Changing Course – A New Association Offering that’s NOT a Virtual Event

As the pandemic hit, our association, like so many others, knew we had to make some changes to help our members and mitigate any loses from in-person events. Strategically, the focus for the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors (MAPP) – a trade organization - is to connect industry leaders and create an unparalleled community focused on networking and sharing. Internally, our team is strong is facilitation and in bringing people together and creating a space for networking and sharing. To that end, we started POWERHOUSE: MAPP Executives Group in the span of one month.

The idea behind the POWERHOUSE groups was inspired by several members who wished they had a space dedicated only to CEOs and presidents. By researching best practices in similar groups, such as YPO and Vistage, my executive director and myself launched this pilot program.

How it works:

Company CEOs, presidents and owners can fill out an application to be part of a POWERHOUSE. The in-depth application allows our team to create the most dynamic POWERHOUSE groups possible. After they have been accepted into the program, they sign NDAs and submit payment. Once a group of 12-14 is established, they begin to meet once every three weeks for three hours for a total of 6 meetings. In our pilot program launch, we have 27 presidents, owners and CEOs participating between 2 POWERHOUSE groups. Each meeting as a theme behind it, such as strategic planning, continuous improvement, maximizing the sales process, etc. The theme is decided by the group itself ahead of the meeting. This means that each group is unique and gets to take on the topics and challenges most important to that cohort.

During the three-hour block of time, the group meets face-to-face via Zoom, and two company leaders spend 15-minutes each explaining how they do business in that certain theme area. The group also breaks off into smaller groups of 3-4 for individualized networking, and slightly larger groups of 6-7 to discuss the challenges of doing business in that particular area. Additionally, the last 60 minutes of the meeting is dedicated solely to general questions, challenges, resource sharing, etc. The group is 100% self-guided and one team member from MAPP is on strictly as a facilitator. At the end of each meeting, they rate the meeting, decide on topics, presenters and flow for the next meeting, and agree to next steps and action items.

Why it works:

When pivoting during COVID, MAPP provided a COVID-19 resource center, webinars, benchmarking reports, problem solving networking related to COVID-19, etc. to its membership. However, after several months, CEOs, owners and presidents needed to begin looking ahead and planning for the future – and a few vocalized this thought to our team. By listening to our members during this time, we were able to pivot and create a brand new program that they wanted and needed. Additionally, we leveraged our team’s strengths of facilitation and creating community to make a trusting environment. Using these three elements, we launched our pilot and then elicit feedback after each meeting to continue to tweak and improve the program.

Association benefits:

Once we knew COVID-19 was here, our association went into action cancelling and postponing our in-person events for the rest of the summer. However, this left a huge gap in programming and left members without the opportunity to create those close bonds. The new POWERHOUSE program helped to fill in those gaps, and instead of spending hours curating programming, we acted only as facilitators letting the members create their own programming. Additionally, in-person events help to contribute to our revenue goals. By offering this program to our members at a cost, our association was able to recoup some of that lost revenue. Even more, our team is already talking about how we can expand this idea to other groups in our membership because the framework is done and there is virtually no direct costs to hosting the program outside of Zoom.

Overall, this has been a great program highlighting how our association can pivot, innovate and provide value to members while also adding value to the association overall.

More information: https://www.mappinc.com/resources/powerhouse-executive-groups/

 

Ashley Turrell, Membership & Analytics Director, MAPP