Eric Lanke

JULY 15, 2019

It's budget time at the association I work for. And what I mean by that is that the budget for our new fiscal year has been approved by our Board of Directors, and now it's time to code all our projected expenses for upload into our accounting system, and to prepare the worksheet by which all our staff members can be sure to submit their expenses to the right codes as their invoices come in throughout the year ahead.

Project 113

Project System Organization Strategy 113

Eric Lanke

JULY 8, 2019

We track our members. We don't use face recognition software, metadata, or complicated algorithms. We use an even more diabolical mechanism. Microsoft Excel. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the sometimes difficult work of maintaining a member participation tracking system in your association. A way of knowing how many and which programs or activities each member is participating in.

System 124

System Conference Software Report 124

Eric Lanke

JUNE 22, 2019

There’s a long subtitle here: “Strategy Deployment and Execution Process for Breakthrough Business Performance.” The book was given to be by the Board chair of the association I work for and, although clearly written for a manufacturing environment, there are some transferable ideas that could benefit those non-profit organizations. X Matrix is the name of the system the author describes in what is obviously a self-published and, unfortunately, typo-riddled treatise.

Examples 113

Examples Discount Process Analysis 113

Eric Lanke

JUNE 17, 2019

There are two kinds of association executives. Those that come from the industry their association represents, and those that come from the field of association management. I am the latter. In my experience, executives that come from the industry their association represents generally know what to do, but have to learn how to do it. And executives that come from the field of association management, generally know how to do things, but have to learn what to do.

Strategy 113

Strategy Association Management Industry How To 113

Eric Lanke

MAY 20, 2019

This week's blog post is partly inspired by this post on Seth Godin's blog. In it, he makes the case that the idea of "reach" is overrated. Why do you care if you can, for more money, reach more people? Why wouldn’t it make more sense to reach the right people instead? I agree entirely. Here's a specific case in point. My association has a website. There's a lot of good content up there, most of it intended for our members.

Newsletter 145

Newsletter Content Technology Industry 145

Eric Lanke

APRIL 27, 2019

Back in 2007 I read Boards That Make a Difference , which lays out the Carver Model of Policy Governance in book form. This series is comprised of twelve short pamphlets, intended to be read by Board members, that explains and accentuates important portions of that overall Model. The association I work for has been using its own adapted form of the Carver Model for a number of years now, so reading this series was a good refresher for me.

West Virginia 113

West Virginia Wisconsin Examples Virginia 113

Eric Lanke

APRIL 22, 2019

I think I've written on this blog before about the Technology Roadmap that my association maintains for the industry we represent. If not, as a quick introduction, our Technology Roadmap describes an industry-wide consensus regarding the pre-competitive research and development needs associated with improving the design, manufacture, and function of fluid power components and systems.

Project 113

Project Technology Industry Resources 113

Eric Lanke

APRIL 15, 2019

I was on the road for much of this past week. I was attending one of my association's major workforce development programs in and around Denver, Colorado, but where I was and what I was doing is not really relevant for the purposes of this post. What is relevant is that I was away from my office, and that while I was away I was able to get a clear picture on several of the issues that have been vexing me of late.

Denver 113

Denver Colorado Course Leadership 113

Eric Lanke

APRIL 8, 2019

Budgets and bandwidth -- two words that have received a lot of attention from me this week. Budgets because I've started sharpening the pencil on next fiscal year's budget for my association, and bandwidth because I've somehow found myself in the middle of four major projects, all hitting at about the same time. And something occurred to me. Money will only go so far.

Cost 133

Cost Resources Project Team 133

Eric Lanke

APRIL 1, 2019

I took a short break this week to do a college visit with my 17-year-old son. He's thinking about studying engineering (or math), and so we've been touring a couple of relevant universities to help him decide where he does and does not want to apply. This past week's visit was to the same university that both my wife and I graduated from, now almost 30 years ago.

Tools 113

Tools Resources 113

Eric Lanke

MARCH 18, 2019

My association sponsors an outreach and education program for eighth graders. We call it the Fluid Power Action Challenge, and we've positioned it as it part of a series of programs to introduce the technology my association represents to young people and then to provide a pathway of activities through high school and college that brings them into careers in our industry.

Wisconsin 113

Wisconsin Course Video Industry 113

Eric Lanke

MARCH 4, 2019

My daughter plays the piano and the violin. She's an eighth-grader now, and every year for the past three years she has tried out for our state's Solo & Ensemble Music Festival, in which school children across the state prepare and perform a piece on their instruments, which is judged by a professional music teacher or instructor. Those judged worthy are then invited to participate in the festival, where they again perform their piece, are judged again, and can win ribbons and trophies.

Milwaukee 113

Milwaukee Committee Video Report 113

Eric Lanke

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

On the day this posts, my association's Board meeting and Annual Conference will be two short weeks away. This has traditionally been my time to enter what I call my "Annual Conference Mode." What does that mean? Well, the simple rule I try to start following is that if it isn't related to pulling off a successful Board meeting and Annual Conference, then it's going to wait until after the conference is over.

