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None of Us Is As Smart As All of Us
By Jim Skiera, ISA Executive Director
As of June 24 of this year, ISA had 16,338 members, reflecting an annual growth
of 4.6 percent. This is our 21st year of positive membership growth. By year's
end, we are projected to exceed 17,000 members. Much of our growth is directly
attributable to members recruiting members. Thank you for your continued
efforts.
The Executive Committee will present a budget to the Board of Directors in
August that will include investing double (that is, $500,000 instead of
$250,000) into the Society's reserves. This deposit puts us one year closer,
and a year earlier than we projected, to attaining the goal established by the
Finance Committee.
At the same time, the Executive Committee will present a list of
accomplishments for the year that far exceed our initial annual plan. Everybody
take a bow. That's right—you deserve it. This fiscal year has been a productive
one for ISA and its members, and you need to take a moment and appreciate what
this network of exceptional people have accomplished.
To help continue this positive trend, the Executive Committee, ISA staff,
and many of the standing committee chairs participated in an annual planning
session in St. Louis on May 23 and 24. We hold this session for a number of
reasons, but the primary one is to take advantage of a fact we discovered a few
years ago during our strategic planning process: None of us is as smart as all
of us.
On the first day of the meeting, the enthusiastic volunteers generated a
wealth of ideas for how ISA can further advance our mission. Following the
brainstorming session, participants were asked to categorize and rank the
ideas. The top three ideas in each category were listed on a summary sheet. Of
several hundred suggestions, we ended up selecting 20 ideas (see ISA News, page
41). Don't worry—we haven't thrown out the remaining ideas. We do, however,
need to focus to be effective, and choosing the best of the best ideas helps us
maintain that focus.
The following day, the standing committees presented their work plans for
the coming year. After the presentations, the Executive Committee, ISA staff,
and committee chairs
reviewed how the committee work plans responded to the priorities that had been
set during the planning session. For the most part, the process confirmed that
the work plans of the committees were consistent with the priorities set
collectively the previous day. The process also identified opportunities for
committees to work together to leverage their efforts to accomplish similar
goals.
As executive director of ISA, one of my roles is to see that the activities
of the organization are consistent with our mission. I am pleased to report
that we are on track. Some of the key things to expect in the coming year are
an increased focus on marketing of the Certified Arborist program, an emphasis
on improving international relations, efforts to include more students in ISA
activities, and development of more and better educational products and
services for our members.
On the international front, in June several members of the Executive
Committee and ISA staff directors conducted a leadership workshop with the
leaders of ISA chapters based in Europe. The meeting was held the day before
the sixth ISA European Congress. Although the accents and surroundings were
different, the enthusiasm was the same. It appears that tree people are the
same around the world—we all are passionate about our work.
During the workshop, we quickly found out that many of the issues for
chapters in Europe were the same as those found elsewhere in the world: member
and volunteer recruitment, time and funding for projects, and a need to get the
word out to the public about the profession. As a result, we've developed a
number of strategies to assist chapters with these issues over the next year
and are bringing a few ideas back to headquarters to help chapters worldwide.
At the conference sessions, we also discovered a wealth of resources in the
areas of research and education that we hope will soon find their way into the
pages of Arborist News and the Journal of Arboriculture with the assistance of
translators from several of our European chapters.
The final activity of our European experience was attending the European
Tree Climbing Championship. Twelve countries were represented, and the host,
ISA's Dutch Chapter, did an outstanding job of organizing a spectacle of
international proportion. The event was well attended, and the quality of
competition was top-notch. I still am impressed at the level of camaraderie
among the competitors at climbing events. What is equally impressive is the
level of commitment provided by volunteers who give their time to help produce
tree climbing championships around the world. Show your appreciation and
support for their efforts by attending chapter, European, and international
climbing championships. Such events are entertaining and educational—and they
help promote our profession.
Remember, none of us is as smart as all of us. Share your knowledge and experience. Doing so makes us all better people.
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International Society of Arboriculture
