“ON NETWORKING AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS”

Over the course of years, we’ve come to rely on a number of organizations that specialize in various aspects of state and local government for information, expert sources, research reports and so on. In fact, we’ve gone further and become more closely involved in a few. For example, we currently serve as executive advisors to the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA); advisors for the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA); and advisors for the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE). Prior to the pandemic, we served for several years as senior fellows at the Council of State Governments (CSG).

As writers about organizations like this, we’ve gained tremendous insight, ideas and knowledge. But we haven't as closely considered the value of these types of groups give to their members. That’s why we were particularly intrigued by a recent panel at the NASPE 2025 annual conference in Louisville which brought together the executive directors of four: Leslie Scott Parker of NASPE; David Adkins of the Council of State Governments; Doug Robinson of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Elizabeth Whitehouse of the National Association of State Chief Administrators (NASCA).The association panel was moderated by Glenn Davidson who has had a wide variety of corporate and government experience (most recently as the human capital/workforce development consulting executive at Deloitte.) He was chief of staff to the Governor of Virginia between 1990 and 1994.

Leslie Scott Parker, David Adkins, Doug Robinson and Elizabeth Whitehouse on a panel about membership associations at the 2025 annual NASPE conference in Louisville

Our own observation about the membership associations that we’ve dealt with is that you see minimal partisan behavior at their conferences. We first became aware of this phenomenon at a nearly unbelievable level when former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich gave a speech to the National League of Cities. This was a time when he was clearly not a friend of the democratic party, but when he delivered a message that was appealing to an audience of city officials – many of them democrats – he got a standing ovation.

The world has become more partisan since then, but a couple of weeks ago, when the governor of Kentucky came to the NASPE meeting and spoke to HR officials from around the country, he got a standing ovation from everyone – not just the folks from states with governors who are democrats.

At conferences, we see multiple opportunities for a reasonable exchange of thoughts between people whose states have different perspectives on important topics. We recall a conversation at the mid-year conference of another NASPE meeting in which someone made a negative comment about unions which was followed by positive comments from a state where unions are strong and what followed was a reasoned intelligent discussion.

The comments from the panelists at NASPE were illuminating. Generally speaking, all agreed that their organizations and others like them are a little bit like support groups, in which people can discover that the problems they confront aren’t unique to them. As NASPE's executive director expressed it, she sees relief in the face of new state members, “when they know that somebody has felt the way they do.”

Echoing that thought, Adkins added that "“The benefits of participating in an organization like CSG or NASPE just boils down to one concept – trusted camaraderie.”

He noted that a lot of effort goes into the programming of annual association conferences, but recalling the days when he was a Kansas legislator, he knows that the the greatest benefit is seeing others “who are going through the same thing I was going through, but in a different state, a different political party.”

He said that membership associations provide members with the ability to see that some states are having bigger problems than they and that there are others that have figured out “cool ways to get things done.”

Robinson explained that NASCIO has a long-standing process for onboarding new CIOs and that the annual survey that his organization does with CIOs also provides a compendium of advice from the trenches. “It’s very interesting to see all of that advice, particularly how to navigate the politics of state government,” he said.

One of the major topics of conversation in the panel discussion was the balancing act in which public sector leaders can learn from the corporate membership. Said Parker. “One of the things that we really encourage “is less selling and more networking and building relationships.”

Adkins’ council to corporate members, “If you’re selling, you’re losing. I would argue that even when you’re given three minutes at the podium to sell your stuff, you need to read the room and know that there are better ways than giving them the full dump truck commercial. . .  From the association’s perspective, I would say if you think this is a pay-to-play relationships, you’re wrong.”

Whitehouse echoed this sentiment, saying that “They are thought leaders. It is not a vendor relationship. That is something that is very important to the community of NASCA and the executive committee has called on me to make sure that we’re very protective of that. We’re looking for thought leaders. We’re looking for trusted advisors.”

Clearly these organizations need to establish their value to members reasonably quickly, particularly in fields where there’s lots of turnover. As Robinson said a challenge to his organization (which was echoed by Elizabeth Whitehouse who mentioned the rapid turnover of state chief administrative officers), was “to make friends fast,” because CIOs don’t generally have long tenure in their positions. “So the value proposition has to be articulated right off the bat because they’re not going to be in their positions for a long time.”

Whitehouse and others also mentioned that the relationship with members is not just maintained through their tenure in the position, but afterwards as well, including during transitions to the private sector.

Speaking of her role as executive director:  “I’m an extension of their staff and their team and I want everyone to have my cell phone number so if something comes up, they can call me. That goes for our corporate partners, our strategic partners and especially our state members.”

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