Day One: Setting up the blog.

"Why "reluctant blogger"? you ask. Well, because I am not sure who would be interested in what I have to say. But then again, I tell myself, people blog about their pets. So why not.

I am starting this diary/blog really to give myself some sense of whether I can make real use of the things I am learning about through sources like the ASAE, an amazing network of like-minded people. I have been a member for only maybe 10 months, but I feel like I have not only found my professional "home" here, I also think that because of this, I have finally been able to make a choice about a real career - i.e. as an association professional. I've started working towards my CAE, too, so may talk about that as I go along.

I started working at my association (a small professional association with 250 members) several years ago, as as administrator first. I then left to join my husband in Scotland, because we discovered it would take years to get his green card. In the meantime, I kept in touch with my old boss, and when we were finally ready to move back (8 years later!) she asked if I wanted my job back, so I of course said yes. With a new baby in tow, I started working part-time, then went full-time once I realized I was not getting anything done (yes I am a workaholic). Lo and behold, six months later, she announced that she would be retiring after 36 years - and here I was, stuck keeping this association afloat while they spent over a year first defining, first, the role of the new ED they wanted, then doing the executive search for the role. (They did consider having me act as an interim ED, but luckily had the sense to see that they really needed someone with far more fundraising and networking experience, to bring the association into the 21st century with a business model of governance rather than the previous loose association of individuals). In the meantime, a transition management person was hired, who was amazing and gave me carte blanche to clean up and streamline all our procedures and processes - then an Executive Director, whose purpose would be to fundraise and handle governance, while my role would now be Operations Guy (gal). So here I was, feeling like I was stuck in this job I didn't really want to be in, but I felt like I could not let my members down by leaving - since I was the only administrative person left with any continuity or sense of history. Oh and did I mention I had one administrator working for me - so there were only the three of us staff, to keep the association running.

Anyway, both the Interim Exec and the new permanent Exec are heavily involved in ASAE, and introduced me to it. I attended a couple of conferences last year, then my first Annual Meeting in Chicago this year. At the annual, I met a group of truly amazing people - smart, funny, tech savvy, innovative, forward-thinking... and all bloggers. (Fun to go out drinking with, too...) Many of them said I should go for it, so here I am. I don't pretend to be anywhere near in their league, but then the purpose of this blog is not really to be in their league, but to create some kind of timeline for my own experiments with technology, social media, web 2.0, ungovernance and the many other things I learn through ASAE and elsewhere, which I will be little by little trying to use to improve the experience of my own association. Some of these experiments will fail, there is no doubt, but I am sure I will gain in the experience of trying.