| President’s
Letter
No group is an island
by Roy Harris, National
President; Senior Editor, CFO
 If
Jon Donne had been a management consultant,
imagine the business how-to books he could
have penned for John Wiley. With titles
like:
7 Steps to Being a Piece of the Continent;
Or maybe
Mankind:
The Owner’s Manual;
How
about
The 10-Second
Island-Hopper?
See? Not all that
much has changed since the 17th Century.
But in all seriousness — well, never
all seriousness — there is a lot
of value for an association like ASBPE
in working with, and learning from, other
groups. It allows us to have a voice on
key journalistic issues, and it broadens
the world’s awareness of us at
the same time.
An association of associations
It was through such an
alliance, with the
Council of National
Journalism Organizations,
that ASBPE found a
worthy recipient for a donation
to help support
Hurricane Katrina’s
victims in the media, including some
business-to-business publications that
had taken a hit. And
CNJO guidance has helped us start planning
for a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation,
something with which many of its 50 members
are familiar.
Recently, I returned
from a CNJO seminar
at the Poynter
Institute
in St. Petersburg,
Fla. (It allowed
me to miss the February
Nor’easter in Boston that dumped
20 inches of snow in my driveway.) But
the real value of the day’s sessions
came from hearing the challenges being
faced by other groups; finding resources
that ASBPE can draw on among them; and
soaking up a presentation on association
marketing.
The links we have
on the Web site
allow any member
to tap
into the
experiences
of large groups,
like
the Society of
Professional Journalists (SPJ),
or smaller ones,
like the National
Association
of
Science Writers.
Or my
personal favorite
new CNJO member,
the International
Association of
Obituarists.
If
you need a freelancer
with certain
skills, CNJO and
its members
are another resource.
(Need an expert
to write
about someone’s
passing?)
And there is plenty
more available
to ASBPE members
through this
tie-in — like
how to submit Freedom-of-Information-Act
requests more successfully, or what is
available in the line of staff training.
A market for
marketing
Other valuable
lessons came
from the
keynote program itself,
titled “How to Market
Your Organization Better.” I won’t
go into all the tips she tossed out — and
there were plenty, like keeping one’s
mission consistent, and working to build
member loyalty and support. But one thing
the session leader suggested was that associations
should regularly challenge their “sacred
cows,” and not be afraid to “barbeque
them.” (Does ASBPE have a few such
bovine barriers? I’d be open to hearing
about them. We’re firing up the
campfire even now.)
We’re looking this year at how our
organization can provide more value to
professional editors — to fulfill
certain member needs that only an association
can, and to help us grow into a larger
force in the journalism world. Your leadership
wants to do that.
So please
support
us in
building our connections
with
other journalism
organizations
through
CNJO.
Otherwise it
may truly
be
said: “…never
send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for ASBPE.”
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