CFA Case Study

CASE STUDIES

Job

National Launch of the Cystic Fibrosis Data Registry (ongoing client)

Date

May 2005

Objective

To gain awareness and support for Cystic Fibrosis Australia by federal politicians, media and other stakeholder groups.

Outcomes

Client Solutions organised a function at Parliament House and arranged for the Minister for Health and Ageing Hon Tony Abbott to launch the registry. The event was attended by over 100 guests including the Shadow Minister for Health, Ms Julia Gillard, Federal Ministers and MPs, representatives from key health groups including ADGP, AHA, RDAA and press gallery journalists including representatives from TV networks, radio and all major dailies.

Materials

Arrange attendance of Minister
Media management including release and alert
Event management

Comments

A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO THE TEAM WHO WORKED SO HARD TO ACCOMPLISH THE 2006 65 ROSES DAY AND AUSTRALIAN CYSTIC FIBROSIS DATA REGISTRY LAUNCH!

Your assistance to make this day one of the most successful days yet for the Cystic Fibrosis community is very valued by myself and Cystic Fibrosis Australia. The support we receive from all individuals, States, companies and government will further our sole purpose of improving the quality of life for all people with CF until a cure is found.

Terry Stewart, CEO, Cystic Fibrosis Australia

(Above) Mr Terry Stewart, CEO, Cystic Fibrosis Australia addressing the audience

(Left below) Mr Mitch Messer, Vice President CFA and Ms Julia Gillard, Shadow Minister for Health

(Right below) The Hon. Tony Abbott, Minister for Health launching the data registry

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Very few organisations could claim that they have never had members asking:

What do I get for my subscription?
How does it help me?
Those at H.Q. are out of touch with the members.
We go in too hard on issues.
We don't go in hard enough!

In my own 36 years of industry/professional association work, I have heard them all - and in each organisation I worked in! This has caused me to think about what are the key measures of an organisation's health - and how often are they checked, analysed and calibrated?

What are the symptoms of an ailing association? Some danger signs clearly are:

falling membership;
ageing membership;
loss of influence;
lack of competition for elected positions;
rapid changeover of senior staff
loss of corporate memory
a sense of treading water rather than moving forward;
no direction, no vision; and
the emergence of competitors.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Like a disease, there is not much benefit from simply treating the symptoms if at the same time you don't determine the root cause and implement major change. It is always easier to fill in the potholes rather than resurface the road, but the road will get progressively weaker through this process. (Now that's a three metaphor paragraph!)

In answer to this, Client Solutions has developed a range of services which will allow groups to know more about themselves and to improve the way they operate. It's called Association Analytics and will cover a range of analyses, diagnostics and recalibration in areas such as:

Internal Analysis/Review
Membership Analysis/Review
Outputs Analysis/Review
Environmental Analysis/Review