by Kyle Farmer, CAE, KCSAE Past President
KCSAE is committed to creating an association management community for its members that advances their careers through education, professional development, and networking.
Hopefully that sentence is not completely foreign to you. As a member of KCSAE, it’s important to know, understand, and connect with the mission statement of your organization. Unfortunately, I have a feeling there are more than a few of our membership that have never seen or heard our mission statement and, truthfully, those members are not at fault. As leaders of this organization that so many of us hold near and dear to our hearts, it is our job to share the mission and vision of KCSAE as often as possible.
I do believe KCSAE has done a great job of living our mission over the last few years, however. Our educational programming is as strong as it has ever been, our offerings continue to be diverse and robust, and our community continues to grow through a deliberate effort to create more space for networking and community-building. If you have not attended a KCSAE Connections event yet, I encourage you to find some time to come meet with your fellow KCSAE members in a casual, collegial setting that allows for amazing conversations – both association-related and not.
While our mission remains at the forefront of what we do as a leadership team, we also recognize that there is always room for improvement and growth. As such, your KCSAE Board of Directors has started the process of updating our mission statement. While the goals of our current mission statement are probably still relevant, it is important to turn an eye towards the future. The Board is leaning on local experts to utilize ASAE’s ForesightWorks program to identify the drivers of change that are most relevant to KCSAE, our members, and our members’ members.
As a part of this process, the Board will be reaching out to various members to procure perspectives from every corner of our membership. The goal is to make this process representative of the membership at large, so I hope you will heed the call when it comes. I am very excited the Board has chosen to undertake this work, and I have no doubt they will set the right path for our association to remain strong and relevant for years to come.