Cadmium University

Road to Relevance 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations

Introducing the Road to Relevance Webcast Series
You may have read the book. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper into each of the strategies on the Road to Relevance. This five-part webcast series will help your association become more efficient while enhancing member value.

Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE, provide their perspective into how to adapt the strategies of Road to Relevance to your organization's circumstances so that you can execute them.  Using case studies and examples, you will learn about associations that have successfully adopted the strategies, gain insight into how to do the same for yours, and get valuable handouts and worksheets designed to aid you on your journey.

Below you can register for the entire series or choose which modules apply to your needs and interests.

Purchase the Entire Series

  • Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations
    Contains 6 Component(s)

    You may have read the book. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper into each of the strategies on the Road to Relevance. This five-part webcast series will help your association become more efficient while enhancing member value.

    image

    Mary Byers, CAE

    		Based on their book, Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations, and their work with over 1,400 organizations, best selling authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE provide an introduction and overview designed to help you take the conversation about relevance to the next level. You will learn about associations that have successfully adopted the strategies, gain insight into how to do the same for yours, and get valuable handouts and worksheets designed to aid you on your journey.

    image

    Harrison Coerver     		There are five interlocking strategies on the Road to Relevance. Understanding all five—and how they work together—is essential for today's association staff and volunteer leaders. The concepts are simple, yet powerful, and help create a sustainable, efficient, and relevant association. Though each module provides a stand-alone look at one of the five strategies, together they present a road map for staff and volunteers, allowing you to operate more effectively in a highly competitive environment.


    By viewing the series, you'll:

    • Gain insight regarding competition and how it's changing the future of associations
    • Understand the role of “profit" in a not-for-profit environment
    • Learn how business strategies have positively affected other associations
    • Identify strategies designed to help increase your association's value proposition
    • Hear from two of the leading thought leaders in association management
    • Receive complimentary access to the capstone webcast at the end of these five modules

    The Road to Relevance series has been carefully designed to accommodate your busy schedule. Each strategy is covered in a 60-minute program to be watched at your convenience. Each module may be viewed a total of three times at no additional charge so that you can share with staff and your volunteer leaders.

    Mary Byers, CAE

    Author

    Mary Byers, CAE, is co-author of "Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations" and "Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations." She’s the former director of communications and member services for the Illinois State Dental Society and served in that capacity for nine years prior to starting her consulting business in 1998. Mary specializes in working with volunteer association leaders and chief staff executives to help define their roles and clarify their vision through leadership conference programming, facilitating strategic planning retreats and coaching. Mary is a certified association executive and a member of the National Speakers Association. She is also the author of seven books.

    Harrison Coerver

    Author

    Harrison Coerver is President of Harrison Coerver & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in trade associations, professional societies and other tax-exempt membership organizations. Since 1985 Coerver has consulted with over 1,000 associations in strategy, planning, marketing and management. He is known for his group facilitation skills, straightforward style and innovative approaches to association governance and management. He is also a frequent speaker and seminar leader on future trends for associations and professional societies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, a 4,000-member organization serving association professionals in the greater Chicago area.

    		Strategy #1 Build on Strengths
    The Road to Relevance starts with identifying and building on your strengths. This in-depth session takes a look at possible strengths, helps you identify yours and explores how knowing them will lead to focus and clarity in your future financial and human resource decision making. You’ll get a list of questions to help you discover your strengths as well as a matrix to help you match your strengths with opportunity.

    Strategy #2 Concentrate Resources

    Bill Gates attributes his success to the fact that he “focused in on a few things.” This strategy is powerful for your association as you go through the process of deciding where to focus your energy, expertise and financial resources in order to get the biggest return on investment for your members.

    Strategy #3 Integrating Programs and Services

    Are your programs and services the result of a carefully planned portfolio of offerings—or the result of years and years of adding here and there? We bet it’s the latter. If so, this session will help you identify action steps to create better synergy in the future.



