What if GenX Leaves Your Association Workforce and Membership?

I got an e-mail this past week from an old friend of mine from high school (a fellow GenXer). She mentioned to me that she and her husband are thinking of leaving corporate America and starting a business of their own—they just aren’t getting anywhere at work and it’s taking a toll on them and their children. It reminded me of an blog entry by Tammy Erickson that I read a long time ago .

It seems like Gen X is the outsider, the overlooked one. When I got to conferences, read articles, etc. Most everything is on Boomers or Gen Y.

Gen Y is the tech savvy one and Boomers are the wise ones and Gen X? I feel like we are the forgotten ones. It’s probably because, compared to the other two, Gen X is smaller. Plus Gen Y and Boomers get along better (at least if any of the sessions I attended at the last few ASAE conferences are right–you know, the ones that talk about generations and usually only barely mention GenX).

What’s really frustrating for me (and I think for a lot of Gen X) is that most of us are in our 30s and some are even hitting their 40s. We entered the workforce at a rough time economically. Remember getting out of college and no one wanted anyone unless they already had experience but you couldn’t get any experience because no one would hire you? It was hard to get your foot in the door—you had to work at it. Now, as most of us are looking to senior positions, the a bad economy hits again we are back to those “post college days” of not being able to get in because the Boomers can’t retire.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not mad at Boomers. I bet a lot of Boomers took a big punch in the retirement reserves with the bad market—they have no choice but to hang on. Plus, quite a few of them simply love their careers that they worked so hard for. It wouldn’t be fair to expect them to just step aside/hand over the keys after all they did. But this isn’t really about them.

For Gen X, our aging and not moving forward/up in the workplace combined with the closeness of Boomer and Gen Y (or as that Tammy Erickson puts it in her blog “a love fest” where Gen X isn’t feeling the love) makes one think that we are stuck.

I’ve been reading articles all weekend about how Gen Xers are simply dropping out of the general workplace culture and going it alone. Hey, we were the latchkey kid generation—we are used to taking care of ourselves right? I have to admit, I’ve thought of it to. Right now I am happy at my newest job and my own business is off the radar, but in the past, I considered striking out on my own. It has an appeal to it.

So what’s my point? Who cares? Let Gen X start their own businesses right? The Boomers and Y don’t need us. That’s true… for now.

Eventually Boomers will retire. And while Gen Y is preparing itself to move up, I don’t think they have the numbers to totally replace all the Boomers. Plus, while Gen Y might be very knowledgeable, by virtue of their age alone, they don’t have the experience (at least not in the near future).

Where this phenomena should concern non-profits is that they are not immune from this. And, as I said, eventually those Boomers will retire. Gen Y might be able to step in–in some cases they already are moving into middle management. But right now Gen Xers make up most of the middle management. What happens when you lose that whole level of experience? What happens when the Boomers leave and there isn’t a seasoned mid level management group to step up? Will there be a void? What can non-profits do (aside from title inflation) to hold on to their Gen Xers while still being fair to Gen Y and honoring all that the Boomers have done?

And that’s not all. If you have a professional society, how will this affect your membership? You numbers might go up as more GenXers enter the world of consulting. But it might also go down. People on their own, starting a business don’t have the budgets for membership, attending meetings, etc. that people working for a larger organizations have. They might drop out of your association “just for a while” until they get on their feet. But what if they decide they don’t really miss you after they’ve been gone? Now add that to all the concern surround the graying of your membership and the possibility of Boomers leaving your association as they retire. I never hear people talk about what if GenX leaves the membership before the Boomers do.

Maybe I am being alarmist. But what I read in that old blog entry really strikes a chord with me, especially in light of my friend’s news.

Reactive Social Media Plan: Is It the Way to Go?

So yesterday I spend almost the entire workday reading and thinking about how to make a social media plan for my association. It was a tough nut to crack because just about everything I can find out there (meaning in the great big internet) was about how to design a social media for your members (or customers).

To put it bluntly, our members don’t care about social media as a form of communication with each other or with the association. Maybe it’s because we are so small (33 members and three staff) That blogging to each other seems kind of over the top. These folks tend to just e-mail each other and it seems to work for them. It’s a close, personal network. Twitter might be something of interest (since our members are always on the road), but then again there isn’t a whole lot to Tweet about other than at our conference.  But no matter how I slice it or think about it, I just can’t see our members being the audience for any social media efforts (at least at this time).

I thought about maybe using social media to contact our member’s customers. But that can be a minefield of antitrust issues not to mention the question of how the association would maintain its neutrality. We don’t want to get in the middle of our members competing with each other for customers.

