I know that Nick is not normally given to rants, but he makes some very astute observations about his first ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting registration experience. Nick’s first impression isn’t exactly positive.
Nick mentions that ASAE asks its registrants a long, long, long list of prying questions before accepting their registration. This will be my fourth ASAE convention, so I’ve filled out those same prying questions four years in a row now. I know what the information is for: So I can be segmented and marketed to and so that ASAE & The Center can sell exhibits and sponsorships with the data. Fine. That comes with the territory. But why can’t they store that data from year to year and then let me bypass that step entirely or simply ask me to update anything that has changed? I expect Wes & David could go on for miles about this.
I also totally agree with Nick on the salary question. I know of plenty association CEO jobs that pay only marginally more than $40K. That’s one question that will help perpetuate ASAE’s “inside the beltway” stigma well into the future.
I have mixed feelings about the CEO only sessions. As a non-CEO, it makes me feel a little jealous (flash mob, anyone?). As a hopeful future CEO, I’d like to be able to have conversations in a homogenous atmosphere.
Like Nick, I try to keep things positive, but it can be difficult in the face of some of this stuff. Overall, I love ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meetings and I am really looking forward to this year’s. The third annual Association Bloggercon will be a blast, and so will the backchannel. We have 13 and 7 respectively signed up for these two cool opportunities.
Tagged: ASAE2007; Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive
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Cool, thanks for backing me up.
Nick, we’re cool like that.
So is it bad I went to the CEO sessions at Great Ideas? It isn’t like they checked. In fact, I was in one when the fire alarm went off.
That was their way of getting you out of the room, Matt.