Conference 147

Conference Project Report Strategy 147

Eric Lanke

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

This past week brought the Polar Vortex to the Midwest and with it record-breaking temperatures well below zero. In my neck of the woods it was immediately preceded by a massive snowstorm, which dumped up to a foot of snow during what we would normally consider our morning and late afternoon commutes. It was a kind of one-two punch, and it caused me to first rethink and then abandon my association's "office closing" policy.

Milwaukee 113

Milwaukee System Video Project 113

Eric Lanke

JANUARY 28, 2019

As a kind of follow-up to last week's post on the differences between strategy development and strategy deployment (at least in the way that my association's Board are working to define those terms), I had another conversation on the same subject this week with another Board leader, and this one had a decidedly different feel to it. I was talking to this Board leader about a piece of our next meeting agenda that he was going to lead.

Strategy 113

Strategy Review Resources Process 113

Eric Lanke

JANUARY 14, 2019

This post in Associations NOW recently caught my eye, arguing, as it does, for association conferences that span a fewer number of days in recognition of the increasing desire for "work-life balance" among association members. I've got a different take. Don't shorten the number of days that your conference spans. Shorten the amount of time I spend in educational sessions on the days that I am there.

Education 113

Education Conference Project Tools 113

Eric Lanke

JANUARY 7, 2019

Amanda Kaiser on her Smooth the Path blog had a good reminder last month for all us association professionals about the importance of speaking to members in a language they understand. In Association Marketing: They Said/We Said , Kaiser says: "When members talk about the value of their membership they tend to talk about outcomes. But when associations talk about the value of the membership they tend to list benefits.

Marketing 113

Marketing Cost Team Education 113

Eric Lanke

DECEMBER 31, 2018

As we end another year, here's a look back at the five posts on this blog that received the most page views in 2018. 1. Stop Calling It Strategic Planning This has been on every year-end list since it was originally posted in January 2012, and keeps getting a ton of traffic, including as the page through which the highest number of people enter my site.

Guidelines 100

Guidelines Course Team System 100

Eric Lanke

JANUARY 1, 2018

As we end another year, here's a look back at the five posts on this blog that received the most page views in 2017. 1. Stop Calling It Strategic Planning This has been on every year-end list since it was originally posted in January 2012, and keeps getting a ton of traffic, including as the page through which the highest number of people enter my site.

Guidelines 100

Guidelines Course Team Process 100

Eric Lanke

DECEMBER 22, 2018

The subtitle here is “A Personal Guide to Leadership and Career Fulfillment in Association Management.” How it came into my possession I no longer remember, but my copy is signed by the author himself. Sept 25, 2013 Eric - Thought you might find this of interest. Best regards Paul Belford Did I meet Paul somewhere, at one of the many conferences I attend?

Handbook 113

Handbook Leadership Conference Industry 113

Eric Lanke

DECEMBER 10, 2018

My association sponsors an undergraduate education program we call the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. Essentially, it challenges undergraduate engineers to design and build a human-powered vehicle (typically a bicycle, but not always) that uses my industry's technology (i.e., hydraulics) as the method of propulsion. It's awesome. Responding to the distressing lack of fluid power education in our nation's undergraduate mechanical engineering programs, we now have a way to engage students with a h

Innovation 113

Innovation Team System Recruiting 113

Eric Lanke

DECEMBER 3, 2018

I flew in and out of LAX this week. It's not a frequent airport for me -- I can't even remember the last time I was there. But something happened there that I thought was worth blogging about. When I arrived for my return flight home I didn't at first recognize anything as unusual. My Uber driver dropped me off curbside, I got my boarding pass from the automated machine, I found the TSA pre-check line and went through security.

Los Angeles 113

Los Angeles System Conference Leadership 113

Eric Lanke

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

This book was handed to me at a recent WSAE event I attended -- handed to me not by the authors (who were also there) but by the WSAE staff executive, and with a specific request. “Eric, you like to read. Will you please read this book and write a review of it.” “Sure,” I replied. “But only if I can be brutally honest.” The WSAE staff executive’s response?

Innovation 113

Innovation Technology Recruiting Recruitment 113

Eric Lanke

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

Two unconnected things got connected this week in a fun and interesting way. First, at the beginning of the week I was in Texas for another one of the conferences I've been talking about. And as I often do when I travel, I built some extra time into my schedule so that I could go visit one of the members of my association that was in the same general vicinity.

Texas 113

Texas Maine Products Conference 113

Eric Lanke

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

I interviewed a candidate for a position my association is looking to fill this week. I think I've written before about how interviews are one of those places where the values of an organization need to come into play, and my experience this week was a great illustration of why. First a little background. My hiring process has evolved over the past several years -- in part to make sure an assessment of cultural fit became an important part of the process.