    Strategy #4 Aligning People & Processes Efficiently

    Associations are a living example of “we’ve always done it this way.” Unfortunately, in today’s competitive environment, “this way” may actually be making it harder for you to compete effectively. Get a simple template for starting process discussions in your association to break through bottlenecks and obstacles to providing an outstanding value proposition for members.


    Strategy #5 Purposeful Abandonment

    It’s counterintuitive but less really can be more in the association environment. Find out why during this compelling and thought-provoking session created to provide you with advice, tools and questions to stimulate movement to a carefully crafted portfolio of service offerings—one that will help position your association as “must have membership.”

Purchase Individual Modules

  • Road to Relevance: Purposeful Abandonment
    Contains 2 Component(s) Recorded On: 03/24/2014

    Strategy #5 shows you why less really can be more in the association environment.

    Based on their book, Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations, and their work with over 1,400 organizations, best selling authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE provide information designed to help you take the conversation about relevance to the next level.

    Strategy #5: Purposeful Abandonment

    The average association creates value by adding things rather than creating valuable things. Has this been your operating philosophy in the past? If so, this session will teach you a methodical process of identifying what should stay—and what should be eliminated from your portfolio of services. You'll learn how to get buy-in from leadership, how to decide what to eliminate and how to create a compelling vision for staff and leaders in order to make the process easier.

    Mary Byers, CAE

    Author

    Mary Byers, CAE, is co-author of "Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations" and "Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations." She’s the former director of communications and member services for the Illinois State Dental Society and served in that capacity for nine years prior to starting her consulting business in 1998. Mary specializes in working with volunteer association leaders and chief staff executives to help define their roles and clarify their vision through leadership conference programming, facilitating strategic planning retreats and coaching. Mary is a certified association executive and a member of the National Speakers Association. She is also the author of seven books.

    Harrison Coerver

    Author

    Harrison Coerver is President of Harrison Coerver & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in trade associations, professional societies and other tax-exempt membership organizations. Since 1985 Coerver has consulted with over 1,000 associations in strategy, planning, marketing and management. He is known for his group facilitation skills, straightforward style and innovative approaches to association governance and management. He is also a frequent speaker and seminar leader on future trends for associations and professional societies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, a 4,000-member organization serving association professionals in the greater Chicago area.

  • Road to Relevance: Aligning People & Processes Efficiently
    Contains 2 Component(s) Recorded On: 03/17/2014

    Strategy #4 shows you a simple template for starting process discussions in your association in order to break through bottlenecks, road blocks and obstacles to providing an outstanding value proposition for members.

    Based on their book, Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations, and their work with over 1,400 organizations, best selling authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE provide information designed to help you take the conversation about relevance to the next level.

    Strategy #4 Aligning People & Processes Efficiently

    To be competitive, an association cannot afford to be inefficient. It cannot misuse or squander resources in ways that don't add value. Like elite athletes, associations are going to have to be in top shape and perform with maximum efficiency to ensure success and relevancy in the future. How can you do this? Learn about “value stream mapping" and how it leads to increases in productivity and efficiency and possible cost-savings for your association. Hear case studies of associations that have increased their turn-around time for members and saved as much at $250,000 as a result of process alignment.

    Mary Byers, CAE

    Author

    Mary Byers, CAE, is co-author of "Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations" and "Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations." She’s the former director of communications and member services for the Illinois State Dental Society and served in that capacity for nine years prior to starting her consulting business in 1998. Mary specializes in working with volunteer association leaders and chief staff executives to help define their roles and clarify their vision through leadership conference programming, facilitating strategic planning retreats and coaching. Mary is a certified association executive and a member of the National Speakers Association. She is also the author of seven books.

