Part 2 of 3. Pull out your 6/08 ASAE magazine if you want to read the whole articles ... and read along with Cindy ...
6. Pg. 34. Legislative Fly-in Success. Two things definitely agree with: 1) Have to ensure the group is "asking for the order" and talking about issues germane to the visit. Members of Congress have limited time so have to communicate on-point and focused; 2) Essential to understand and appreciate the very important role of Congressional staff on association issues.
But really disliked the part about the "game" to collect as many Congressional staff business cards as possible. If you send 30 members to a Hill Visit and they're all trying to collect business cards from as many legislative staff as possible, that is just embarrassing in my opinion. Success might better depend on identifying who has existing relationships - rather than everyone trying to build a new relationship.
7. Pg. 37. Interview Questions - by the applicant. If you were interviewing someone who handed YOU 19 questions in writing to answer including wanting to know YOUR relationship with your boss, what YOUR personal office hours are, YOUR personal employee benefits, and more - would YOUR reaction be positive or really, really negative?
8. Pg. 52. Case Study on the "Fake" Deadline. Do you have ANY sympathy for any organization that tells its members and/or the public there's a competition deadline (e.g., scholarship programs, competitive grant programs, award programs, contests), and then creates a separate, secret internal deadline (specifically for those who miss deadlines) in the name of being "member centric"? There's 3 pages worth of internal and external chaos/issues on "making an exception" in the case study. My opinion: Suggest they all flip to Pg. 41 in the magazine about "ethical compass" (an excellent article). Consider what message is being sent to those who really believe the deadline was truthful. If you want to talk trust and transparency in organizations - are you being truthful with the membership? How about your competition deadlines?
Stay tuned for part 3 ...
1 comment:
Even more embarrassing than members falling over themselves to get congressional staff business cards is having members bring zip lock bags to the association's congressional reception so they can bag up the scraps at the end to take back to their hotel rooms. It's even worse when they start to bag the food when your members of Congress are in the room.
Post a Comment