As I continue my recovery from a broken leg, the bone is healed. It’s all the other moving parts that still need to recover and strengthen – the tendons and ligaments that hold the knee joint together as well as the underused muscles that weakened due to 2 months of bedrest.

As regular readers of this newsletter, our blog, or my LinkedIn newsfeed know, I broke my leg in May and am continuing a lengthy recovery process. Getting around is still challenging as I cannot put a lot of weight on my leg yet. The bone is healed – the rest is rebuilding muscle strength.

I joined the nonprofit management profession in 1988 with my first Washington, DC job at the US Chamber of Commerce. As my career evolved and my next job took me to a professional society for corporate attorneys, my eyes were opened to the fact that this is a defined and unique profession.

Climate change is on everyone’s mind – at least if they are paying attention – because we are seeing a lot of things change very quickly. Storms are more intense. Temperatures are more extreme. The physical environment is being impacted. Some scientists report that it is changing faster than ever seen in recorded history.

This week’s message is based on my response to a discussion in the ASAE Collaborate Consultants community posted the week of July 15, 2024. The initial post by one of my colleagues addressed the issue of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) removing the “E” (equity) from their DEI program, leaving them with just “D&I” (diversity & inclusion).

When I was growing up in St. Louis, MO, I played a lot of sports: basketball, volleyball, and softball in the Catholic Youth Council (CYC) league. Of all the sports, in the Catholic community at the time, basketball was the most important. It’s like Texas and football.

Anyone who works in the profession of nonprofit management, especially in the area of membership associations, accepts the requirement that we are mandated by law to have a Board of Directors. According to the Google Search AI bot this is why it is mandated:

One of my favorite spiritual guides is the “Tao Te Ching” by Lao Tzu. Loosely translated, this means the Way of Virtue. It includes the concepts of integrity, self-control, and inner knowledge. The Tao Te Ching is the main text of Taoism which believes in the basic tenet that all things should live in balance with the universe.

In the nonprofit management profession, we know the importance of communication. It is vital to use the best communication tools for the target audience we want to reach, and to use appropriate messaging. For example, we don’t want to promote a certification to those in the profession we serve if they don’t qualify yet, but we may want to promote an upcoming conference to that group.

As a proponent of ethical behavior, I understand that we are imperfect beings. No one does it right all the time, and yes, ethical people likely did some unethical things in their past that they are not proud of and cringe whenever they think of it. That “icky cringe feeling” is great motivation not to do it again, but also a reminder that we usually know when we are doing something wrong.

There’s a lot of words people might use to describe me, but helpless is not one of them. Whether friend or foe, you know that I am a “can do” kind of person that is self-reliant and does my best to help others. As a solopreneur, I am always on the go whether writing, speaking, managing the business, or leading courses (just to name a few things I do outside the newsletter and podcast).

Author’s Note: I’m out of the office this week so I thought I’d reshare this take on Boards of Directors from March 2023. All 501c organizations are required to have a board of directors – what outcomes we achieve is directly related to board culture.

Let's face it -- Volunteer onboarding is not always what it should be. When it comes to connecting people with information and the systems that support their work, we often find good intentions but a lack of clarity. There are two words that are key to volunteer onboarding: Clarity and Connection.

While I always write about my own opinions and views of the world, I don’t often write about myself. I’m with me all the time so I don’t think there is much of interest to share; I already know this stuff. Some of it I’ve had to get past so I don’t think about it because I’m not that person any longer.

If you are taking the May CAE Exam, you probably have a lot of nervous energy this week. You worry about a lot of things right before the exam, like “Did I study enough?” “Did I study TOO much?” “I didn’t finish the reading . . . “ “Will I remember everything?” What about the MATH QUESTIONS??”

Recently I saw a post in an ASAE Collaborate community seeking information about consulting fee estimates for a wide-ranging technology project. The person posting the query, an association staff member, noted that she was just seeking an estimate for a board meeting report and was not yet seeking proposals. In her post, she noted that consultants she asked were hesitant to give an estimate for the work.

I was surprised to receive a message from ASAE giving me another opportunity to pay to be in their CAE Registered Provider program. I have made my position very clear and public on the changes they made and I am not seeing any significant changes at this time (despite the message saying changes have been made).

Bias exists in many forms, and unfortunately, we here in the nonprofit management community perpetuate it like everyone else. While we try to follow each other’s good examples, we tend to copy the bad ones more often because “that is what everyone else does.” One of the biases we continue to perpetuate is anti-consultant policies for membership and event registration. These policies were established decades ago and many associations adopted them like these are a best practice.

I was on a networking call one evening this week, and I ended up staying on to talk to a friend of mine who also happens to be a woman. One of the things we had discussed in our networking call was funny examples of negotiating deals or contracts. As I wrote about in last week’s article, “Women, Ask for What You Want,” negotiating is just that – ask for what you want.

As a young person with a political science degree and an interest in policy, I moved to the Washington, DC area with my husband (another poli sci graduate) to change the world. We all think we can change the world until we are about 32, then we realize it’s more than one person can handle. But the enthusiasm of youth drives us forward, and I found myself interviewing for my first job in DC. I was excited to be considered for an entry-level position at the US Chamber of Commerce.