    Harrison Coerver

    Author

    Harrison Coerver is President of Harrison Coerver & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in trade associations, professional societies and other tax-exempt membership organizations. Since 1985 Coerver has consulted with over 1,000 associations in strategy, planning, marketing and management. He is known for his group facilitation skills, straightforward style and innovative approaches to association governance and management. He is also a frequent speaker and seminar leader on future trends for associations and professional societies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, a 4,000-member organization serving association professionals in the greater Chicago area.

  • Road to Relevance: Integrating Programs & Services
    Contains 2 Component(s) Recorded On: 03/10/2014

    Strategy #3 asks whether your programs and services are the result of a carefully planned portfolio of offerings—or the result of years and years of adding here and there. We bet it’s the latter. If so, this session will help you identify action steps to create better synergy in the future.

    Based on their book, Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations, and their work with over 1,400 organizations, best selling authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE provide information designed to help you take the conversation about relevance to the next level.

    Strategy #3: Integrating Programs & Services

    Few associations have a cohesive, well-thought out mix of programs and services that are purposefully integrated and that complement and reinforce each other. Scarce is the association with a menu of products and services that takes advantage of synergy. But lack of synergy means more difficulty in marketing programs and services and less traction when it comes to being the “go to" resource in your industry or profession. This session will help you understand “fit," recognize the value of suites of services, and get ideas regarding what to do with programs that don't fit. This session includes a handout designed to help you figure out “fit" for your programs and services and to identify the “orphans" that don't fit.

    Mary Byers, CAE

    Author

    Mary Byers, CAE, is co-author of "Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations" and "Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations." She’s the former director of communications and member services for the Illinois State Dental Society and served in that capacity for nine years prior to starting her consulting business in 1998. Mary specializes in working with volunteer association leaders and chief staff executives to help define their roles and clarify their vision through leadership conference programming, facilitating strategic planning retreats and coaching. Mary is a certified association executive and a member of the National Speakers Association. She is also the author of seven books.

    Harrison Coerver

    Author

    Harrison Coerver is President of Harrison Coerver & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in trade associations, professional societies and other tax-exempt membership organizations. Since 1985 Coerver has consulted with over 1,000 associations in strategy, planning, marketing and management. He is known for his group facilitation skills, straightforward style and innovative approaches to association governance and management. He is also a frequent speaker and seminar leader on future trends for associations and professional societies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, a 4,000-member organization serving association professionals in the greater Chicago area.

  • Road to Relevance: Build on Strengths
    Contains 2 Component(s) Recorded On: 02/24/2014

    Strategy #1 in the five-part Road to Relevance series starts with identifying and building on your strengths.

    Based on their book, Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations, and their work with over 1,400 organizations, best selling authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE provide an introduction and overview designed to help you take the conversation about relevance to the next level.

    Strategy #1 Build on Strengths

    What are your strengths? You need to understand them in order to build on them. This in-depth session takes a look at possible strengths, helps you identify yours and explores how knowing them will lead to focus and clarity in your future financial and human resource decision making. You'll get a list of questions to help you discover your strengths as well as a matrix to help you match your strengths with opportunity.

    Mary Byers, CAE

    Author

    Mary Byers, CAE, is co-author of "Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations" and "Road to Relevance: 5 Strategies for Competitive Associations." She’s the former director of communications and member services for the Illinois State Dental Society and served in that capacity for nine years prior to starting her consulting business in 1998. Mary specializes in working with volunteer association leaders and chief staff executives to help define their roles and clarify their vision through leadership conference programming, facilitating strategic planning retreats and coaching. Mary is a certified association executive and a member of the National Speakers Association. She is also the author of seven books.

    Harrison Coerver

    Author

    Harrison Coerver is President of Harrison Coerver & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in trade associations, professional societies and other tax-exempt membership organizations. Since 1985 Coerver has consulted with over 1,000 associations in strategy, planning, marketing and management. He is known for his group facilitation skills, straightforward style and innovative approaches to association governance and management. He is also a frequent speaker and seminar leader on future trends for associations and professional societies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, a 4,000-member organization serving association professionals in the greater Chicago area.