AMCI's Annual Meeting is just ONE WEEK away! We are excited to be joining over 180 AMCI members as we gather together at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Together we will be inspired by amazing keynotes, educated by our speaker peers, and we will build long lasting relationships as we network with each other. Additionally, we anticipate being filled with amazing food, desserts, and drinks, all while being in one of the most beautiful locations to hold meetings. And we haven't even covered everything that will be happening next week. For those who are attending, this will be a meeting that will be long remembered.

For those who have not yet registered, there is still a little time left to register.

If you are attending, please remember to check your Know Before You Go email for relevant information on:

AMC Institute’s Annual Meeting (February 16 – 18) is quickly coming up. We are excited to see many of our members in Colorado Springs, at The Broadmoor. We are also very excited to be able to share some excellent keynote speakers with our attendees.  AMCI’s keynotes this year are planning to share some very exciting, engaging conversations with you! Want to know more about the speakers and their topics? Continue reading below!

This post is authored by Mark Engle, DM, FASAE, Principal at Association Management Center and Chair of the AMC Institute's Board of Directors for 2022.

Happy New Year!

Are you ready for the New Year? I’m certainly ready (as many of you are) to retire the old one. The encouraging news is, as entrepreneurs, we typically anticipate and respond well to change.

The AMCI Reading Corner is a crowdsourced resource share aimed to serve as a platform for the AMCI community to share book recommendations and reflect with personal takeaways. Starting with monthly postings, more ways to engage will be shared as the idea grows.

This month,  Paulina van Eeden Hill, CAE of Strategic Association Management shares her review of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

This post is authored by Erin Fuller,  FASAE, CAE, MPA, President, Association Solutions, MCI USA, and Chair of the AMC Institute's Board of Directors for 2021.

January 6th was a day with a lot of turmoil in the Washington, DC area. And no, I am not referencing the insurrection on the Hill that day – but rather McLean, VA, where I lugged and installed two huge air purifiers in our largest conference room, so that MCI USA could safely host the AMCI executive committee retreat. Only a year before, Montreal had been generous hosts, and we huddled around dinner tables, toasting the future of our industry. Now, I was placing extra masks at each distanced place and making sure we had plenty of hand sanitizer.

The AMCI Reading Corner is a crowdsourced resource share aimed to serve as a platform for the AMCI community to share book recommendations and reflect with personal takeaways. Starting with monthly postings, more ways to engage will be shared as the idea grows.

This month, AMC Institute's Michael Battaglia, CAE, CNAP of AMPED Association Management shares his review of Michael Jordan:The Life by Roland Lazenby.

Make DEI-aware holidays a year-round initiative 

Guest post by Charles Scogna, Writer, Association Headquarters

November and December are widely considered the holiday season in the United States, with Thanksgiving and Christmas at its core.

The AMCI Reading Corner is a crowdsourced resource share aimed to serve as a platform for the AMCI community to share book recommendations and reflect with personal takeaways. Starting with monthly postings, more ways to engage will be shared as the idea grows.

This month, AMC Institute's Thomas Pigg, shares his review of The Servant Leader, by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.

This is a guest post by Executive Director, Inc.

When participating in staff interviews with people who have a community non-profit background as opposed to an association background, we often make a point of stating that while the associations that we serve do good, we are not feeding the hungry at Executive Director, Inc. (EDI) – except for two weeks per year. These are the two weeks in December that EDI holds its “Food Fight” to raise funds for the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee. In a typical year, the winner is announced at the annual State of EDI celebration on a Friday in late December. In 2019, the executive director of the Hunger Task Force attended this event to communicate her appreciation of how extraordinary EDI staff’s contributions were given the size of the company.

For 28 years, EDI has held a competition among staff members (East Side of the building versus the West Side) for the coveted Food Fight trophy. A number of small fundraising events are held each day. Examples include:

In today’s unprecedented times, creating an environment of psychological safety with stakeholders is important for all AMCs. It’s crucial to meet workplace needs in our interactions with others, whether they be team members, board members, or clients. The level of psych safety determines if individuals feel empowered to speak up, try a new idea, or are even capable of listening to you clearly.

