Category: whitepaper

Associations, Apprenticeships, and the “Toolbelt Generation”

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | Leave a Comment on Associations, Apprenticeships, and the “Toolbelt Generation”
leather tool belt with hammer, blue plier handles, adjustable wrench

Recently, I’ve noticed renewed attention to the role of non-collegiate post-secondary training in helping people find lucrative, productive, fulfilling work.

  • The Washington Post has reported on the need for “millions” of apprentices in careers that don’t require four-year degrees and has called for the federal government to take action, which is a very good idea and which would have significant returns on a modest investment.
  • NPR has reported on a trend in GenZ choosing trade schools over college, “skilled trades make a comeback,” and identified them as the “Toolbelt Generation.”
  • As his first executive order after taking office, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro eliminated the unnecessary four-year degree requirement for 92% of state jobs in the commonwealth.

Alternative training and career paths are, after several decades of an almost exclusive focus on sending young people to four-year college, having a renaissance.

You know who else has a major role to play in alternative career paths and credentialing?

Associations!

In 2016, Shelly Alcorn and I released a whitepaper, The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm, that predicted this trend, identifying a significant and growing gap between education and employment driven by several factors:

  • Massive disruption in higher education
  • Ballooning student loan debt (at the time, Americans held over $1.23 trillion dollars in student debt – it’s now up to $1.75 trillion)
  • Decreasing public funding for education, at both the K-12 and post-secondary levels
  • Significant disagreement about what a college education is supposed to accomplish, the value of a four-year degree, and whether or not college is properly preparing young people for the workforce

At the time,  one-third of employers reported struggling to find qualified workers. That situation has also gotten worse in the interim, with 75% of organizations world-wide now reporting that they’re struggling to find skilled workers.

Shelly and I believe that associations enjoy major advantages that make us uniquely suited to addressing these challenges:

  • Direct connection to and relationship with employers in our relative sectors
  • Experience with certification and credentialing, supplements or even alternatives to four-year degrees that are gaining popularity and respect
  • Speed and flexibility, at least in comparison to hidebound higher education
  • “Halo” effect of our nonprofit status in the marketplace versus the many shady for-profit providers
  • Experience with non-traditional students and educational settings

Want to learn more about how your association can help solve this critical societal problem while also earning non-dues revenue, doing well while doing good? Download your free copy at https://bit.ly/29CIquL.

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

Associations, Chapters, and Climate Change

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | Leave a Comment on Associations, Chapters, and Climate Change
people in winter attire walking at a climate protest, one carrying a sign that reads "Eco Not Ego" written on a yellow banner with the image of a globe behind it

My co-author Shelly Cumbie Alcorn and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mariner Management’s Peggy Hoffman to discuss The Time Is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption, our new whitepaper on associations and the climate crisis.

The focus of our conversation was on the critical role we believe components play in helping associations develop resilience and prepare to adapt to the intensifying changes that are happening in our world that are affecting EVERY association and EVERY profession or industry associations serve.

Recognize that local is key: Localization is critical to both resilience (the ability to bounce back after a crisis) and adaptation (the ability to change the ways we live, work, and play). And for associations, strong chapters – the locus of localization – are essential when facing the impacts of climate change.

Read the article here.

Download the FULL conversation here.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

 

Don’t Stop Thinkin’ About Tomorrow

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE
hand holding a crystal ball up to a sunrise, showing a reverse image within

Fourteen years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a futurist session held in honor of the 50th anniversary of the CAE program.

After a dense presentation by facilitator Marsha Rhea, we broke into 10-year, 30-year, and 50-year discussion groups. I found myself in the 30-year group (2040) and discovered that my fellow discussants could not seem to wrap their minds around things like sea level rise and the encroaching crisis in fresh, potable water. In other words, climate change.

At the time, I was thinking a lot about generations, and posed, as a final thought:

We will need someone to lead us, and nonprofit organizations could fill that leadership vacuum.  Assuming we survive the larger global forces at work.

I still believe that associations have significant role to play in addressing climate change, as evidenced by my latest collaborative whitepaper The Time Is Now: Association Adaptation and Resilience and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption.

We *could* have led on this 14 years ago. We *must* start leading on this now, today. There are SO many ways associations can play a significant role in addressing climate change:

  • On operations of our organizations as businesses: making choices about office space, commuting, work from home, LEED certification (not just of new builds, but also retrofits), and investment of reserves that reduce or eliminate carbon emissions.
  • On our member-facing work: reducing the carbon footprint of our in-person gatherings, building resilience through greater localization (aka, build up your components, whether those be formal or informal groups), and communicating information about the effects of the climate crisis appropriately with members and other audiences.
  • On our outward-focused work: making different  lobbying choices and leading on concepts like thinking vertically and the circular economy for the professions and industries we serve.

If this all sounds like a good idea to you – and I hope it does – come join us at the Association Climate Action Coalition and our free Community of Practice around climate education and solutions (thanks, Breezio!).

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

Associations and Climate Change: The Podcast

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Many of the options for responding to climate change we’re offered are at the super-macro (UN COP meetings) or super-micro (get an electric car!) levels.

What about all the stuff in the middle? You know, like ASSOCIATIONS?

Shelly Alcorn and I recently had the opportunity to join Cecilia Sepp for the Radio Free 501c podcast to discuss our new whitepaper, The Time Is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption.

The conversation focused on associations’ role as vehicles for social change, the business imperative to act, and specific steps we can take within our sphere of influence to address this global “wicked problem.”

