When I became CEO of IDFA in January, I quickly came to value the commitment, knowledge, and customer- service ethic of the team. The one goal I want to achieve before my first anniversary is to have actively engaged every staff member in shaping the association’s future. This includes developing clear goals for the organization and each employee to encourage teamwork and accountability. When we have an empowered “A” team on the field, we ensure top-notch service delivery to dairy foods companies.

—Michael Dykes, President and CEO, International Dairy Foods Association, Washington, DC

Before 2018, I want to nail down the funding that will allow our association to develop “World on the Move: 100,000 Years of Human Migration,” the next in a series of traveling museum exhibits to help change the public conversation about important but difficult topics, like race and immigration. We hope to increase public awareness that movement is not new; nearly every one of us has a migration story in our family history. Our association can bring people together to celebrate our common humanity.

—Ed Liebow, Executive Director, American Anthropological Association, Arlington, Virginia

We are moving to a new AMS, new membership dues structure, and new fiscal year starting January 1, 2018. We have spent about a year planning for this transition and tested out different scenarios. As luck would have it, the AMS go-live date has been delayed, but we are moving forward with the new dues structure to coincide with our new fiscal year. We initiated a membership awareness campaign for the new dues structure and hope to achieve a smooth transition, despite the AMS implementation delay.

—Jeannee Parker Martin, President and CEO, LeadingAge California, Sacramento, California

I am a volunteer coach for a CAE study group of 23 association professionals taking the December exam. My goal is to provide them with structured support and guidance to pass the exam and become CAEs. I benefited from a study group and a passionate, dedicated coach. Supporting association colleagues in this capacity is highly rewarding for me, and I am confident they will soon become part of the CAE community.