Marie Middleton was having a bad morning. Not only had she lost an account with PetSmart to sell her Purrfect Pants for Cats, but it seemed her volunteer leadership role was spiraling out of control. 

Bradley Hughes is the Chief Financial Officer at SOAP. He has served in this role for 3 years and receives consistently positive reviews. The staff feel he is approachable despite his sometimes awkward social skills. As an introvert, it can be difficult for Bradley to express himself, especially in pressured situations.

Anastasia Anderson, SOAP’s Chief Staff Executive (CSE), hung up the phone and sighed deeply. Her ear actually ached from all the screaming that Max Mayhem did during their conversation which had lasted for over 20 minutes. This was typical behavior for Max, always screaming that he was wronged in one or another. Despite being on the Board of Directors he does not think that any rules apply to him.

After recovering from his hangover the next day, Max Mayhem started scrolling through his email and texts. He was surprised that so many people asked how he was doing or feeling “after last night.” Although he couldn’t remember much, he did recall having fun and he thought everyone else did too.

Episode 1: The Friendly Board Member

Douglas “Dougie” Fitzsimmons is a long-time member of the Societal Organization Advancing Pants (SOAP). The association represents makers and sellers of pants of all kinds. Their membership includes individuals who make men’s pants, women’s pants, and pants for pets.

Navigating a decade referred to as the “Turbulent Twenties” presents multiple challenges. In an era of rapidly changing social, economic, and political tides, keeping your footing as you lead a Chamber of Commerce – or any organization – seems overwhelming on the best days and impossible on the worst days. 

Author’s note: I’m on the road this week speaking at a conference. The world is seeing a lot of tension so I thought this would be good food for thought. It’s a great follow up to my January 23, 2026 article, “The Imposition of Will.”

We are well into January and there is so much to discuss! At least we won’t be at a loss for ideas for the blog this year. Like a kid in a candy store, there are so many ideas to choose from it’s hard for me to decide. Since I have to pick one for this week, my first blog article of 2026, I am going to write about an interesting conversation in one of the networking groups I belong to – the topic is MISSION.

I am very proud of earning the Leadership Professional in Ethics and Compliance (LPEC) certification. Ethics are important to me personally as well as professionally, so pursuing this certification made sense. It is also outside of the nonprofit management area which pushed me to do something different.

As associations and other nonprofits face uncertainty in an era of rapid change, it is a reminder to all of us that we need to approach our work and our communities differently. What used to work, or “the way we’ve always done it,” is not a plan for today or tomorrow. 

The trend continues across the world: don’t actually offer support when members or customers need it. Don’t actually talk to anyone or solve the problem for them or at least figure out why there is a problem. Put up walls, don’t offer support, and make the member or customer do it all themselves. After all, isn’t that why we have all this online technology?

A few days ago, I shared this post on my LinkedIn account: 

“Earlier today I saw yet another post from an association management professional stating, ‘it's so hard to explain what we do.’ This is another one of those tired pieces of conventional wisdom that just isn't so. It's very easy to explain what we do: As nonprofit management professionals, we practice a management subspecialty focusing on 501c organizations. We are experienced professionals supporting organizations that make the world a better place through service to members and society. If you are trying to explain your daily tasks to someone, you are not answering their question.”

Earlier this week, those of us in the association community were taken by surprise when KiKi L’Italien announced she was turning off her mic. After 16 years of evolving and leading Association Chat, her studio is now dark. I have to say I was surprised but . . . not surprised.

Generally, I have taken the position that association boards should be smaller. When I say smaller, I think in the range of 7 to 10 members at the most. I know that some associations out there have really big boards, ranging anywhere from 30 to several hundred.

Ethics is a topic that defines who we are as individuals. Ethical decision making can seem daunting, no matter how evolved you are, but if you are prepared in advance, you will be able to make the best choices that support the most people affected by the decision.

It’s that time of year: Awards Season! Organizations, especially Associations, love to single out certain people to receive special and unique recognition. Only certain people seem to get these awards and it’s hard to figure out the why and the how of the decision process. In the association community, it seems there is one person each year that gets all the “big” awards from several groups. I often wonder why different people don’t get these awards; why does it tend to be the same person?

Associations are focusing on artificial intelligence (A.I.) very seriously. There are many questions about it: should we use it? How do we use it? Which tools should we choose if we go with A.I.? Will it replace staff or enhance staff? If we do use it, will our content be “stolen” by the online algorithms that have cute names but no souls?

We all have those times when we stare off into space, daydreaming about one thing or another. Since I do so much CAE education, I often find myself thinking, “It would be great if the CAE program was like this . . . or offered that . . . or was better respected.”

I belong to several networking groups and we discuss a variety of topics from board performance to member engagement to operations and everything else that makes associations work.

As many of us do, I read LinkedIn at least once per day – if not twice. When I was looking at the newsfeed on Wednesday this week, I saw an announcement that an association executive was heading into their third Chief Staff Executive (CSE) position. This person left their second role under something of a cloud but was able to secure another top-staff person position rather quickly.