After spending a few hours trying to figure out how to use social media to involve our members (envision me beating myself in the head with the “square peg”). It dawned on me that the general public might be a good audience.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the products our members produce and a lot of people seem to like to talk about that (I read it in blogs, message boards, and website comments a lot).For example, there is a misconception that foodservice packaging is “clogging our landfills.” That’s not true. According to the same people who do the municiple solid waste facts and figures survey for the EPA,  foodservice packaging is part (1.3%) of municipal solid waste (which makes up only 20% of the waste stream). So we are talking about 1.3% of 20%. The problem is, people “see” foodservice packing more than other sorts of waste so it seems like more.

Do you see where I am going? This is the type of information that needs to make its way into the grand social media networks. But the quest then becomes, how?

I have a sneaking suspicion if I were to start a blog or a Facebook page and start posting this information that it won’t get much attention from the general public. People who are concerned about the environment (using my above example) probably aren’t going to go to a foodservice packaging blog. They are going to go look for social media groups that share their interests. 

And this is where my reactive plan comes into effect. Instead of making a blog and maintaining it, starting a wiki, starting a message board or sending out Tweets… how about if I watch what other people are talking about and respond. When that blog post on TreeHugger pops up and says “polystyrene can’t be recycled” I can bust that myth. Or when a group starts a grassroots campaign to require businesses to use bio-based foams for their hot drinks, I can point out that while bio-based foam can be made, it has a low melting point and wouldn’t hold a cup of coffee. Or whena wiki article says that restaurant’s paper products mean the destruction of “old growth” forests, I can correct the wiki entry and point out that foodservice packing materials are made from wood gathered from “tree farms” that are grown specifically for paper and are harvested and regrown like a field of corn.

I still have a lot of work to do on this plan. And so far it isn’t much more than responding to blogs, articles, and forums and writing for Wikipedia. I figure first I will have to pinpoint the popular, influential social media outlets that might be of concern for the foodservice packaging industry and start monitoring them. I am not sure how many should be on this list though (I am only one person, so I have to keep it reasonable to manage).  I also have define what the message and audience will be—or at least a few core messages. I will also need to figure out what my metrics will be and set some long-term goals.

I hope I am on the right track with a reactive plan to start. It seems to fit the need now and for the immediate future. If anyone has any thoughts, I’d be happy to listen.

Really Old (but Cool) Stuff

Really old Dixie Cups in even older Dixie Cup dispenser.

In a couple of months, my association is moving. We aren’t going very far, basically just across the street and up a block. But every time I think about moving, I look at all the stuff around the office. Some of it is really old stuff too.

Some of it is cool old stuff. The absolute coolest are the 80 year-old Dixie Cups in 100 year-old Dixie Cup dispensers sitting in the conference room. We also have conference agendas and programs from the 1950s. But we also have a lot of it is “why did we keep this?” stuff such as letterhead from the association’s previous address from 10-years ago,  a whole slew of printed material with our old branding on it and among the old rubber stamps that say “confidential” and “first class” is one that reads “Should I feel guilty?”

We have a record retention policy, but not an old office supply retention policy.

My old association had a display case full of old equipment from the profession. I really got a kick out of checking out when a new item came in. But that display was built and maintained on purpose and they weren’t so big on keeping old office supplies.

There is something fun about the old treasures that crop up that were never intended to be such (then again, I am a bit of a history buff/museum liker). It’s like office association archeology. Even things such as old logos, old letterhead, and office gadgets that have a mysterious function as far as I can tell a lot about an association and where it came from and can add some interesting perspective on where things might go. It makes me wonder how many other association offices are out there full of interesting little odds and ends from the organization’s history.

Wikipedia Smickapedia

This week Wikipedia came to bother me. “All” associations should have a presence in Wikipedia, right? Aren’t we told that at conferences and in publications? Isn’t it “common knowledge” among the social media savvy? (Who knows, maybe it out of vogue now, it’s been a few months since I attended a conference). It’s on my “to do” list: write Wikipedia entry on FPI.

But this week, when I started to think about how I would write up my association’s wiki entry, I started to wonder, “why?” What’s the big deal? Does anyone really care if my association is in Wikipedia? Who looks at Wikipeida and searches for an association? Wouldn’t you want members and potential to just go to your website? Are they really going to search for you in Wikipeida and not Google or some other search engine? The media isn’t (shouldn’t use it) to find info on you—after all, it’s really not considered credible by many. What really is the point? Is it to show off a meaningless trophy entry?

It got me thinking that a Wikipedia entry on every association is pretty much just a waste of time (it’s not a one size fits all).

That’s not to say your association shouldn’t look at Wikipedia. I’ve been mulling around the idea of writing a Wikipedia entry on foodservice packaging in general: Why we use it, why we need it, the history behind it, etc. Stuff your average Joe or Josephine on the street might be interested in (if they are the tea drinker sort who is interested in historical odds and ends). 

