Members Share Open Letter to ASAE for Response to Capitol Attack

Was last week’s insurrection a line in the sand? Some associations spoke out strongly. Some, not as much.

When rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, there was a swift response from many organizations – both domestic and international. But for one association, the response did not seem quick enough for its members.

On Monday, the Spark Consulting blog posted a co-signed open letter to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

The letter calls out ASAE for a lackluster response to the shameful acts on the U.S. Capitol and also called for more action to be done to provide leadership in the face of domestic terrorist acts. The letter reads, in part:

The path to restorative justice is neither easy nor fast and must engage many more members of the association community than the authors and co-signers of this letter.

One concrete action ASAE could take immediately would be to pledge that APAC will not now or in the future contribute to any candidate or incumbent who supported Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the election, whether through signing on to the Supreme Court amicus brief, speaking against election certification on the floor of the House or Senate, or voting against certifying any state’s electoral college votes.

The letter offers ASAE a “concrete action” to take and members of the association community an opportunity to co-sign.

We call on ASAE and our friends and colleagues in the association community to do the hard work of bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

You can read the entirety of the letter here.

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