California Group Poised to Merge With ASAE
By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 4/25/2005
The Northern California Society of Assn. Executives is poised to be dissolved and absorbed into the American Society of Assn. Executives in the latest in a wave of association mergers.
Representatives from the Northern California association approached their national counterparts last year, requesting that they be absorbed into the larger organization. ASAE approved the merger April 6, and NCSAE members will vote on the merger in weeks to come.
John Graham, ASAE president and CEO, said the regional association is scheduled to turn its assets over to ASAE. He sees the merger as a model for future arrangements. "ASAE needs to better serve its members outside Washington, and this arrangement will be instructional," he said. "It's a trial balloon."
Graham said the arrangement is different from ASAE's recent merger with the Greater Washington Society of Assn. Executives. "The Washington marketplace is unique, because of the national and international associations being here. GWSAE and ASAE competed for the same market in D.C. But elsewhere, there are local networking and other needs that have to be met on a local basis," he said.
According to Graham, there were few risks associated with the new relationship model with NCSAE, which won't have chapter status. A group called the NCSAE Network will be formed to provide career services, networking and volunteer opportunities in the San Francisco Bay area. It will be managed and staffed by ASAE using the regional association's remaining assets. In addition, ASAE will contribute finance, marketing and technology services.
Some of NCSAE's 16 board members will join a leadership council overseeing the NCSAE Network. A part-time director will likely be hired to coordinate activities in the Bay Area, and a staff person in ASAE's Washington headquarters assigned to help communication between the two locations.
About half of NCSAE's 300 members are also ASAE members. NCSAE members are expected to approve the merger. NCSAE doesn't have a staff and has been operated by association management firm Holland & Parlatte. After the merger is approved, the NCSAE will be legally dissolved.
NCSAE President Mike Mortensson said NCSAE approached ASAE because it was an opportunity for association people in the Bay Area to work with ASAE. "The members are all very supportive," he said. "The new NCSAE Network will enable us to control local programming, but experience it with the educational resources of ASAE, something we couldn't do otherwise, for one membership fee."
Mortensson said the merger plan came out of a unanimous decision at last July's NCSAE board of director's retreat.
As an offshoot of the ASAE-GWSAE merger, ASAE and the Center for Assn. Leadership are considering consolidating their existing Assn. Management and Executive Update magazines. But ASAE spokesman Chris Vest said a final decision has not been made yet.
Meanwhile, the organizations are working with Netburn McGill, a New York media and association consulting firm, to conduct focus groups around the country and formulate publishing recommendations.
CAL Chairman Ralph Nappi said ASAE and the center want to preserve the best of both magazines. Nappi, who is president of the American Machine Tool Distributors' Assn., said a timeline for the project should be drawn up by next month.
