My article today will be a bit different than usual, but I will still relate it somehow to associations.
I am still in Washington, D.C., as of this writing, a day before two scheduled meetings. Both are meetings for two associations that I am involved with: the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions, where I am currently the secretary-general; and the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE), where I am the CEO and founder.
The story I am going to tell you, however, is about my travel experience from Manila to Washington, D.C. As you know, travel time from the Philippines to the United States would normally take 24 hours, depending on which route you take. However, due to flight delays, it took me 30 hours to finally reach D.C.
Along the course of my long trip, I lost two things: my Saint Mary medallion at the airport security check at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 3 and my mobile phone in the shuttle van from Reagan Airport to my D.C. hotel. You could imagine how hard I prayed that I recover back these two vital possessions. The medallion was a gift from an association volunteer-trainee who said it is miraculous, while the mobile phone, as everyone nowadays knows, is already “part of our body.”
To make the long story short, the good news is that I found them both, fortuitously. The shuttle company traced the van driver who returned my cell phone to me at the hotel. Coming back to my room happy that I got my phone back, lo and behold, I then found my medallion while unpacking my backpack. Miracles indeed do happen!
So, while thinking of what to write for this column, it struck me to relate the two important personal things that I lost and then found to what associations deal with everyday.
I likened the medallion and the mobile phone to faith in purpose and messaging of an association, respectively.
Many associations today tend to deviate from their original purpose or reason for being. Most often, due to financial and human-resource pressures, associations undertake programs and activities that do not conform nor enhance their missions. A research conducted by the American Society of Association Executives called, The 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t, lists that commitment to purpose is one of the seven attributes that makes an association successful. You can go back to my column of October 16, 2016, entitled “Emulating Remarkable Associations.”
I mentioned in my October 12, column, entitled “Association Pain Points,” that associations, more often than not, are neglectful of communicating their work and advocacy to their constituencies. This, thus, hampers their ability to flourish and sustain their mission.
One last side story that really made my day the following morning while having lunch in a Chinese fast-food chain here in D.C. The fortune cookie I got with my meal had a “prophecy piece of paper” that read: “There will always be delightful mysteries in your life.”
Amen to that!
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The column contributor, Octavio Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific and the CEO and founder of the PCAAE.
The PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 5 and the “Ang Susi” Awards 2017 on November 22 and 23 at the Philippine International Convention Center.
E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details.