Hi Susan,
Just a quick note to let you know that your summary was shared with our Departmental Management Group today, and agreed. It will be shared with all staff shortly. The memo was very well received, and the managers really appreciated your insight.

Again, I would like to thank you for such a quick and perceptive response to our problem.

Regards,
M A Chiulli
Executive Officer
United Nations
42nd St & 1st Avenue
S-1570A New York, NY 10017

I want to highly recommend Susan Waters, EDM, CAE of Sextant Consulting for facilitating board leadership training. NAEA has been working with Susan for the past year and she has made a tremendous impact on my board and on the association. We have engaged her for strategic planning, two-day board orientations, state affiliate presidents workshops and to assist our EVP Succession Planning task force (no, I'm not going anywhere).

I had a whole board (15) of “old school” directors. It's amazing to see how far they have developed as leaders over the past year. While there are still a few resisting, collectively they've become more strategic than micro-managing, more thoughtful and deliberate rather than reactive and they present themselves more confidently to the membership. I sometimes find it hard to believe it's the same group. I give Susan much of the credit for helping to them to "see the light". Same holds true for the relationship between the national leadership and our state affiliate leadership. We're finally agreeing that we're "better together". Susan was part of that transformation, too.

My members do taxes for a living. To say they are frugal is an understatement. Susan's fees have been fair and reasonable - and worth every penny. In fact, my board even asked me if I put enough money in our 2006-07 budget to use her as much as we need her. That's how valuable they find her.

One last thing, she's a pleasure to work with. Always comes through on deliverables - usually early. Calm and unflappable (a great complement to my often frenzied state). I would recommend her highly to any of my colleagues.

Susan Zuber, CAE
Executive Vice President
National Association of Enrolled Agents

Susan is a dynamic executive director. She is leading the “birth” of all aspects of our active, multifaceted membership organization. She is:
  • entrepreneurial in creating and growing programs;
  • able to lead the fundraising campaign with me with help from our advisors;
  • conversant with bar association methodologies and challenges;
  • an excellent consensus builder in dealing with a diverse membership
  • familiar with all aspects of the legal profession and has relationships with key bar association, association management players and volunteer bar leaders;
  • skilled in organizational and project management;
  • able to build bridges with actors in related fields;
  • proficient at networking in a variety of contexts; and
  • prepared to be an active, passionate voice for the field.

Jeffrey Aresty, President
Internetbar.org
June 23, 2005

Dr. Waters:

Quick note to thank you for creating the association context for the presentations we enjoyed at ASAE's Montreal leadership workshop. Your ability to frame the learnings was a true example of value added. You are an excellent facilitator.

Paulette Vinette, CAE
Association Consultant
(www.solutionstudioinc.com)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I just want to thank you so much for making all of us on the program committee look good through your wisdom and skillful facilitation. I thought it was one of the best retreats ever and we owe you a large debt.

Jodie H. Slaughter
President
McKinley Marketing, Inc.
Program Committee for ASAE Fellows Retreat
June 28, 2005

I would like to express my deep gratitude to you for helping make our State Association Training Day a success. The information you shared on membership marketing was well received by our participants. In fact, your presentation was cited most often on our evaluation form for information proving most useful.

Nicholas Black
Grassroots and Membership Outreach Coordinator
Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association
May 11, 2005

Have been reading Trends for years and this is my first time writing in. Just wanted to tell you that I especially enjoyed the May 20 issue. Was pleased to know that German is not becoming the new language of the association community. I also particularly liked the Susan Waters/Henry Ernstthal point counter point piece. Keep up the good work!

Comment to Association Trends Newsletter
Susan Zuber
Executive Vice President
National Association of Enrolled Agents
May 20, 2005

Dear Susan,
I wanted to thank you for coming to our PCSO Interim Board meeting last week. The PCSO board of directors and I were very impressed with your presentation. The material that you presented was perfect for our directors. It helped them to better understand the challenges of being an effective director and the generational differences with our various members and leaders of the PCSO.

I hope that we will have an opportunity to use your services in the future.

Sincerely yours,
Steven Dugoni PCSO President

Dear Susan,
On behalf of the members and staff of The Center for Association Leadership and ASAE, I wanted to thank you for giving us your time and providing your expertise for the California Association Law Symposium held on February 16, 2005 in Sacramento. From all reports, your presentation and discussion were very informative and extremely relevant to all in attendance.

The conference evaluations have been tallied and the participants rated their overall experience at the symposium as a 4.5 on a 5-point scale. They also felt strongly (4.6) that the dayês program provided ideas and strategies that were relevant and felt they could put into practice, and that the program content was presented in a well-organized, understandable and engaging fashion (4.7). They very much appreciated the provision of templates and samples, and many felt that they could have spent much more time learning even more.

Congratulations on such high ratings! The Center and ASAE are committed to consistently providing our members with high-quality educational programs. These presentations proved to be in alignment with such a commitment.

Again, thank you for your participation and support. If you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 326-9507. I wish you all the best in your continuing endeavors and perhaps we will see you in Sacramento again next year!

Sincerely, Libby

LIBBY BINGHAM MANAGER, LEARNING THE CENTER FOR ASSOCIATION LEADERSHIP & AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES