More than 35 CEOs, senior staff members, and industry partners convened in Charlottesville for this year’s VSAE CEO & Senior Staff Retreat—an intimate, high-engagement program designed to give leaders space to think strategically, share openly, and learn from one another. Held at The Draftsman, Autograph Collection, the retreat brought together association executives from a wide range of sectors including construction, finance, regulatory affairs, banking, architecture, and more, underscoring the breadth and strength of Virginia’s association community.

Three Next Practices for Next-Level Association Boards

By Jeff De Cagna AIMP DAIG FRSA FASAE

What will it take to move your association’s board to the next level of performance?

On June 4, association professionals and industry partners gathered in Richmond for VSAE’s first-ever AI Summit. We touched on tools and tech, but the bigger focus was on the strategic questions association leaders need to be asking right now—around policy, legal risks, data management, and workforce readiness. 

What stood out to me was the shared sense that we’re all walking an AI high wire—trying to strike the right balance between setting up structure and guardrails, while also staying curious and moving forward, even if we don’t have it all figured out yet.

What drew you to the association industry?

A $5 per hour paid internship at the VSCPA!

VSAE is partnering with SAEs across the country on a compensation benchmarking platform designed exclusively for executives of professional, trade, and service-centric associations/nonprofits. Our goal is to provide valuable data to help you in maximizing your budget when making hiring and personnel decisions while keeping your organization competitive. The platform’s value increases as more organizations participate (i.e. more data = better results!). 

In addition to compensation and salary information, this platform also gathers data on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, such as gender and racial identity of employees; hiring practices; DE&I policies; and more. All organizations inputting data by March 31 will receive a DE&I Industry Snapshot Report at no cost.  

While an annual subscription is required to generate benchmarking reports, data entry is free and all information will remain anonymous. 

Things will get better. Just keep saying that. And when we come out on the other side of the pandemic, we will face a world far different than the one we left behind.

The past year has brought new meaning to “working from home”. It has challenged personal and professional relationships, while also helping us appreciate and in many ways re-discover the simple pleasures in life. We have cooked more, watched TV more, (thank goodness for streaming!), experienced more time outdoors, and spent more time with our pets (or got a pet for those who did not previously have one).

On November 2, the VSAE Board of Directors met to review the 2020-2022 Strategic Plan in response to the unprecedented events of 2020. The event was facilitated by Dave Phillips, founder of Phillips Leadership and Consulting and a past president of VSAE.

The current strategic plan was adopted in September 2019 and focuses on three strategic areas: engaging members, developing leaders and serving the association community. The Board affirmed these three strategic areas while also addressing how to build upon them.