7 thoughts on “Board of Directors”

1. I like the change as it is in keeping with the more granular area of online activities

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2. Thanks for your comment, Jill. We really appreciate your taking the time to leave your thoughts, and we welcome any other ideas you might have to make UXPA strong.

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3. Something else I have been wondering about – and this seems like the best place to ask.

   What changes, if any, might happen with the relationship with Solutions for Associations – http://solutions-for-assoc.com/ ? Most people may not realize the “HQ” services are provided by them, such as managing membership. When you talk with Nicole Tafoya, for example, you are talking to a Solutions for Associations person.

   I suspect the change to UXPA – and the other ripple effects – could cause 1 of 3 things to happen to the relationship:

   a. No change, they keep doing the same stuff for the org. But I would hope they would do some things better. For example, a common complaint I hear from European members is how hard it is to contact HQ. And I hear that membership management is too manual. Since I am not really sure what they do for the org, I am not sure how they are/can do it better.

   b. More services from them. Perhaps they have more things they can do for us to make the changes to UXPAness better. Outsource to the experts instead of relying on volunteers!

   b. Fewer services. Maybe finding someone else all together? Perhaps what they do does not scale to the grander UXPA vision? Again, I have no idea what they actually do, so I am not sure.

   So what I would find interesting is a list of what SfA does for the org now and how it will change/stay the same to meet the new UXPA needs.

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   • Hi Keith,

     SFA has been a great partner to UXPA/UPA through all of these changes. One major goal of our new site is to reduce the reliance on manual processes which would potentially enable SFA to do other more strategic work.

     As you mentioned, SFA answers our phones which means they handle a wide variety of requests from members; potential members; people who want to learn more about UX; and the board. They have planned the international conferences (including scheduling, registration and sponsors), managed updates to the Consultant Directory, Job Board and other Web site content and managed our social media.

     That is not a complete list and I’d be happy to give you more details if you would like. SFA is what keeps us running while the board and volunteers do our day jobs.

     Carol

     ——————-
     Carol J. Smith
     UXPA Vice President
     vp2012 at uxpa dot org

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4. Thanks for the added info. Being just a member, and never a UPA-insider, I had to do a little research to even figure out the little that I knew.

   Yes, it is crucial to have people whose “day job” is indeed supporting the organization and not have everyone be volunteers (lesson learned the hard way). If UXPA grows as planned, then I see more need for “day job” people to make the really important things happen. But keeping the right mix of day-job and night-job involvement is important, and I could see sometimes having to shift areas of responsibility from one to the other. And technology can play a key role in that shift (e.g., manual membership management vs. more automated self-service).

   Obviously, conference planning was deemed important, and thus why SFA was paid to do it. And SFA = operations, which makes sense. As UPA evolves to UXPA, please keep reminding us where the SFA relationship is changing to improve the experience of members and to help us accomplish these new goals.

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   • Hello Keith:

     As a UXPA Board member, I noted your post regarding SFA and Carol’s response to it, and I had a few additional thoughts.

     I would first like to echo Carol’s comments in that SFA has truly partnered with UXPA since October of 2002. Personally, I’ve worked closely with SFA on the past few conferences and can attest to their support being invaluable. In that context, I can also say I’ve observed an incredible openness to change and grow with UPXA among the SFA staff. The company has been very flexible as UXPA has identified and tried to address issues throughout the years. In fact, SFA facilitated the strategic planning process which lead to the current vision, mission, goals and objectives of the organizational.

     In regard to access to the office, to a certain extent, an office headquartered in any specific part of the world is likely to experience the same issue from other parts of the world. An office headquartered in Belgium will likely experience access concerns from our U.S. members, offices in other locations would be less accessible to European or Asian members. We at the Board have been discussing such issues for some time, and while there are solutions (regional offices, for example), they are not without significant financial and administrative implications. We will continue to discuss those as UXPA grows and evolves.

     In regard to the membership management being “too manual”, I completely agree! And, we are trying to change that… The delay is related to UXPA’s development of a new website integrating membership functionality. UXPA has embarked on developing its own software platform to manage membership data as well as integrating a website, and that has been ongoing for a number of years now. We preferred to develop one using a software platform of our choosing, which is different than the technology SFA uses with its other clients. Developing our own site enabled us to build the site the way we wanted; unfortunately it has left us dependent on a number of manual processes while the work is underway. (Just for the record, SFA routinely utilizes online technology for the management of its other clients.)

     We look forward to working with SFA as UXPA continues to transition to its new future. We appreciate your thoughtful input as we make our way through that process.

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5. Amy – thanks for the additional information. Managing members is important, and I can see how it could be the foundation for members’ experiences with the organization (and thus a key part of UXPA’s business model). Build vs. buy vs. outsource decisions are strategic, so I can see how this will determine several other aspects of the UXPA direction as it evolves beyond changing its name. At this point, it sounds like the most important thing is getting that part done so the organization can build upon it and tackle other things that members would notice more.

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