C O N N E C T I O N S 15

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Ann Cox, CAEDiverse membership and opportunity to learn prompted GSAE membership

Legends:Living

B Y S H E R Y L S . J A C K S O N

WHEN ANN COX, CAE, executive director of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN), moved from the university setting to her association, she quickly realized that she needed to learn more about association management.

“I started with AAOHN 25 years ago and have served in four different positions,” said Cox. “I joined GSAE in 1983 because work-ing in an association was very different from my previous position,” she explained. “I was pleasantly surprised to fi nd something in GSAE that I’ve never found in other associa-tions. GSAE is a group of people who believe in supporting others in the fi eld and once I joined, I had a network of colleagues who generously shared their knowledge and expe-rience,” she said.

Cox’s involvement in GSAE began with her involvement on various committees and then her election to the GSAE Board of Directors. She served as president of GSAE from 1991 to 1992. “I remember that people were surprised that we had two women presidents back to back,” she said. [Editor’s note: June J. Somers, CAE, served as president from 1990 to 1991.] Cox also has served on the GSAE Foundation Board of Trustees and has expanded her as-sociation involvement to include the national association, the American Society of Associa-tion Executives, which is now known as ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. Cox not only worked with the ASAE Foundation

but in 1995 also served as the fi rst woman chair in 33 years. “I had the confi dence to pursue national leadership roles because I developed my leadership skills in GSAE posi-tions,” she said.

“My most important contribution to GSAE has been my role as mentor to other members of the association,” said Cox. “Everyone who joins GSAE has the opportunity to contribute to the organization from day one. It is up to GSAE leaders to encourage members to get involved.”

Not only has Cox learned from other members of GSAE, but she also pointed out that GSAE itself is “an excellent model of an association” that has grown and changed to meet the needs of members. People have more demands made on their time now, so GSAE has changed the way it uses volunteer leaders by having staff members handle day-to-day tasks. GSAE has made use of technol-ogy to improve communications and how as-sociation business is conducted, she said.

An association’s success is dependent on the development of relationships, but tech-nology can augment an association’s relation-ship with its constituents, Cox said. “When I started with my association, I handwrote everything, then typed it. Computers, e-mail and the Internet have given us other tools that can be used to enhance our services.”

Although the use of technology in meet-ings, communications and educational pro-

grams continues to grow, it can be over-whelming, admitted Cox. “Even with the added value that these tools offer members, there will always be the desire for face-to-face communications, so meetings that give people a chance to interact are still important.”

“GSAE is a unique association because its members come from many different indus-tries, fi elds and professions,” said Cox. This diversity is important to members because people join GSAE to learn about managing associations, not to learn more about the industry or profession that their association represents, she said. “Even though my asso-ciation is healthcare-related, I can get good ideas from an association outside the health-care fi eld.”

GSAE’s ability to attract association staff members and managers from different fi elds also will enable the association to continue growing and becoming stronger, Cox said. “We do need to embrace a larger community of nonprofi t organizations that represent disease-specifi c or healthcare fi elds in order to grow. We also need to recognize that not all organizations have the resources to par-ticipate in and support an association such as GSAE, so we need to be realistic about poten-tial for growth,” she said.

As for her own experience with GSAE, Cox said, “It’s been a wonderful experience with the best group of people I have ever met.” ●

As a continuation of GSAE’s 90th anniversary celebration, we want to share some of the “lessons learned” from the volunteers who contributed to GSAE’s great success. Through this year-long series, we will spotlight, in their own words, the past leaders of GSAE – our Living Legends.

GSAE Living Legends

C O N N E C T I O N S 15

Joe Brannen, CAEAssociation executive looked to GSAE to teach him skills for his jobB Y S H E R Y L S . J A C K S O N

ONE OF THE first congratulatory telephone calls that Joe Brannen, CAE, president of the Georgia Bankers Association (GBA), received after he was hired to head up GBA was from Abit Massey, CAE, a member of GSAE since the 1960s and president of the association in 1969.

Remembering the phone call, Brannen said, “Abit called to congratulate me on the new position and to tell me that the fi rst thing I had to do was to join GSAE and the American Society of Association Executives. He told me that these were two organizations that would make me successful.”

Brannen was grateful for Massey’s advice regarding his new position, partly because he was so new to the association world. “Even today,” Brannen said, “I wonder why the as-sociation [GBA] selected me for this job!” The position with GBA was Brannen’s fi rst associ-ation job. Previously, he had spent eight years on Senator Sam Nunn’s staff. “I guess the as-sociation board members thought I would be a good choice because government relations is a big part of the job,” Brannen said. “I did know about government from the perspective of a federal legislator’s staff member, but not from the perspective of a lobbyist.”

