Association Insight International & European Association Insights Spring 2015 | Page 17
Article | Association Insights
Q. Is WAZA aiming to grow and develop internationally?
A. Membership growth is not the primary goal of the
association, but a slow growth takes place every year.
A net growth of about 10 members per year is realistic.
Since its beginning 80 years ago WAZA has had the
view that quality is more important than quantity, so the
strategic work with and for our members in favour of the
whole community is still of utmost importance.
Q. Good governance is also crucial for associations. Do
you have any governance tips?
A. It is most important that you get the right people. Then
you can achieve a lot even in a small team. WAZA is
working in committees, where members are represented;
the more active those committees are the better. On our
relatively small Council, with 10 members, the incoming
president is always on the Council two years before
taking office. This has proven to be very helpful in order
for them to get fully into the job.
www.associationsnetwork.org
Q. How important is leadership as a quality of a good
CEO?
A. In cases of urgency or emergency, for instance, when
members are in trouble, it is of utmost importance to
take the right decision and involve the right people from
the beginning. After the floods in Thailand, for example,
and also in Prague, as well as after the tsunami in Japan,
WAZA could organize support, in terms of money
collected or in terms of organising material support.
Another example was the development and securing of
external funds for our ‘Biodiversity is us’ project. This
helps increase the cohesion of the community, provides
service to members, creates evidence of the role of
our members in terms of implementing the mission to
reach out to people and have an educative influence.
As a global association, for the first time we were able
to provide all supportive material in six languages.
Other examples are strategic developments that involve
members and provide direction for the future.
© Associations Network 2015 | 17