I wrote those two previous blog articles on the AE and the Board of Directors, thinking to stimulate a little discussion. Actually, I did stimulate some discussion, but it was off line, from one of my coaching clients. He asked, “So what's my role as an AE? I just came back from the NAR Washington meetings, and I had lots of great ideas—my head was just spinning! But my Directors who were there weren't really interested in what I was thinking. They had some nice dinners out, met with their elected officials, and did a little shopping. They're not really interested in what I learned, though—so what do I do now?”
Obviously, Mike is new at this AE-ing stuff. I remember my first NAR meeting (it was in New Orleans) at an annual convention. There were zillions of people, way too many things to see and do, my feet hurt, and the fire alarms kept going off in our hotel all night long. What information could I retain? What could I bring back to make the association better? All I remember is huddling in the lobby in my raincoat at 3 AM waiting for the firemen to finish their inspections and let me go back to my room.
But over the years I came to the understanding that traveling to state and national meetings is a wonderful way to gain new ideas and refresh your perspective on your employing association. It's just that the members who are there with you most likely will not share your outlook or your enthusiasm about association management topics. Elected leaders are more likely to get excited about some products they see at the trade show, or perhaps a controversial legislative initiative, or a new sales idea they heard about in the lounge—they don't care about the latest NRDS search parameters or how NAR is going to handle the issue of not enough rooms for the Leadership Conference, or whether AE's can sit with their association leadership at a NAR Directors' meeting.
“Yes,” you say on the plane ride home, “I found some great new ideas for our association website. You went to the Board Forum and heard the guy from Huston. What did you think?”
“Um,” says the President. What he really means is, “So? What will it do for me? For the membership? And how much will it cost? And does that mean we have to have yet another committee? And can we do it during my presidential watch or is this something we can do next year when Joann is President?”
Well, AE, what did you expect? Your President sells real estate. YOU run the association. He's good at what he does, and you were hired to be an expert at what you do. The President's priorities aren't yours.
So what happens when you get off the plane? My advice is to first of all, plant the seed. Put your new ideas in a report to the Directors as things which could possibly strengthen the association. But don't ask them for anything. Just mention that you are going to continue to research the idea of a revitalized association website, and that you'll construct a full-fledged proposal and business plan for their review and possible adoption.
Then do just that. Develop the parameters for the new website. Get quotes from programmers, website hosts, and overhead (your time and staff's). Forecast income—advertising sales, featured listings, links.
Project a time line. Check with the Huston folks and find out how successful their new site really is. Is volunteer help needed? If so, how--specifically.
Then, write it up. Get it to the Board in the form of a careful business plan, well in advance of the meeting where a decision is made. Show the Directors how this project fits in with their strategic plan and overall stated goals. Solicit buy-in from key leaders and staff, and go for it. In other words, take ownership of not only the idea, but the implementation plan, and make a responsible presentation to the decision makers.
The most your Directors can do is turn your plan down. And they'll be less likely to do that if they can see how it would work, and have confidence that you have done your homework and are prepared to be the plan manager. It is, after all, why they pay you.
And yes, coming back from a NAR meeting or an AE Institute or an ASAE symposium means you are usually raring to go with some ideas that will save your association world. But often you don't have the personal resources to do it all, or the association just may not be ready for the idea. I was always impressed by a good friend of mine, now the CEO of a large and active state association, who made a habit of coming to NAR meetings with a file folder of background information for the meeting and schedules for himself and the leadership from his association. I was impressed by the background work that he put into maximizing his attendance at the meeting, but even more I was impressed by the “to do” list he always maintained on the inside of that file folder. Each time he discovered a new idea, or heard about something he needed to follow through on when he got back to his office, he wrote it down. At the end of the event, John had a numbered list of steps in his action plan and a clear idea of what to do next.
The point of all of this is, understand as an AE that you are the expert at project management. That means defining, implementing, and funding. But does that mean that your association is (to use an often meaningless phrase) is “staff driven”??? Heaven forfend! If your leaders have done their jobs and constructed their association vision and values in the the strategic plan, then you are just the water boy (in this example, bearing a new website). It's the vision, direction, and funding of the leaders that make the project possible. And while they were out being good Realtors, you made it happen. | 
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