Because he had been on a U.S. senator’s staff, Brannen relied on relationships he soon developed with other GSAE members to learn about state politics. “I knew nothing about the

state process, but GSAE gave me contact with people who could help me learn,” he said.

In other ways, too, Brannen made full use of his GSAE membership. “I took advantage of every educational opportunity GSAE offered,” he said. “I attended every monthly meeting and went through the Certifi ed Association Executive [CAE] program,” he said. The CAE course was a 12-week class in which he learned about educational and legal issues related to associations and other issues that were new to him, he said.

Brannen was president of GSAE from 1992 to 1993, after serving on a variety of GSAE committees and on the board of directors. Recalling his time on the board of directors, Brannen said, “It was a very hands-on board of directors because we did not have a full-time GSAE staff at the time. We all were willing to offer each other help with GSAE responsi-bilities, and when the nominating committee approached me about becoming president, I accepted.”

One of Brannen’s accomplishments as GSAE president that he is most proud of was ensuring that smaller associations received in-creased access to GSAE programs. “We spent time recognizing the diversity of our mem-bership,” he said. Because of the signifi cant growth in the number of smaller, single-issue, all-volunteer-run associations that joined GSAE during the early ‘90s, Brannen’s goal

was to increase these associations’ access to programs. “We worked with the smaller nonprofi ts to make sure that they did not feel threatened or left out of the process by GSAE,” he explained.

During Brannen’s presidency as well, GSAE went on the road by moving some meetings out of Atlanta, thereby making meetings easier for members of associations located outside of Atlanta to attend, said Brannen. “We are a statewide association, so we need to move meetings outside of Atlanta,” he said. The fi rst GSAE annual meeting held outside of Atlanta was in Savannah, he said, which was just one of the locations where GSAE hosted a meeting during his term.

An important part of Brannen’s involve-ment with GSAE was not just the prepara-tion and knowledge it gave him to do his job within his own association, but also the confi dence it gave him to take on leadership positions in other organizations. His experi-ence as GSAE president taught him a great deal. “My peers asked me to chair the State Association Division of the American Bankers Association, to head up the State Bar Foun-dation and to serve on the board of the state YMCA,” he said. “Without the confi dence and experience that I gained in my leader-ship positions in GSAE, I may not have been offered these positions or accepted them if offered.” ●

Legends:LivingAs a continuation of GSAE’s 90th anniversary celebration, we want to share some of the “lessons learned” from the volunteers who contributed to GSAE’s great success. Through this year-long series, we will spotlight, in their own words, the past leaders of GSAE – our Living Legends.

GSAE Living Legends

C O N N E C T I O N S 25

Carnie Wall, CAEPast president sought challenges in her leadership positions

B Y S H E R Y L S . J A C K S O N

Legends:Living

“USE GSAE TO stretch your talents and challenge yourself” is the advice Carnie Wall, CAE, GSAE president from 1995 to 1996, gives all GSAE members. She is comfortable advocating this goal for GSAE participation because this has been her goal throughout her own membership.

“When I fi rst joined GSAE in 1980, I was so new to association management that I really didn’t know what I was doing,” said Wall. But in a short amount of time, Wall not only learned what she needed to know for her job, but she was also looking for volunteer posi-tions that could give her a chance to learn how to handle responsibilities she did not have in her day-to-day job.

“The committee work that sticks out in my mind as most educational was the staff man-agement committee,” said Wall. “Our job was to evaluate the job performance of the exec-utive director, who was an employee of the management fi rm we used,” she explained. When Wall served on the committee in the early 1990s, part of the evaluation process was trying to decide if the association should move to its own staff or continue with the management company. “During the evalua-tion process, we learned that even though our executive director was only assigned to us part-time, the actual work she did for us was even greater than part-time,” said Wall. Because the committee members recognized the value of both the individual in the execu-tive director position and the benefi ts of re-

sources offered by the management fi rm, they recommended staying with the fi rm at the time.

Wall’s work as president of GSAE actually began during her year as president-elect. “We were at a point where we needed to conduct a thoughtful, comprehensive strategic plan-ning process, so I oversaw this process during my year as president-elect,” Wall said. Having the president-elect handle this responsibility made sense, since the implementation of the plan was scheduled during her year as presi-dent.