Are you interested in partnering with your fellow association executives to share good practices and take on projects related to how you can address climate change in your internal operations, member-facing work, and/or as a leader and representative of the profession or industry you serve?

  1. Download the whitepaper.
  2. While you’re there, take our three-question pulse-check survey.
  3. Also while you’re there, share your contact information so we can keep you in the loop about next steps (it’s entirely voluntary).

 

 

Associations Creating Community to Address Climate Change

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Shelly Alcorn and I recently sat down (virtually) to talk with Whiteford, Taylor & Preston’s Jefferson Glassie about The Time Is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption, our recently-released whitepaper that lays out the case that associations both can and should take the lead on addressing climate change for our own industry, for our members, and for the professions and industries our associations exist to serve, not only for moral reasons but as a critical business imperative.

The whitepaper details the scope and extent of the impact of climate disruption on associations large and small and emphasizes the wide range of options available to associations to support their respective and concentric communities.

Shelly and I are working on creating an association community of practice to assist in these efforts. We believe that providing a space for association executives to share their insights into conduct, actions, and practices they are undertaking is critical to our success as a community in addressing this “wicked problem.” If you’d like more information, please visit https://associationclimateactioncoalition.com/ and give us your name and email address (scroll to the bottom for the comment form).

As Jefferson pointed out in the podcast, this discussion relates to perhaps the most important community to which we all belong, the human community, and illustrates how we must take concerted action to protect our human and non-human relations.

 

Navigating These Wicked Waters

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Shelly Alcorn and I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by KiKi L’Italien for Association Chat on association leadership strategies for climate chaos.

We talked about our new whitepaper, The Time Is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption; shared some stories of associations that are doing good work in this area; discussed how we ourselves stay motivated to work for change even in the face of bad news and seemingly daunting odds; highlighted the fact that (to quote Global Optimism) “stubborn optimism is a deliberate mindset;” and revealed the bigger project Shelly and I are in the process of launching related to this work, the Association Climate Action Coalition.

 

The Time Is Now

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Climate change and sustainability are increasingly in the news and showing up as a key topic for the association industry. Association execs are realizing that climate change is not just a moral imperative, it’s a business imperative.

To quote ASAE from their well-attended webinar on this topic back in May: “Either as part of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives or looking at impact and legacy, associations are increasingly grappling with the role sustainability plays in supporting their work and advancing their missions.”

In The Time is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption, Shelly Alcorn and I provide a brief overview of data on climate change, address the psychological barriers to action humans face, and bring to bear the concepts of resilience (preparing to bounce back from challenges) and adaptation (learning how to live and work differently) on the specific effects the climate crisis will have on associations’ internal operations, member-facing programs, products and services, and on the professions and industries we exist to serve.

Our goal is to help associations better understand how this “wicked problem” is going to affect our industry and begin preparing to better respond to the challenges that will face us all in the coming years.

The whitepaper also includes:

  • Case studies with the American Association of Geographers, Stand.earth, and the Strata Community Association (our first international case study!).
  • A sidebar on climate change and US national security.
  • Stories of positive change to inspire you.
  • A series of thought questions for you to use to spark discussion with your team.
  • An extensive list of resources in case you want to dig deeper on any of the topics addressed.

I’ll be blogging about the whitepaper more in the coming days, highlighting some of our major findings, but in the meantime I invite you to download your free copy at https://bit.ly/48jfB4X – we don’t collect any data on you to get it, and you won’t end up on some mailing list you didn’t ask for. We just use the bit.ly as an easy mechanism to count the number of times it’s been downloaded.

However, Shelly and I realized that there’s potentially something much bigger here. We’re hoping to put together a true Community of Practice of associations who are ready to lead change. When you download your copy, you’ll have the option of taking a three question survey and sharing contact information if you’d like to be kept in the loop about that.

Get your copy at https://bit.ly/48jfB4X.

And don’t forget to check out some of the other FREE Spark collaborative whitepapers, too, on topics ranging from content curation to digital transformation, blockchain, DEI, lean startup, member-centric engagement, and more!

Caveat Emptor: The Podcast

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Decisions, decisions: we make them all day long. But what fuels our decision-making? Research!

Every association executive uses research to make decisions, and often we’re responsible for conducting – or at least sponsoring – original research.

How can we ensure that the research we’re using or creating is good quality, able to support evidence-based decisions that produce good outcomes?

That’s the question that drove my and Polly Karpowicz’s recent conversation with Cecilia Sepp for the Radio Free 501c podcast, where we discussed our whitepaper Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research.

The conversation touched on what everyone should know about research, how we can educate ourselves to make the best choices, and how most of us learn it on the job. (We also talked about our gardens!) Listen to this fun and wide ranging episode.

Can Associations Be Part of the Climate Solution?

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE
The Role of Associations in Tackling the Climate Crisis Association Transformation podcast header graphic

We ABSOLUTELY can.

People associate in order to solve problems that are, individually, intractable. I can’t think of a more important problem that’s not amenable to individual solutions than climate change.

Shelly Alcorn and I were honored to discuss the association role in combatting climate change with Elisa Brewer Pratt on a recent episode of the Association Transformation podcast.

The climate crisis is (and is going to) impact our internal operations, our member-facing programs and services, and the industries and professions we exist to serve. Don’t miss this important conversation about how associations can, and are ethically called to, respond.

(Spoiler alert: this may also be related to the next Spark whitepaper, currently in process and due to be released later this year.)