The vote of the GWSAE association professional members concluded on June 30, 2004. Of the 733 members who voted, 78 percent voted in favor of transforming their organization from an independent not-for-profit corporation into an entity that is part of The Center for Association Leadership, which will offer a similar set of programs and benefits through an entity called the GWSAEnetwork.

This new entity will continue to represent the interests of association professionals and business partners in the greater Washington, DC area. GWSAE members automatically become part of the GWSAEnetwork and ASAE members through the merger, where they will also have access to a broad range of additional programs and benefits.

The ASAE Foundation, the research arm of ASAE charged with preparing the association profession for the future, also becomes part of The Center for Association Leadership, a global organization that will offer exceptional learning experiences nationwide, creates and disseminates knowledge, and builds community throughout the association profession.

The boards of the four organizations involved agreed to the merger in principle in January 2004. Since then, volunteer leaders and staff of the organizations conducted extensive due diligence, including holding a series of Town Hall meetings nationwide to collect input from stakeholders that helped shape the structure and programs of the merged organizations.

The boards voted to approve the merger on May 25th, 2004. A vote of GWSAE association professional members to transform their organization was the final step required to complete the merger.

“This bold initiative unites our organizations with a common vision – advancing the association profession across the nation and around the world,” declares ASAE President & CEO John Graham, CAE. “The concept of merging these groups has been discussed for many years, and we are delighted that it has finally happened.”

The Center for Association Leadership President & CEO Susan Sarfati, CAE, adds, “This is a great day for association professionals. Through this merger, the Center has an expanded mandate to provide learning and knowledge development opportunities to executives everywhere. Our mission is to create strong leaders for the profession, and we now have the combined resources of all these organizations to help accomplish this goal.”

The merger proposal was developed by a Joint Organization Leadership Team (JOLT), comprised of the top elected officers of each of the four organizations, plus Graham and Sarfati. ASAE members outside Washington, DC, have been asking for years to have more education programs offered across the nation,” Graham explains.

“This merger allows us to deliver these opportunities in locations convenient to them at price points they can afford.” At the same time, the Washington, DC metropolitan region remains the largest market of association professionals in the world, and local executives want to retain the culture and networking opportunities that GWSAE has created for them for many years.

“We listened to what GWSAE members wanted and created the GWSAEnetwork that preserves and expands the programs that are important to them,” Sarfati says. “We worked hard to ensure that the culture, camaraderie, and peer networking that has made GWSAE successful remains in place. Although the corporate entity no longer exists, the heart and soul remain because it is made up of people from our community who will remain.”

Graham and Sarfati add that the culture of the new ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership will be defined by inclusiveness, a focus on people, world-class customer service, market responsiveness, and innovation.

“We intend to translate the excitement of this merger into new initiatives that will serve association professionals in ways they have not experience before,” Sarfati reports.

“We will embrace new thinking, take risks, pursue innovation, and actively seek a variety of perspectives from inside and outside the association community and inside and outside the Washington region. We will benefit from the expanded resources and brainpower we have gained by merging.”

ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership will also achieve operational efficiencies through shared services in the areas of human resources, finance and administration, information technology, marketing, public relations, communications, meetings and expositions, and market research.

The two organizations will operate with separate boards linked in a new governance structure that includes cross-representation on both boards and a unified staff structure.

ASAE will continue to operate from its headquarters at 1575 Eye Street, N.W., in Washington, DC, and The Center for Association Leadership and the GWSAEnetwork will continue to operate from its nearby headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, DC.

The budget of the combined organizations is $33 million. Survey & Ballot Systems, Inc., an independent election services firm based in Eden Prairie, MN, administered and tabulated the voting ballots used by GWSAE members.