Using a market research fi rm to gather information through surveys and interviews, Wall’s committee obtained input from GSAE leaders and members. “Our strategic plan was very ambitious,” she said. The three-year plan identifi ed major objectives broken down into one-year goals. “Our primary purpose was to make sure that all plans for the association were aligned and moved the association in the same direction,” she explained. Alignment is diffi cult when an organization has so many different active committees in place, but a strategic plan clarifi es overall objectives and keeps everyone focused on the same goals, Wall said. The objectives were focused on in-creasing member satisfaction and participa-tion.

In addition to implementing the strategic plan, Wall also coordinated the hiring of GSAE’s fi rst full-time staff member during her tenure. “We thoroughly interviewed the

candidates, and it was a diffi cult choice to make,” she said. “We had great candidates ap-ply for the position.”

Another change that occurred during Wall’s term as president was the revision of the membership category for non-associa-tion members. “We changed the name of sponsor membership to corporate member-ship and gave them privileges that included attending all of our meetings,” she explained. Previously, corporate members could only at-tend certain meetings, but GSAE leadership believed that it was important to open up all meetings to all members because corporate members added value to the meetings and to members’ networking efforts.

Wall is impressed with the improved qual-ity of programming of the GSAE meetings that she has attended over the years of her membership. “More speakers outside the as-sociation world are presenting at meetings and conferences,” she said. “I think it is im-portant that we look outside our own world for ideas that might be helpful to us.” The dif-ferent perspectives from non-association management representatives are a good complement to the real-world experiences shared by fellow GSAE members, she ex-plained.

“I can’t imagine not being a part of GSAE,” said Wall. “This is not a job you can do in isola-tion from others, and GSAE has so many good thinkers that you always have someone you can go to for ideas, support or feedback.” ●

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C O N N E C T I O N S 15

NOT ONLY DID his involvement in Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE) help Da le E. Brown, CAE with his job at the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFF) when he first joined in the early 1990s, but the experience he gained was invaluable when he started a new association, the Financial Services Institute, Inc. (FSI), five years ago.

“Over my time with GSAE, I had an opportunity to be involved in a wide range of activities,” said Brown, president and chief executive offi -cer of FSI. Throughout the years, Brown volunteered for many different committees and positions. “I started on the education committee and continued in several positions up to my board positions.”

Brown said that it was easy to volunteer for GSAE because he knew that his efforts were “helping to make a difference.” He explained, “the great thing about GSAE is that it has never been a complacent or stagnant association. The leaders and members are in constant pursuit of ways to improve the association.”

This focus on continuously improving the organization was demon-strated during his years as president-elect and president from 1999 to 2000. “When I was president-elect, Cy nthia Mills was president, and then we continued to work together as she served her past-president posi-tion while I was president,” he said. During these two years, they worked together to move the GSAE board toward a more strategic focus.

“We were moving from an association management company staff model to our fi rst full-time GSAE staff, so we needed the board to focus on long-term strategic issues rather than day-to-day operations,” Brown explained. “By using an outside facilitator during a series of strategic

In the year 2009, we will continue our “Living Legends” series, which shares some of the “lessons learned” from the volunteers who contributed to GSAE’s great success. Through this series, we will spotlight, in their own words, the past leaders of GSAE – our legends.

GSAE Legends

Living

Involvement in executivesearches gave new insights

Legends:

B Y S H E R Y L S . J A C K S O N

planning sessions, the board was able to concentrate on the job of strate-gic planning and move away from its previous roles,” he said.

GSAE leaders and members have always been willing to “roll up their sleeves” to work for the association, said Brown. “It was a privilege to serve as president, but I’ve continued to work with GSAE in several dif-ferent roles,” he said. As a member or chair of the search committee for recent executive directors, he learned even more about the nuances of association management and the traits that make successful managers. “My participation in the executive searches gave me insight that I use today.”

“GSAE has a rich history and heritage,” said Brown. “The association has been able to build upon its success, but association leaders have also been willing to make tough decisions to ensure future success.”

According to Brown, an example of a tough decision was the evalu-ation of the GSAE Foundation. “For years, the Foundation was an impor-tant fundraising mechanism for the association, but the event-based fundraising approach consumed a lot of staff and volunteer time,” he said. The willingness of GSAE leadership to rethink tactics enabled the associa-tion to restructure the Foundation without sacrifi cing the achievements of past leaders. “To admit that a key part of the organization required restructuring and to be able to do this without abandoning the principles on which the Foundation was organized is admirable,” he said.

Brown encourages people to get involved in GSAE for several reasons. He explained, “The greatest benefi t is the opportunity to be with people who face the same issues you face every day and to develop a close net-work of friends in the industry.” ●

Dale E. Brown, CAE