I guess in a way it will serve to promote the products our members make and I will link back to my association’s website (since that’s where I will get some of my reference sources). But that’s not the goal and I won’t be writing a “marketing piece.” I intend to write mainly a history of the industry and possible future so as not to bias the article. If others want to come along and add why a certain product is good or bad, better or worse than another, etc… so be it. I will only monitor and step in to fix factual errors or add the “other side” of the story if someone puts things in an overly negative light (this happens a lot in an industry that is often demonized). In other words, I will plant the seed, let it grow, and see if I get a flower or a wilted failure—only stepping in to weed prune every now and then.

Tea Drinker in a Coffee Word

Some of you may have noticed that I fell into a pretty deep blogging slump. I could list a host of reasons why, but the truth is I started finding it hard to think of “CAE” things to write about.

I really don’t deal with a lot of the issues I learned about when studying for the exam on a day-to-day basis. The closest I got was when I was asked about reserves and how much I think we should have. My next experience will be working with auditors later this month (I am actually looking forward to it because it’s new to me. Then again, I kind of enjoy putting my federal taxes together too.)

And that brings me to this blog entry. My blogging problem has been my narrow scope: CAE. So I expanded it. Instead of “musings of a new CAE” the subtitle and focus is “a tea drinker in a coffee world.”

What does that mean? Put simply, I tend to think and act a little different from the mainstream—but only slightly so (such as preferring tea in a business culture that bows to the cult of coffee). I tend to be just a little out of step and I am going to share that. This different outlook on things allows me to think outside the box and brainstorm really easily. It gives me an outsider’s perspective—but not so much so that I can’t blend in and go back to thinking “in the box” if needed. The downside is, sometimes I can come up with too many ideas (and it can be hard for me to rein them in).

So this blog won’t simple be on CAE information, it will be on my general observations and unbridled ideas. Most will be on associations and association management, but I will talk about other (related) things as well.  Some of my ideas will be “off the wall” by conventional standards and most will be just a little different than the norm. But that’s what you get from a tea drinker.

So for my first new topic: Wikipedia Smickapedia.

Change I Can Believe In (Or Not)

I have an interesting internal dilemma. I’ve worked at my current association for two months: a fair amount of time to pick up the basics. The position I hold is new to me and has proved to be a great learning experience (it encompasses quite a few projects with which I have no prior experience). But the mixed message I have floating around in my head about what I should be doing or not doing is bugging me: should I be making changes and doing things a new way or work on learning the the old way first for a better understanding?

Rewind to a few months ago, during the interview for this position, I was asked about changing things and what my attitude was on it. I explained that it’s been my experience that just about everything can be improved. But I also mentioned this should be tempered with common sense and things should not be changed purely for the sake of it or because it’s the latest trend.

I still think this.

Some of the worst decisions I’ve seen in my professional career were due to someone new coming in, guns blazing, wanting to change everything for the sake of it. In fairness, I’ve seen a lot of good from a new person coming in and making hard changes, but that seems to be the exception. 

Now come back to the present day. I feel a little conflicted.  At heart, I am an idea/brainstorming person and I feel like I should be making improvements, making suggestions, etc. The vice president often smiles at me and says, “if you can think of any way to improve this, let me know.” She must say this a few times a week—which makes me think maybe she really wants me to change things too.

But then, I come back to the fact that most of what I do is so new to me that I am still learning it (let alone thinking of ways to improve it). Instead of making suggestions for change, I find myself working on the same projects the same way they’ve always been done—since before I’ve been here with two, minor exceptions:

• I redesigned the bi-monthly newsletter to make it more reader friendly (members seem to like it).
• I plan on changing the way the association contacts industry magazines in regards to articles. (I plan to call the editors in addition to sending our association’s press kit).

Am I doing too much? Not enough? I don’t know. I think about it every day and debate it in my head.  It’s almost a thought versus feeling debate I am going though and I am not sure if I should believe the “change” feeling or the “wait” thinking .

New Blog On Association Leadership That You Really Shouldn’t Miss

I am pretty excited that the executive director of my previous association, Steven Davis, CAE, now has a leadership blog.

Steven is a really cool guy and a great leader himself. He was inspiring to work under and is a true association professional. I would have to say his influence is one of the reasons I decided to pursue the CAE. I picked his ear a few times when studying. His knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication made me feel at home in my first association position. And there was always a sense that he put the association, members and staff first—before himself. He was beloved by the staff and members when I worked with him (and from my contacts back at my previous association, I know he still is).

