Members Network, Discuss Next Steps for SBCA

Bringing the industry together to share ideas has always been at the core of SBCA’s mission. After a year-long hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions, members held their first socially-distanced, in-person open quarterly meeting (OQM) in San Antonio, January 26-28.

“It was so powerful to see everyone gathered in one place,” says Mike Ruede, SBCA’s president. “To look them in the eye as we talked about the industry’s challenges and prioritized the work ahead of us.”

The OQM allowed SBCA’s new distributed workforce an opportunity to gather ahead of the member meetings and work through tasks and deadlines regarding implementation of a new association management software (AMS) that will provide a more robust way to manage member information and create a better experience for members seeking to order publications, register for events, and find information.

During the OQM, the SBCA Emerging Leaders facilitated an open discussion about the challenges associated with remote employees and several members shared best practices they’d developed to maintain a company culture, foster continued loyalty and track job performance and efficiency.

Finally, the OQM give the Board an opportunity to discuss their vision for the association’s future, prioritize short-term tasks to deliver value to the membership, and talk candidly about the organization’s finances, its transition to direct staff, and planning for BCMC 2021.

“I think this face-to-face meeting gave us a great opportunity to talk about our journey over the past six months and begin planning for the next six years,” says Jess Lohse, SBCA’s executive director. “It provided staff a good foundation to work from as we restart our strike force and committee work and return to a high level of service to our members.”

Everyone is encouraged to join us at the next OQM at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV, May 24-26.