Psychological safety is an important issue for AMCs, especially during the Great Resignation workforce era. According to a report from the Predictive Index, companies are far less likely to experience turnover when psychological safety is practiced in the workplace. Simply put, not practicing this could cause your AMC to lose top talent. 

Join the Emerging Leaders Committee at AMCI’s November Engagement Lounge on Friday, November 19, 2021 at 12:00 PM EST – 1:00 PM EST to hear Christina Rowe, MSOL, Founder of The Collaborative and Cofounder of The Remote Leader Project, lead an interactive discussion on tips to simplify the process of building psych safety with each major party involved in working with associations -- from staff to clients.

Although it technically began a month ago, Autumn finally feels like it is here - warm drinks in a coffee mug, crunch leaves beneath our feet, and a cool crispness in the air. Fall also means the start of member renewals.

Last week, AMCI launched our membership renewals campaign, and I’ve found that this process has been entirely rewarding. This process has been a great opportunity to connect with many of AMCI’s wonderful members. Whether helping a first-time member to activate their new membership, reconnecting with attendees I met at Annual Meeting in Orlando, or adding staff to existing memberships, I have enjoyed getting to know all our members and their needs. These connections also show me that our membership is active, thriving, and willing to engage to within our community.

October AMCI Book Review Corner

The AMCI Reading Corner is a crowdsourced resource share aimed to serve as a platform for the AMCI community to share book recommendations and reflect with personal takeaways. Starting with monthly postings, more ways to engage will be shared as the idea grows.
Kate Temple of Bostrom, offers this month's review of How to be an Inclusive Leader by Jennifer Brown.

After a rollercoaster of a year, ranging from re-openings and rescheduled events to the Delta variant surge, no one was sure what this Fall might bring. Would anyone be willing to take a risk to travel for a face-to-face event? And of those who might come, would they be willing to follow stricter health guidelines?       

After a very successful AMCs Re-Engaged, we can give a resounding YES! to both of those questions.  As an industry we should be proud that we are agile, adept, and responsive regardless of the circumstance. You have proven that we can have both a safe and engaging in-person event.

The AMCI Reading Corner is a crowdsourced resource share aimed to serve as a platform for the AMCI community to share book recommendations and reflect with personal takeaways. Starting with monthly postings, more ways to engage will be shared as the idea grows.
Richie O’Neill kicks us off by reviewing a classic, Who Moved My Cheese, by Dr. Spencer Johnson, available on Amazon here.

Visit Tampa Bay is a poster child for innovation within the travel industry. We know who we are, and we embrace it. Our pirate-inspired logo is a perfect example because it stands out amongst a sea of other logos donning palm trees and sunshine. And while palm trees and sunshine represent Florida well, I’d much rather have a future traveler remark, “I love that logo!”

This is an exciting year for AMC’s, and the associations they manage. The shutdown in the United States has lifted, business travel has resumed, and conferences are being held in person. Your staff are now tasked with guiding your associations into planning and executing these events in a still ever changing environment. While building your conferences and programming to best serve the bulk of your membership, it is important to take time to consider the outliers. Taking time to consider the consequences of each change or policy you implement will pay dividends down the road.

In early 2021, employers across the country were surveyed about various employee benefits and human resources topics, and roughly 150 employers responded to the survey. The respondents were from various industries, including manufacturing, construction, finance, insurance and real estate. Within human resources, employers were surveyed on a number of topics, such as paid time off (PTO), compliance, attraction and retention. These employer responses provide insight into common workplace trends and challenges facing organizations and how employers respond to those challenges—many of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volunteers are critical for all types of organizations, from nonprofits to schools to membership organizations. They can help organizations fill staffing gaps, build excitement around an event, give hours toward supporting your mission, and so much more.

The verdict is in – AMCI’s new education tract – HITT on Demand – was a big success at this year’s Annual Meeting. Like throwing down an intense, fast workout, our High Intensity Interval Training sessions provide microlearning and soft skill opportunities on hot topics designed to enlighten and inspire AMC executives.