Welcome to our new member chat series - half an hour of power. This week we are delighted to have sat down with AuSAE member, Fiona Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals Australia (SOCAP Australia). In a short 30 minute interview we discussed four key questions with Fiona to reflect on the last four months and look forward to the future post this crisis.
What do the next 6 months look like for your association and your members
Everyone is waiting for the September/October deadline with government support and funding ceasing, to understand what the real impact of this crisis has had on the economy. This deadline will have an effect on our members and their customers, and the support they will need to provide their customers during this time. It is a really interesting time for our association as the next 6 months will provide the building blocks to set us up and the way we respond and move forward over the next 18-24 months. We have already shifted the way we deliver member value and the way in which we operate, but I think this will only continue and change even further. This crisis has uncovered the need for associations to adapt, shift and change their business models, income streams and delivery of member value. We are still in the cycle of change.
Areas of concern
A concern for me is around the ongoing capacity for our association to deliver this new model of member engagement and value. I think as we move through this situation we need to continue to be ready and move quickly whilst providing the support for our teams to deliver their goals for members. An ongoing juggling act for any Association CEO. I think something that has been and will continue to be difficult is the unknown – as a CEO you focus on the strategic planning and outlook of the organisation and this has been a hard ask for CEO’s as the landscape changes daily and we are still unsure of what the end will look like.
Areas of opportunity
In some ways this situation has provided us with the time and space to really look at our overall goals and what we need to do to deliver for members now. We all had a plan coming into 2020 and those plans vanished quickly, and now we have been given the time to re-evaluate and reimagine what service delivery and desired outcomes look like. I am enjoying this process, and the ability for our team to reshape the delivery of programs and ensure the alignment with our true mission as an organisation. In chaos you can certainly find clarity.
Celebrated moments in the last four months
The brilliance of our team to adapt so quickly in such an unknown environment is fantastic to see. They have shifted to working from home, delivering services and not missing a beat for our members and at the same time increasing the output and delivery for members. I am thankful to the team for their agility and support over this time. The engagement with our members has never been stronger, I know that the team and I are nourished by the conversations we are able to have with members every day.
