Why Associations Need Fit-for-Purpose Boards

This article was updated for reposting on Tuesday 8/20/24.

In June, I announced my partnership with Association Forum to present the inaugural session of the Fit-for-Purpose Association Board Director Learning Series beginning this September. My singular intention for designing and presenting this Learning Series is to develop as many fit-for-purpose association board directors as possible because associations need fit-for-purpose boards right away.

Indeed, our community must have fit-for-purpose boards that are prepared to steward their associations through the high-impact forces and high-stakes questions that will shape this decade's next sixty months, which begin in only 134 days from today (8/20/24). If you think the first half of The Turbulent Twenties has been fraught, just wait.

You still have time to join the Fit-for-Purpose Association Board Director Learning Series free informational session tomorrow Wednesday 8/21 at 2 pm CDT. Please sign up today!

To inspire immediate and essential action throughout our community, I want to share three clear reasons why associations need fit-for-purpose boards.

Reason #1: The world needs the work of associations to continue into the future.

Throughout my 30+ years working in and with associations, I have repeatedly witnessed the beneficial impact that associations can have on individuals, communities, and society. Since 2002, I have committed my career as an advisor to assisting our community's boards, CEOs, and other decision-makers with building the new capacity required to strengthen and expand their impact in a world of diminishing trust in traditional institutions and increasingly unforgiving operating conditions. Fit-for-purpose association boards recognize that to sustain both their organizations' and the critical contributions they make to the world into the future, they must set a higher standard of board stewardship, governing, and foresight.

If you think the first half of The Turbulent Twenties has been fraught, just wait.

Reason #2: Our successors expect today's association boards to stand up for their futures.

In a recent article for Associations Now, I wrote, "...it is now time for association boards to rise to the occasion and meet the most vital expectations of their unknown successors, something they can begin to do by making the choice to care more about the future well-being of those successors than the impact of today’s decisions on those presently in board service." Fit-for-purpose association boards understand that the futures they are working to create do not belong to them, but to their successors, and must always ask "what will our successors say about us" as they confront more complex and crucial decisions in the years ahead.

Reason #3: Every association board can and must become more.

Since The Turbulent Twenties began nearly 1,700 days ago, association board service has become an even more complicated and vulnerability-inducing responsibility. As a former board director and officer, I have deep admiration and enduring respect for everyone who chooses to occupy a seat on an association board. But we must remember that it is a choice. Association board service is a voluntary commitment that includes an agreement to perform at the highest possible level. Fit-for-purpose association boards fully embrace both the obligation and the opportunity to become more through a consistent and disciplined process of intentional learning.

Just 134 days from today (8/20/24), the second half of The Turbulent Twenties will begin. Associations need fit-for-purpose boards right away. It is time to act.

You can still join the Fit-for-Purpose Association Board Director Learning Series free informational session tomorrow Wednesday 8/21 at 2 pm CDT. Please sign up today!

My sincere thanks to Association Forum 's president and CEO Artesha Moore, FASAE, CAE, and Forum team members Alec Rosofsky, CAE, CMP, Carrie Dellamano, CPRP, Monica Linders, MBA, and Abie Gregorash for their collaboration and support in bringing the Learning Series to the association community.

Jeff De Cagna AIMP FRSA FASAE, executive advisor for Foresight First LLC in Reston, Virginia is an association contrarian, foresight practitioner, governing designer, stakeholder/successor advocate, and stewardship catalyst. In 2019, Jeff was named the 32nd recipient of ASAE’s Academy of Leaders Award, the association’s highest individual honor given to consultants or industry partners in recognition of their support of ASAE and the association community.