BRAINSTORMS
Lessons From
the Gulf
It’s been three months since BP’s
Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded
off the coast of Louisiana, commencing
what quickly became — and continues to
be — the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
Although it’s no doubt taught them
many hard lessons, oil companies and
governments aren’t the only ones who
can learn something from this catastrophe. Associations also can learn something, suggests a June report from The
Conference Board.
Titled “Sustainability in the Boardroom,” the report exposes a wide gap
between governance and sustainability at
U.S. corporations — which likely exists at
U.S. associations, too.
“The environmental catastrophe that
has been unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico
is indicative of how closely intertwined
sustainability and corporate strategy
really are,” says the report’s author, Matteo Tonello, director of corporate governance research at The Conference Board
Governance Center.
According to The Conference Board,
only a small number of organizations
consistently elevate sustainability issues
to the strategic decisions that take place
at the board level. In fact, based on a
survey of corporate secretaries at 50
U.S. companies, The Conference Board
found that 89.2 percent of boards rely
on reports from senior executives when
it comes to their organization’s sustain-
ability programs, and that boards almost
never consult additional sources — such
as peer-organization benchmarks, envi-
ronmental reports, director education
programs and consultants — to help
verify and analyze those reports.
Among those organizations that do
disclose progress on sustainability initiatives, as many as 42. 9 percent do not
include any information on metrics.
The lesson: Organizations that want to
avoid social and environmental disasters
like that in the Gulf — which can wreak
havoc on their reputation as well as their
revenue — should strategically elevate
sustainability to the board level, where
boards of directors should find measurable ways to tie social objectives into
business performance, which ultimately
will have a positive effect on the organization’s credibility and cash flow.
Shiny and New
A new member is a lot like a freshly
minted quarter. It’s shiny, it’s new and
when it’s added to all the other quarters in your piggy bank, it helps you buy
something wonderful from your wish list.
Unfortunately, loose change has been
hard to come by during the economic
downturn — and so have new members,
according to Marketing General Inc.,
which this summer released its “2010
Membership Marketing Benchmarking
Report.”
MGI’s second annual membership
study, the report is based on a survey of
more than 400 associations that shared
their membership statistics and prac-
tices, as well as their opinions about
what marketing tactics work best for each
stage of the membership lifecycle.
According to the survey, although
42 percent of associations reported an
increase in new member acquisition this
year, new member acquisition remained
flat for 20 percent of organizations and
actually declined for 26 percent. Meanwhile, overall membership is down this
year compared to last year at 48 percent
of organizations, and down this year
compared to five years ago at 30 percent — driven not only by new member
acquisition, but also by renewals, which
