AH held its annual Leadership Forum, providing client partners with valuable information related to non-profit associations and organizations
December 1, 2016 – AH, a leading professional services firm located in Mount Laurel and Washington, DC., hosted its annual Leadership Forum last month, offering its client partners with multiple days of educational workshops, covering topics related to non-profit organizational governance.
Held annually, the AH Leadership Forum is a two-day educational event designed specifically for AH client partners and provides timely information on issues affecting organizations, networking opportunities, interactive panels and more.
“AH offers this exclusive, free event each year to our client partners, carefully planning the program so that the sessions presented directly correlate with what is currently going on in our industry,” said AH President and CEO, Bob Waller, Jr., CAE. “We know how busy our volunteer leaders are and we make sure that at the end of the program, they leave with information that they can begin applying to their own organizations almost immediately.”
Some of this year’s guest speakers included co-presenters Evan Marcus of DillonMarcus Executive Retreats and Tom Burgoyne, better known to his fans as the Phillie Phanatic. The two talked about their newly released book, Pheel the Love!, engaging attendees in a leading-edge conversation on how to cultivate the loyalty and the love of customers and members while addressing the idea of ever-growing excellence and customer service.
Industry expert Greg Melia, Vice President of Program Development, Industry News USA, with ITN Productions, educated AH client partner leaders on achieving their goals while telling their own stories. Melia addressed trends and issues that need to be a priority, including a few higher level trends that could radically change the way associations operate in the future.
Benjamin Wolff, cellist, professor and professional speaker, opened day two of the Forum by playing his cello for attendees, sharing how mere symbols on a page—notes for music, and words for a mission statement—can be a source of meaning. Wolff is also the President of the National Speakers Association NYC Chapter, a client partner of AH.
An evening reception at the AH Leadership Forum featured the annual Red Chair Awards Ceremony, a program designed to celebrate measurable success achieved by client partners throughout the year. Each award recognized an accomplishment that is related to one of the AH pillars: Multi-dimensional Growth, Engaged and Disciplined Leadership, Intelligent Use of Technology and an Unwavering Commitment to Mission. The 2016 winners were chosen by a third party panel of judges from applications submitted by the association’s executive directors.
- Multi-Dimensional Growth – The Society for Information Management (SIM) experienced growth in membership, chapters, sponsorship, and new member benefits in 2016. Since becoming an AH client partner in 2012, SIM has grown membership 35% and chapters by 20%. They also saw their best year in sponsorship dollars with two programs exceeding 150% growth. All of this growth comes with new programs and events for members in 2017.
- Engaged and Disciplined Leadership – The American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) held a thorough strategic planning session in 2015 with ASHI staff and board members, implementing four task forces to ensure that the board focused on the most important topics for ASHI’s growth in 2016. By focusing task forces on these topics, milestones were met and they continue to exceed goals. The board became more strategic and less operational as a result.
- Intelligent Use of Technology – The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society™ (WOCN®) created an animated video using a fictional character that represents the WOCN membership, Nurse Nancy, in order to help those traveling abroad to the 2016 WOCN Society & CAET Joint conference in Montreal, Canada. The video was called “What to Know Before You Go” and was a social media sensation. Tourisme Montreal even wants to share the video with other groups to show them a great way to inform attendees traveling to Montreal for an international conference.
- Unwavering Commitment to Mission – The Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) developed a branded clinical trial training course designed for new and more experienced investigators. The rationale for the course is that new treatments (pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic) for OA are needed urgently. This course will solidify OARSI as the voice of OA research internationally.
Due to the overwhelming number of submissions and exceptional accomplishments of AH’s client partners, an Honorable Mention category was added for each area.
- Multi-Dimensional Growth Honorable Mention – Halloween Industry Association (HIA) launched its first Halloween & Party Expo in January 2016. The Expo was a financial success with a $1.4 million net profit. This resulted in a $700K net gain to the association as the event is co-owned with Urban Expositions. HIA also doubled their membership in the past year, largely due to the value of being a member for the show.
- Engaged and Disciplined Leadership Honorable Mention - The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) team has been working with legislators, regulators and special interest groups to address the issue of flame retardant chemicals in children’s car seats.
- Intelligent Use of Technology Honorable Mention – The American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT) made the strategic decision to redesign their website this year using technology such as responsive design, offering on demand education, an overhaul of their directory an e-community for members and a way to capture overall analytics. Not only did the project come in on-schedule and within budget, the results are continuing to demonstrate success with site visitors.
- Unwavering Commitment to Mission Honorable Mention - Medical Dosimetrist Certification Board (MDCB) realized the need to evaluate and improve minimum standards for medical dosimetry testing following a triennial strategic planning session. The intent was to ensure that dosimetrists certified by the MDCB continue to demonstrate competency and be literate in new technologies and practice.
For more information about AH and its 2017 Leadership Forum, visit www.AHredchair.com.
About AH
AH is a professional services firm that specializes in helping non-profit organizations achieve their mission, create value and advance their causes, industries and professions. The Mt. Laurel – based company is composed of four main divisions within AH; a full-service association management company (AMC); a marketing and communications agency; a meetings & events management team; and a division that focuses on other custom solutions such as strategic planning, website builds and database integrations, accounting, recruitment, public affairs and lobbying, certification management, and growing non-dues revenue. AH maintains AMC Institute Charter Accreditation status. The AMC Institute Accreditation program is based on an ANSI Standard. As named by the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA), AH is a Gold Certified Customer Service Organization. For more information, visit www.AHredchair.com, connect with AH on Facebook on youtube.com and follow @AHredchair on Twitter.
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