Process 113

Process Team Conference Organization 113

Eric Lanke

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Something interesting happened this week. The office building where our association is located had a Halloween door decorating contest. For some of my staff people, Halloween is their favorite holiday so, with my full blessing and support, a small group came together and decorated our office door, intent on bringing home the prize. And they did a great job.

Course 113

Course Team Products 113

Eric Lanke

OCTOBER 29, 2018

I was asked to facilitate one of the breakouts at the last conference I attended. (If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that last week I said I had six more conferences and workshops to attend before the end of the year.) The conference organizer reached out to me, I assume primarily because of my position as the President/CEO of the trade association that represents the technology that would be the focus of the breakout, and asked me to take on this role.

Conference 138

Conference Maine Course Project 138

Eric Lanke

OCTOBER 15, 2018

It worked. There's not much more to say than that. Last week, in Behaviors Are a Necessary Part of Values , I wrote about an upcoming discussion on values at my association's Board meeting. I said then that, in my experience, when it comes to values statements, there is actually something more important than choosing the right top-level words to describe your values.

Proposal 138

Proposal Team 138

Eric Lanke

OCTOBER 1, 2018

I had lunch with a colleague this week and our conversation turned to staff bonus plans. In prefacing my description of the bonus plan I've put in place for the staff at my association, I described it (with a bit of tongue in the cheek) as "needlessly complicated." This, frankly, is based on some feedback I've received from my team. After explaining it to her, however, she said she didn't think it was complicated at all.

Team 113

Team Strategy Organization 113

Eric Lanke

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

Measuring success is hard. Case in point this week was something we call the "up-market capture ratio" in my association's investment policy. Investopedia defines the up-market capture ratio as "the statistical measure of an investment manager's overall performance in up-markets. The up-market capture ratio is used to evaluate how well an investment manager performed relative to an index during periods when that index has risen.

Committee 68

Committee Class Marketing Strategy 68

Eric Lanke

JULY 30, 2018

I was on the road again this past week. As has become my habit, whenever I find myself going somewhere, I check our database to see if there are any members in the area and, if so, I try to reserve some time to go visit them. That worked for one of our most engaged members this week, but on this particular trip there was another kind of opportunity that presented itself.

Recruiting 100

Recruiting Recruitment Leadership Course 100

Eric Lanke

JULY 23, 2018

Four weeks ago, in Step Four: Discussing the Strategic Implications, Part 5 , I continued a description of a Scenario Planning exercise my Board chair and I decided to conduct at our two most recently completed Board meetings. I ended the previous post with a comment that, in the process of defining the external factors that will most dramatically affect the course of our industry, and of identifying the strategies and tactics that our association should employ in order to help those things happ

Strategy 100

Strategy Course Process Resources 100

Eric Lanke

JULY 16, 2018

I had another lesson in the value of networking this past week. A nearby neighbor of mine is looking to make a job change. He reached out to me, not because I had any position to offer him, but to catch-up over a coffee or an after-work drink, and see who I might know who might be a position to help him. I readily agreed. Truth be told, this neighbor and I are not close friends.

Leadership 60

Leadership 60

Eric Lanke

JULY 9, 2018

I've been on vacation this past week, doing my best to disconnect from the day-to-day schedule of my organization and relax with a day-after-day schedule of family fun and leisure activities. It's been great. I think I've written before about my philosophy on vacations -- which is that they are meant to be enjoyed by even the busiest working professional.

Organization 20

Organization Leadership 20

Eric Lanke

JULY 2, 2018

I have to take issue with Amanda Kaiser of the Smooth the Path blog, who said in a recent post that trade associations don't really have organizational memberships. Your key contact member understands that some of their colleagues at their organization can be members. But, most often when they think about the value of the association, they are not thinking about the value to their colleagues, or even the value of the membership to their organization, they are thinking about the value of the memb

Committee 113

Committee Recruiting Recruitment Industry 113

Eric Lanke

JUNE 25, 2018

Three weeks ago, in Step Four: Discussing the Strategic Implications, Part 4 , I continued a description of a Scenario Planning exercise my Board chair and I decided to conduct at our two most recently completed Board meetings. I ended the previous post with a comment that, after making two adjustments to the scripted Scenario Planning process we were using, I would discuss how we decided to frame our discussion of strategic implications at what is now our most recently completed Board meeting.

Review 100

Review Strategy Proposal Industry 100

Eric Lanke

JUNE 18, 2018

I don't know when was the last time I've written about performance evaluations on this blog -- or indeed if I have ever written about performance evaluations on this blog before -- but they've been on my mind this week. With the close of our fiscal year, we're entering performance evaluation season at my organization. I believe in regular feedback, and I'd like to think that my organization engages in it throughout the year, but we still have a once-a-year, formal sit-down conversation where an

Communications 127

Communications Organization Leadership 127