Happy holidays everyone! I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your membership! Your contributions enrich our community.

This year we were pleased to upgrade education programs on subjects important to you and to introduce exciting new learning opportunities and hot topics, such as making the ASK, targeting members from entry level to CEO. We also continued to offer the relevant ExecConnect and Executive Women in Nonprofits engagement groups. Our annual MeetNY, honoring NYSAE’s 100th anniversary boasted a sold-out crowd.

We also showcased many new initiatives. In InView, which now comes out bi-weekly, we launched an Ask the Experts column, news from ASAE and legal updates from Venable LLC. This summer we co-hosted a well-attended Meet-Up at the ASAE Annual Meeting with our neighboring professional societies, Empire State SAE and the Mid-Atlantic SAE. In September we held our first ever New Member Welcome breakfast and we have initiated an alliance with Columbia University's master’s program in nonprofit management to introduce young professionals to the association and nonprofit world. New member discounts have been added, along with a special refer-a-member incentive. We also extended a hearty welcome to our new team at our new association management company, Kellen, who took the NYSAE reigns in July.

Looking ahead, we have many exciting plans in the works for you in 2020! A new “How To” Series of workshops, Coffee Break 20-minute webinars, and Associations 101 will make its return after a long hiatus to benefit those new to the association world. Underscoring our commitment to young professionals, the NextGen Engagement Group relaunches in 2020 with two new co-chairs. Our desire to increase opportunities to recognize excellence has added several new categories to our May Synergy Awards (have you nominated someone yet?!). And, we are pleased to announce that ASAE's CAE 3-day Kickoff program will be offered in February for the first time outside of Washington DC. As always, we will continue to offer education programs on dynamic and timely topics. Be sure to check Inview or the event calendar for details!

We extend our best wishes to you for 2020 and look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Warm regards,
Charles Riotto