Cynthia D’Amour on Leadership and Life

   You think?

December is Big Idea month.

• According to ASAE and the Center’s Acronym blog.
• They asked association bloggers to play along.
• I’m being a team player - with a Cynthia twist of course.

Decided to play the “What if…” game for chapters.

• You are invited to join in.
• What are crazy ideas you could apply to chapters?
• Especially if there were no limits and anything could fly?

Here are a some of mine…

• What if members had to take a qualifying exam before being allowed to step up to leadership?
• what if leaders who got lots of members involved were viewed as rock stars - and those who martyred up and did all the work themselves were not?
• What if got to decide how much dues to pay based on the value of their membership from the previous year?

Warming up now…

• What if committee members were allowed to vote a chair off the island for wasting their time?
• What if committee chairs had to pay $50 out of their pockets (the value of a babysitter for the time spent in their meeting) in order to attend their meeting? Would they run a different meeting?
• What if chapters got money from their national association based how much value members said the chapter actually provided - rather than a set amount?

In the groove…

• What if companies would support members in being involved in your chapter to the level they could prove return on investment for the company?
• What if members rated their volunteer experience after every event and meeting on a scale of 1-5 stars - and published it with comments on a website that rated chapter leaders?
• What if your chapter could only use new-to-the-chapter speakers this year for chapter meetings or education events?

Still going strong…

• What if chapters focused on providing a variety of experiences for member connections - rather than just a monthly meeting?
• What if all members were only able to volunteer at a 10% level - not 110%?
• What if members were limited to a three-year membership?

A few last thoughts…

• What if no one read your chapter emails?
• What if your biggest “do it all” super member who has done it all for years was snatched by aliens? Would your chapter survive?
• What if your chapter had a surplus of volunteers? What would you do?

Those are the questions off the top of my head.

• How would you answer them?
• Your members?
• What else needs to asked?

Please add your what if questions to the comments!

Makes me think of chapter leaders…what if your chapter started asking questions to generate bigger ideas in your chapter?

Filed under: Board challenges