What follows serves as my general advice on how to best
engage as an emerging association professional … coffee not included….
Rule #1: Take Charge
of Your Own Professional Development
To advance in any profession, you must remain the perpetual
student. Your education doesn’t end after university. Many organizations offer
some kind of professional development stipend to help foster personal and
professional growth. Know what kind of professional development support you
have, but don’t stop there! Many conferences offer scholarships for people who might
otherwise be unable to attend. You may also offer to volunteer or blog about
the event in exchange for registration.
Whatever you do, please join your industry’s association. It
should come as no surprise that the association world has its very own
Association -- the American Society for Association Executives (ASAE). The
experience you gain from meeting a large number of people serving memberships similar
to yours is immensely valuable. Helpful tips on membership retention, member
value, price of engagement, and so much more from across the spectrum of the
association world are waiting for you to reap from others in your field.
Participating in your industry’s association may also provide
you the opportunity to speak at future events and conferences. Becoming an
adept public speaker can help you professionally in countless ways as well as
making you infinitely more employable in the future.
Through continued learning you may even wish to pursue
becoming a Certified Association Executive (CAE). You’ll need to spend some time in the
industry first. However, if you think you might go that direction, it’s never
too soon to start learning about CAE requirements and areas of study you will
want to research ahead of time.
Rule #2: Don’t
Undervalue Your Role Because of Your Paycheck
Being an “emerging” anything usually means your paycheck
isn’t what you’d like it to be. As an emerging association professional, this
can be disheartening to say the least. As you are learning about your
membership, caring for it, and bemoaning the antiquated ways your association
operates (“You mean you still receive dues via fax?”), it can be frustrating to
see the reflection of your labor in your humble paycheck. Remember: everyone “starts” somewhere, and
it’s not where you start, but where you finish that counts!
I remember spending long hours in the office in the
beginning; always one of the last to leave. True, there was much I needed to
learn, but I also felt a charged sense of urgency. Surely no one saw things the
way I did – otherwise there would be more change! Frustration was an everyday event that
sometimes felt would never end. But
still that energy grew, much like I’m sure it’s growing within you today.
Use that energy. Learn
as much as possible. Be aggressive!
Ask more questions than you feel comfortable. There are
oftentimes internal politics at play that make seemingly obvious answers
impossible to play out. Find another way. Do not, under any circumstances,
believe that the size of your paycheck determines your worth to the office.
Your paycheck will grow as you garner more experience. But always be prepared
to show why you are ready for more responsibility, learning opportunities, and
(eventually) money.
Rule #3: Participate
In Associations as a Volunteer
There is no better teacher than experience. Volunteering as
a council member or in any role, really, is one of the best ways you can begin
to understand your members. Initially
serving on ASAE’s Component Relations Section Council was an extremely “meta”
experience for me . I was used to putting together the schedule for my
association’s councils, not serving as a council member. However, once I served
as a council member, I began to better understand what a council member looks
for from the association.
In the meantime, you will still learn what it is to be a
member of an association. How much marketing impacts you, how well your
milestones are tracked, what it’s like to deal with customer service; all of
this will become research fodder for you in your work as an emerging
association professional.
Rule #4: Expand Your
Network
Proactively work at building relationships and expanding
your circle professionally, so that you are constantly learning from those
people around you. In addition to all of the networking benefits you will
receive in the form of job offers, brainstorming, and reputation building; you
will also cultivate your conversation skills and improve on your experiential
knowledge.
You should start working to build your reputation early on
by meeting as many people as possible and sharing with them your projects and
stories….the types of things that will help leave a lasting impression of you.
As time goes on, you will find that your reputation will carry more weight than
your resume. Don’t expect this to happen
over-night, but it will happen.
Your association is not the only place to connect. I am
particularly fond of other ways to network, like Association Chat, for example.
Association Chat, originally created by industry leader Jeff De Cagna and
hosted by yours truly, KiKi L’Italien (@kikilitalien), is a weekly chat on
Twitter that hosts discussions about the topics of the day for associations.
The chat uses the hashtag #AssnChat and happens every Tuesday at 2 pm EST.
The final tip I’ll leave you with today: Find a mentor! Find two…find twenty! Mentors are worth their
weight in gold because they can provide perspective in tough situations, as
often they have been through similar struggles. Mentors can also help guide you
to new opportunities you might have never otherwise known existed. They’ve walked the walk, and talked the
talk. Lean on them whenever possible.
In the comments, please share your own advice, or ask
questions if you like. I will answer as quickly as I read them and I am sure
readers will appreciate the thought.
