Goodbye 10s, Hello 20s
As the year and decade come to an end, hear from two of your colleagues as they say good-bye to 2019 and look forward to the year ahead. Past president Serge S. Micheli, CAE, CEM, and FORUM committee member Christine R Halfkenny-Zellas, P.Mgr, CIM share their thoughts.
Before we look to the year ahead, what were the biggest achievements in your organization or your sector in 2019?
With a volunteer board and one staff member, we were able to achieve a number of things over the past year. These achievements include a 10 part webinar series for critical care nurse review/education, three-position statements on issues affecting critical care nurses, patients and families, and another successful annual national conference.
As you look to the future, how are your objectives changing for 2020 and beyond?
Our main objectives remain the same: attraction/retention of members and “value add”. Attraction and retention are always issues of concern as membership with our association are not required. To that end, we will be working on updating our strategic plan, creation of a member value proposition and continuation of working on items that are ‘value add’ for members.
What areas are you looking to improve in as your organization continues to evolve?
Attraction/retention of nurses in critical care to our association and continuing to provide high-quality educational opportunities.
What do you think your members/stakeholders’ biggest expectations are for 2020 and beyond? Are these expectations similar to what you see in the sector or are they specific to your organization?
Continued opportunities for education, best practices, and involvement in the association. I would imagine these expectations would be the same for the majority of nursing associations. We all for the most part struggle with attracting/retaining members and providing services of value to members, as the majority of the associations operate with volunteer boards and very small staff numbers.
Christine R Halfkenny-Zellas, P.Mgr, CIM
Chief Operating Officer
Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses
Before we look to the year ahead, what were the biggest achievements in your organization in 2019?
My firm is an association management company. We manage several trade and professional associations. Overall, every one of our associations has experienced a growth in memberships, and in resources. In particular, they have all become more strategic in scope focusing on management and allocation of resources to accomplish their key strategies. All of our associations are seeing a strong growth in membership and retention of existing members.
What are your objectives for 2020?
My key objective for 2020 is to continue growth for the associations we manage, including understanding and meeting the needs of the memberships they serve. Although it becomes challenging for volunteers in terms of balancing their work and volunteer needs, our main objective for 2020 is to assist them with timelines and the proper resources to focus on finding successful solutions.
What areas are you looking to improve in over the current year?
Looking to improve the creation and management of resources to continue the growth that we are currently experiencing.
Serge S. Micheli, CAE, CEM
President & CEO
Association and Events Management
