The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Center for Association Leadership have selected 29 young professionals to join the "Association of the Future," a mock association that will teach them how to run various association operations, including meetings.
"This is another opportunity for ASAE & The Center to gauge the impact of environmental trends on our community and a great leadership opportunity for our young professional members," ASAE & The Center President and CEO John H. Graham IV, CAE, said in a statement. "We hope this new project will produce tangible results and, once analyzed, benefit the entire association community."
The Association of the Future has 13 staff members representing various association functions, including customer relations, financial operations, human resources, publications, technology, government affairs, meetings, professional development, membership, volunteer management, marketing and communications. It also has a 16-member board and an advisory panel comprised of experienced ASAE & The Center members, who will design scenarios for the mock association based on how they believe global trends will manifest in the next five to 10 years.
According to ASAE & The Center, Association of the Future participants will work in a virtual space—communicating regularly using conference calls, Internet chats and online message boards—with resources for day-to-day operations of an association, such as documents that outline the mock organization's operational information, including its budget, membership size and number of meetings. All information and outcomes produced by the group will be collected and analyzed by ASAE & The Center's research staff.
For more information, visit
www.asaecenter.org/aotf.