Bob Harris and Sarah Gustafson

Bob Harris, CAE, provides free governance tools and templates at www.nonprofitcenter.com.

Sarah Gustafson, ABR®, SRES®, CRS, serves as Dean of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® Leadership Academy and is past president of the REALTOR® Association of Central Massachusetts.

Articles by Bob Harris and Sarah Gustafson

• The groundhog effect for associations

  Monday, March 16, 2020

  In the film "Groundhog Day," Phil Connors relives the same day, over and over, until he eventually gets it right. So many associations endure a similar situation without rectifying the repetitive scenario. The groundhog effect is when an association does the same things but treats the activities as if they are new and never been done before. Imagine the frustration of volunteer on the conference planning committee. They are assigned responsibilities for menus, speakers, and registration. They begin by asking, "Is this the first time this conference has been planned or are their records from last year’s committee?"