OESA'S FUTURE
Planning for OESA's Future What does the future hold? This is no easy question to answer, especially in the context of the current pandemic. Yet, this is exactly the question OESA asked a small group of members this past summer. The effort – spearheaded by Ginger Juncker, OESA’s Executive Director, Councils & Member Programs – started by meeting with members in small virtual groups and asking them to think like a leader 10 years into the future. With this mindset, the members explored questions including: how do you see your organization changing? How would you see OESA supporting these changes? What is the future relationship between OESA and your company? At the same time, the OESA team explored a complementary set of questions. Questions included: what do we expect OESA’s relationship with members look like? Given that, where / what does OESA need to look like as a team / group? Then the results were compared. What did OESA learn? From OESA members: ● Members are going through a myriad of transformations and changes now. ○ Company changes are occurring in: customer base, product type, ecosystem of industry,
organization, talent / skillset, and pre-to-post COVID. ● Members look to OESA for support and guidance during transformations. ○ Speed of dissemination of information is a key metric. ● OESA’s value proposition for members continues to be critical. ○ Maintain what we already have: MEMA DC & its reach, information availability, networking, and surveys. ○ Leverage and create cross-functional insight and relationships within membership. The OESA team identified the following: ● OESA needs to be flexible and adaptable with programming formats and communications. ● OESA needs to continue to rapidly evolve the value proposition of membership to meet their
changing business environment ● Speed is an increasingly important metric for OESA.
Next Steps The OESA Board of Directors reviewed these findings and formed an ad-hoc steering committee to ensure OESA takes this insight to the next level by translating these findings into action plans for today. OESA will continue to learn from members throughout the next phase while we benchmark associations in other industries. Importantly, OESA will keep members informed as this effort progresses. 8 │ OESA News - 2020 Fourth Quarter
