I finally understood the association model when I was leading the congress team of the European Science Foundation. I was invited to trade fairs and met other congress managers. As I talked to them, I realised we had so much in common even though we worked in different sectors, and I finally realised it’s because we are all associations. It was a Matrix moment. For a long time, especially in Brussels, associations used to be clubs What can you be found doing when you take your association hat off? Five years ago, the answer would be taking photos and doing live band photography, it’s still something I’m deeply passionate about. I really like to observe people in that way. But I have an almost seven-year-old daughter, so at the moment I’m mostly running through the park playing games or pretending to be Elsa from Frozen – and I love it. In my professional life I have to be pretend that I’m incredibly important and develop six-year strategy plans for associations, but then I come home and roll around the floor pretending that I’m an ice princess. called ‘associations’. You understand that you work in medicine, or you work for some other industry, but it’s a completely different field once you flip into associations and I wish I would have understood that as a business model and the way it operates is hugely different because there is not one person that makes the ultimate decision. It’s the members. The organisation doesn’t belong to shareholders. It doesn’t belong to one person and that just changes the way that you can work or what you have to do.
What should associations be focusing on to ensure longevity and success? For a long time, especially in Brussels, associations used to be clubs. You joined and then you were part of that and that was okay. But about 10 years ago, we started talking about the fact that this is not really the way things go anymore, and with a pandemic, this has been accelerated. Now, people need a reason to join, and they need to understand why your association and their membership to it is valuable. This is what we call a member value proposition, and it has become incredibly important. Prospective members are asking: “So why should I join this association?” And the second question is, “What can this association do that nobody else can do?” There are so many more alliances and networks and working groups around, people have a limited amount of time, so they want to know how your association is making a difference. What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job? To be this facilitator that can help these amazing leaders who are dedicating their spare time to this tedious thing of board meetings and administrating an association to create a vision, one that they can do and with that, they can change the world a little bit in their field. I mean, that’s an amazing privilege and the insight that you get and the people you’re exposed to – it’s my little way of helping to change the world without having to become a lead surgeon, or anything like that. What do you find most difficult about your job? The most frustrating thing is that we work with all these amazing organisations and amazing volunteers, I would love to give 100 per cent of my time to each one of them, but I simply can’t. I have a team to manage and our practice to manage. What do you wish you had known when you started the role? I wish I’d known that I was working in a sector
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