the unmistakable source for the best speakers?
I know that a few years ago a modest effort was made to do this. It was discontinued after 1 year. Do the biggest companies with the most brand recognition throw a few ads into some magazines and then quit when they don’t generate any results? Obviously not.
NSA should have a 5 year plan for “extending the NSA brand” into the market and also help the chapters do the same locally. All the chapters need is for a number of speakers to get speaking jobs as a result of the branding campaign for the word to spread that NSA and chapter membership is WORTH IT! That will increase membership, provide more leadership, bring better management to the chapters and attract people to the chapter’s programs.
Somewhere in all the writing about the chapter rechartering material I read the question “what will the chapter of 2015 look like?” If we really are thinking about the future, we will accept that gathering for education and information will not be necessary. Even more than today, all information at any level will be available online and through digital products. The only reason to get together will be because it will feed the speaker’s inner needs–to connect, to talk, to share experiences with people who live lives similar to ours. So putting all this effort into how chapters will run themselves and who will be allowed to attend, etc. is beside the point of the chapters just a few years from now.
I hope that the Chapter Summit attendees will insist upon reframing the mission and the efforts.
Susan Trivers
President NSA-DC
Susan,
Great thoughts. I read two strains of thought in your words.
1. What chapters offer
If we turned this upside down, we might see that most NSA programs actually benefit newer speakers. What NSA provides for more experienced speakers may be different than the standard chapter programs and conferences. That really is the point of the question, to look at what is possible for chapters in meeting their members (and potential) members needs. It is supposed to be a conversation instead of a mandate. I think that’s where we are getting stuck. Yet I keep seeing chapters trying to replicate the old models over and over and they are less effective, where some chapters are trying new things to great success. Couldn’t NSA be more of a resource for chapters to help them progress and succeed? That is what is on the table, more so than trying to make chapters abide by rules. I hope you will be at the summit to help move this conversation forward.
2. What NSA does for chapters
The question I hear in your words, does NSA extend the brand or do the chapters represent and extend the brand?I think both chapters and NSA have a stake in this. You are right to ask for NSA’s plan for expanding the brand, creating more visibility and upgrading our image. Again, I hope you will be at the Summit. Yet even if you are not, we are summarizing all comments and ideas to be discussed, so your thoughts won’t be lost.
Thanks for taking the time to be clear about your thoughts and feelings. Very helpful.