Association Transformation

192 Episodes

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A Better Strategic Planning RFP: What Nearly 200 RFPs Teach Us

2026-11-0323:53

Send us Fan Mail Mike Burns, Co-Founder and CEO of StratSimple, and I went through almost 200 strategic planning RFPs for a white paper we wrote together. As a fellow strategic planning nerd, he joins me to talk about what we found: RFPs that prescribe a five-year plan before anyone has done the listening, no budget or range, and very little about what happens once the plan is approved. We get into why so many plans end up on a shelf, how many survey responses you really need, and how long a ...

Building the 'Wow' Event Experience: Planning a 200,000 Attendee Event

2026-10-2723:24

Send us Fan Mail Attendees are registering later, booking hotels last minute and still expecting to be wowed. John Bailey, CEM, Director, Shows & Exhibits at the National Rifle Association, joins me to talk about planning events at a scale most of us never see. His team runs the Great American Outdoor Show, a nine-day consumer hunting and fishing show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that draws more than 200,000 people, plus an annual meeting and exhibits that moves to a new city every spring...

The Association Behind Team USA: How USA Fencing Grew by Listening to Its Members

2026-10-2129:01

Send us Fan Mail Did you know Olympic sports are run by associations? When you watch Olympic fencing, you're seeing an association at work. National governing bodies like USA Fencing are 501(c)(3) membership organizations, and they deal with a lot of the same things your association does: limited staff, member dues, pricey events, board composition and finding new members. Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing, joins me to talk about how fencing became the fastest-growing sport in the Olympic and...

'Tis the Enrollment Season: Insurance Options for Associations of All Sizes

2026-10-0739:05

Send us Fan Mail Renewal letters are landing, and the numbers aren't pretty. Brian Haney, CAE, SVP and Association & Non-Profit Specialist at Relation Insurance Services, joins me to talk through health insurance for associations, especially small-staff shops trying to build a 2027 budget. Brian's first message: you probably have more options than you think. They won't all be cheap, but they're there. We get into what those options are, why the state where you're headquartered decides yo...

Your board says "we should go global." Now what?

2026-09-1530:42

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 178 of Association Transformation, Elisa sits down with Brian Weiss (SVP of Society Programs at the American Chemical Society, with PMI, RMA, AMA, and NCMA behind him) for the globalization conversation most associations skip straight past. A few of the highlights: 🌍 Do the non-business case before the business case. Why is the board really asking? You can't meet an expectation nobody's named. 🌍 Your readiness assessment isn't a go/no-go. It's the calibration tool ...

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