ASA Executive Committee advances plans for D.NEXT, Project TALENT and VITALITY

In July, the ASA Executive Committee met in Chicago to review plans presented by the Issue Strategic Action Teams (ISATs) that met for the past year identifying solutions to the three most pressing issues facing members. The leadership focused their attention on how ASA can help members find the future labor they will need to remain relevant, how members can strategically and successfully transform their companies with technology to compete more effectively and how ASA can support members’ awareness of how they are positioned in order to help enable them to remain relevant in the future. The Executive Committee approved the following actions:

Approved the plans to launch D.NEXT, Project TALENT and VITALITY
Approved an operating annual budget of $1.3 million to support a Future Fund, which will provide the required resources for each initiative.
A major fundraising effort to secure the resources for the Future Fund which will support each initiative.

“D.NEXT, Project TALENT and VITALITY are bold initiatives identified by members that will solve the most important issues facing our industry today,” ASA CEO Mike Adelizzi said. “If we are successful in securing the funding necessary to launch and sustain these efforts, the association will be well positioned to help our members win in the future.”

In addition to the Future Fund, the Executive Committee also approved a continued partnership with B2X to extend the complimentary access to Digital Branch through 2020. This popular program has been utilized by more than one-third of the ASA membership and the committee sees this commitment as an endorsement by the membership which helps them compete within the space of digital marketing.

The association will also move forward with building engaging peer-to-peer networking communities that would connect professionals in various job specialties within a member business. Building on the CONNECT theme launched this past year, the Executive Committee approved piloting an expansion to increase the value of CONNECT. Through this new concept, up to 12 participants per group will connect monthly, via virtual networking communities, in a facilitated session to share issues, problems, ideas and solutions in a confidential networking environment.