In a few weeks I’ll go with my Board President and President-Elect to the ASAE CEO Symposium. It’s a great way for us to start our leadership year together. It gives us a chance, during the two-day seminar, to focus on how we hope to work with one another as a team and with the rest of the Board. And, everyone benefits from attending – I refresh on best practices; my volunteers learn more about their role; and together, my leaders and I develop greater trust and a truer partnership.
I’ve been very lucky in that my Board sees the value in this program and commits the funds for three of us to attend this, or a similar program, each year. What I value most is the time outside of the Boardroom or at an Association of Water Technologies (AWT) meeting, where I can bring up sometimes difficult conversations, be it a leadership issue or industry challenge. Each year is different because at least one of the players change. But it is exciting to watch a President-Elect the first year and then see the changes that happen the next year when that person is now President. They tend to be more confident and more strategic-minded.
This is just one way to develop leaders. Some other things my Board and I are doing are conducting an expanded and enhanced leadership program for all Committee Chairs, Subcommittee Chairs and Related Trade Organization Liaisons. It’s a meeting of over 30 people where we get to talk about our priorities for the year ahead. It also gives us time to do some training and development with these key people within AWT.
Something else we enhanced this past year was our New Board Member orientation. And before we rolled out the new program to the actual new Board Members, we did the entire session with the Board, so they received a great refresher on their duties and responsibilities.
It’s important to remember that for many volunteer leaders this is a new role for them. They may not be familiar with association practices and may not have the leadership skills required of their position. As association professionals, it’s our job to give them as much help as we can in making them a success.