It’s also worth noting (because I know Steven will never mention this himself) that he’s a true hero—he personally saved two lives. saved When Steven was in the Navy, in Vietnam, he saved two young girls from drowning off a beach in Danang and was awarded the Navy Marine Corps Medal for heroism for that.

After the war, Steven went to work for associations and has been in the association sphere ever since. He has a lot of great experiences and insight to share and I am looking forward to reading his growing blog. I encourage you to stop by Steven’s blog and say hello to him—he’s a leader you really want to know.

Bad Press Is Driving Me Crazy

I’ve been at my current association for a few weeks now and mostly I’ve been learning new things: new procedures, new responsibilities, and a whole new (for me) industry. But now, as I start to get comfortable with the day-to-day,  I am starting to feel the need to be a little more proactive when it comes to the media because the bad press is driving me crazy. The industry represented by our members is one of those where the media tends to see the boogiemen and not the good that the industry does (or how the industry is necessary in today’s modern world). This industry is single use foodservice packaging (AKA your to-go coffee cup, delivery pizza box, the salad container you fill  at the grocery store, etc).

Most of the bad press centers around environmental issues. But many of these materials are recyclable, compostable and even biodegradable in some cases. They actually use little landfill space too (less that 1.2 percent) and have less of a carbon footprint than multi-use products like china plates or glass cups (you need energy to clean them… not to mentioned detergents and disinfectants that make it into the environment). If you look at it, reusable vs. single use is kind of a wash when it comes to environmental issues.  Plus single use stuff is generally cleaner. A 2002 study in Las Vegas found 18 percent of reusable items tested had higher than acceptable bacterial counts—there is a reason hospitals use single-use products after all.

But despite all the good things, my members products still get bad press and people tend to think of them as environmentally unfriendly and an unnecessary luxury. Some cities are hoping to ban some of the materials. In a way, it bemuses me to see Toronto try to ban paper cups as “bad” in favor of styrene and California to ban styrene in favor of paper for the same reasons. These products all have their uses and are needed, none of them are “evil” they are just tools we use. And while the environmentally concerned might feel that it’s a good idea to ban single-use packaging, the truth is we really can’t do without it in today’s society (there is convenience, but also cleanliness to consider). 

I should add that one material gets good press–the bioplastics (plant-based products that biodegrade). Everyone wants to write about it (well, everyone I have an editorial calendar for at least). So that’s encouraging.

Anyway, I feel a need to combat this negative press but I don’t even know where to start (with no budget of course). I am hoping the internet may provide a few answers. But it seems to me this industry could use a little facelift. But even as a communications manager I am not free to even respond to the bad press (I read an article last week that falsely said single-use foodservice packaging contained BPA. I wanted to jump on it but I am still waiting for approval. Sure I can still respond to the article, but it’s a little late now).

I just need to figure out what I can do and how. Or could it be that I am just getting ahead of myself?

I’m a Blog Slacker

Oh, I’ve been such a blog slacker the past few weeks and I think the holidays coming up won’t improve things much. I really need to make sure I set aside time to write more often. Not just while I am trying not to burn dinner (AKA writing while cooking).

I am still adjusting to working at my new association—but it’s been great so far. I had to learn PageMaker again (haven’t used it in about 10 years) and learn how to use iMIS and Excel as well–all great new things to learn. Right now I am the entire publications crew: writing, editing, layout and design and publishing. It’s pretty cool. I am also starting to tackle some of the member questions without having to turn to someone else all the time. I imagine that’s nice for others and not just me.

I still have quite a bit to learn however and sometimes it almost feels overwhelming. But I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life (due to being a military spouse for many years) and they all start out like this and only get easier over time.

I wish I had something interesting and more prophetic to write other than, “The job’s going great and I am still learning a lot.” But that pretty much sums things up.

Week One at My New Association

I haven’t been blogging as much because my new position at a new (for me) association has kept me pretty busy. I come home at night feeling mentally exhausted from all the new stuff I am learning. It will only be a matter of time before everything that I am learning now will be second nature to me though–so I am not worried about that.

It’s a change going from a professional association to a trade association. I find myself extra sensitive to antitrust issues. For example, when I was writing a short blurb on one of our member’s quarterly earnings (they are a publicly traded company so they send out press releases on their earnings) I relied heavily on my ASAE books and the Associapedia wiki for guidance.

Another thing I noticed is that the members don’t call or contact us as much as I am used to. The office is kind of quite. I guess that’s the difference between a 10,600 member organization and a 29 member organization (I met just about every member personally at the annual business meeting a few weeks ago).

In short, the members are great, the staff is wonderful, I am learning a whole set of new skills and a whole new industry (to me anyway), and I finally have an office with a window… who could ask for more.