|
Associations are
challenging advertisers and forcing cancellations of
ads:
-
The National
Restaurant Association criticized insurance
company Nationwide on a Super Bowl ad that implied
working in a restaurant was demeaning and unpleasant
(Association Trends 1/26).
-
Another Super Bowl ad
showing two auto mechanics locking lips while eating
the same Snickers bar was withdrawn after complaints
from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (NY Times 2/18).
-
Volkswagen pulled an
ad showing a man considering suicide (until he
learns that VW has cars under $17,000) due to
pressure from the American Psychiatric
Association and the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention (USA Today 2/15).
COMMENT:
Members expect their association to respond when
their interests are attacked or demeaned.
The NAACP president position is open again. “Several
people close to the organization said he [outgoing
President Bruce Gordon] thought the board was too
meddlesome and did not give him the authority he
felt he should have to run the organization.” (NY
Times 3/5). The NAACP has a 64-member governing
board.
MICROMANAGEMENT: Is color
blind.
Long flight delays have generated calls for
passenger rights legislation. A spokesman for the
Air Transport Association says “I don’t think
incidents as isolated as this require mandates on
operational standards. You have to leave these
decisions to the airlines.” (NY Times 2/17)
COMMENT: Right. The airlines will take care
of it.
Nearly 50% of male executives are more likely to
request less travel during job negotiations than 5
years ago according to a study by the Association
of Executive Search Consultants (USA Today
3/6).
COMMENT: Work/life balancing and the negative
flying experience must be having an impact on
meeting and convention attendance.
The percentage of
women employed by associations has grown from 54% in
1980 to 66% in 2005 (Associations Now 1/2007).
|
“All
organizations are perfectly aligned to get the
results they get.”
Arthur W. Jones |
The IRS has asked 40 charity and foundation
employees to pay $20 million in penalties when it
determined that the nonprofit executives had been
paid excessively (NY Times 3/1). The I.R.S.
commissioner in charge of overseeing tax-exempt and
government entities says the agency “needed to do
more in the area of compensation at nonprofits.”
YIKES!: A procedure to base pay on an
analysis of comparable salaries is important.
Netflix, the online movie store, has offered a $1
million prize for whoever comes up with a better
system for predicting and recommending movies a
customer is likely to enjoy (NY Times 1/31).
Richard Branson (Virgin Group) and Al Gore have
announced a $25 million prize for a project that
reduces the planet’s warming gasses (NY Times
2/10).
IDEA: How about a big prize to stimulate
members to come up a product or service innovation
for the association?
Technology marches on….
-
Internet ad sales will increase 26% this year to
$20.3 billion, while magazine ads will be up 4% to
$25 billion (USA Today 2/12). Based on these
numbers, an association with a magazine and a
website should be getting 45% of ad revenue from its
website.
QUESTION: Are you getting your share?
-
A
consultant to the Democratic National Committee
believes that by November 2008, the Internet “will
be the single largest source of revenue for most
presidential campaigns, far out doing direct mail
and other sources.” (Herald-Tribune 3/12) In
2004 Howard Dean raised $30 million online.
QUESTION: What percent of your fundraising is
generated online?
-
Social networking sites on the Internet are growing
like weeds (NY Times 3/3). “Many of these new online
communities cater to niche interests.” Examples
include the Portland Trailblazers, Nike, and the
University of South Carolina. CBS has social
networks for “CSI” and “The Class.”
COMMENT: This is a natural for associations.
-
How are you doing with
webcasts? The Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) produced 60 webcasts last year
that attracted from a few hundred up to 7,000
members (Associations Now 2/2007). Each 60
minute webcast has one sponsor that pays between
$13,000 and $19,000 for advertising.
CHALLENGE: SHRM says finding quality
speakers and sponsors is not easy.
|
“The other thing I would recommend in your
planning cycle where you develop your annual
priorities that you be rigorous about what
your top few priorities are – and that should
be a very short list. And then for every major
priority for the next year, have something
that you are going to stop doing.” (Jim
Collins, Associations Now 11/2006) |
|
