6 Excellent Reasons to Join a Professional Organization

It’s not selfish to ask: What’s in it for me? From both a business and individual perspective, that’s the smart lead question to determining the value of membership in a professional association. During this podcast session, my guest Tina Jordan, vice president of membership for AFCEA International, will delve into the top benefits of joining, how to measure and analyze your ROI, and how membership can drive business growth and winning strategies.

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Mike: Hey everybody. Mike LeJeune here with Game Changers for Government Contractors. And today I have Tina Jordan on here with us and she's going to be talking about ea. Before we hop in and talk about AFCEA today, Tina, why don't you give us a little bit of an overview about yourself and what you do?

Tina: Sure Mike, thanks for having me today. Again, my name is Tina Jordan. I'm the Vice President of Membership at AFCEA International. I spent 20 years in industry in the IT industry and was a volunteer with AFCEA, and when I left industry I had the opportunity to come work for AFCEA full-time. that's what I do now.

Mike: Awesome. I'd love for you to give our listeners an overview of AFCEA. I think a lot of people are familiar with it, but don't quite know what you do. I want to get them to understand the value of the organization. So please give us an overview.

Tina: So AFCEA is a member-based nonprofit association for IT professionals serving those who serve. So basically what I tell people is that the government and the military have IT needs, and industry and academia have IT solutions. And AFCEA provides the ethical forum to bring these four groups together to have the necessary conversations for global security.

Mike: What drew you to AFCEA?

Tina: Oh, that's actually a funny story. So I was working in industry and our defense group president was talking to someone saying that we needed somebody from our organization to represent, uh, our company on the board of AFCEA-DC. And just as he was saying that, I walked across the hallway and he looked up and saw me. So truly it was being at the right place at the right time. And that's what brought me to AFCEA but people are what kept me here. I just think it's an amazing association and I've made some really good friends in the years that I've been involved. So the people are what keep me with AFCEA.

Mike: Wow. How long have you been with the organization?

Tina: So I was a volunteer for about 15 years and I've been on staff about eight years.

Mike: Wow. That's a long time to be part of anything. So that, that's quite a testament to the organization for, you know, going from volunteer, even volunteering for 15 years. That's a long time to volunteer to then move into a role. I think that says a lot about the organization by itself.

Tina: Yeah, it's fun. It's been a great, great ride.

Mike: So what do you recommend for someone, so I'm, I'm brand new to the organization. I look through it. I decide I'm going to join. What's the fastest way for somebody to plug in?

Tina: Really through our chapters. We have 138 chapters worldwide, and we have a tagline that says there's a place for you in AFCEA. And it's really true at the chapter level and at the international level, there's just lots of ways to plug in and find new place in AFCEA.

Mike: You cover a lot of the major cities and with that many chapters there's probably something close to somebody. Is there a way if somebody doesn't have a chapter close to them, for them to maybe sponsor a chapter and start that in their local area?

Tina: Yes, absolutely. The requirement is to have 25 new members to start a chapter.

Mike: Okay.

Tina: And you just reach out to us at headquarters and we work with you and get a new chapter started to serve the community

Mike: Awesome

Tina: in that, in that area. Sure.

Mike: Awesome. So that, that seems like it's pretty simple. I know that you are widely known for your events. Tell me about some of the main events that you host.

Tina: Okay. The best way for me to do that is just to go through the calendar year. Starting in February, AFCEA International hosts WEST in San Diego. Then in April we have our Spring Intelligence Symposium. In May, TechNet Cyber. TechNet International is in June, Intelligence and National Security Summit is in July. In August, we have TechNet Augusta. In October, TechNet Europe. And then we wind up the year with TechNet Indo-Pacific in November. And additionally, several of our chapters hold large events throughout the year. And anyone interested can just go to our AFCEA website and look at our calendar to see what we have coming up.

Mike: If I was a new member, obviously there's so many choices. Is there like one main event or two main events that you would say if you're a brand new member, these are probably the one or two that you need to start with?

Tina: Well, it really depends on what your market is. If you're in the Intel community, then certainly you'd want to hit the Spring Intelligence Symposium and the Intelligence and National Security Summit. Our event out at WEST largely focuses on Navy, TechNet cyber, if you are in or in the cyber domain, TechNet Cyber's a great one for me. So it really sort of depends on what your area of focus is. We certainly have something for everybody.

Mike: I have another new member question here. Just based on something you're saying, if I'm a new member and there's so many options let's say I don't have a local chapter, but I joined, what would you recommend or who would you recommend if I was trying to navigate that?

Because I'm like, wow, there's so many options and I don't know which conference I should go. Is there someone in the organization you would recommend I touch base with first?

Tina: Sure for a corporate member, Shante Russell. Her email address is [email protected]. She could best advise our corporate members on where to plug in. And then Sean McGowan, you could find him on our website as well. Really works closely with our chapters and knows our chapters really well and can help people identify where to best plug in given their interests if they're not a great fit for a certain geography.

Mike: Okay. I think that's great to have people that they can zero in on and go, okay, this is how I get plugged in if I am confused. Because a lot of times people get overwhelmed with, a new membership and don't know exactly what to do. Which kind of leads me to my next question is: you know, a lot of people, when they join something new, the first thing they're thinking is ROI. You know, how do I get a return on investment? And, and at the end of the day, it is largely judged based on contract wins. If you're a government contractor, you know, how are you growing your business? How do you feel like being part of AFCEA helps the average government contractor ultimately get to those contract wins?

Tina: That's a great question. And I want to back up to your point about getting in the organization and how to maneuver & best leverage it. I tell people joining AFCEA is a lot like joining a gym. And if you join the gym and you don't know how to use the equipment, then you're really wasting your money. So the best thing when you get involved in AFCEA is to reach out and find out the best ways to leverage that membership and the best way to plug in. And I'll tell you for me, some of the key benefits are the way we help people connect, engage, brand, and inform are really the strengths of AFCEA.

Mike: Can you tell me a little bit about each of those?

Tina: Yeah, sure. I mentioned the list of conferences and symposia that we host and co-host each year. And these bring together government leaders with industry and academia in the key global security disciplines such as cyber and national security intelligence.

There are thousands of people that attend these events. And so that's a great way to connect. For corporate members, a great way to connect is through our corporate directory. And that highlights all of our corporate members and details corporate members business focus, products and services, NAICS codes, key contact information, things like that.

Our corporate directory receives more than 5,000 unique hits per month from government and military customers, as well as businesses looking for partners. And my favorite story about our corporate directory is: we had a small business that joined AFCEA on a Thursday. Our team helped that business get its profile completed in the corporate directory on Friday.

And by Monday that company had an NDA waiting for them from a company that was working on a proposal over the weekend. And they found this new corporate member through a keyword word search in our directory. So again, just a great way to connect.

Mike: Yeah, that's pretty awesome. That's a quick turnaround on an ROI, right? So talk to me about engaging.

Tina: Sure. AFCEA has a lot of committees that play a vital role in shaping the global security landscape. Our members volunteer their time and expertise to make a difference and engage with other professionals. We also have our emerging leader program, and that's focused on our members who are younger than age 40. And it's important as it gives those members a prominent voice in our community. And of course, as I mentioned, we're a chapter based membership organization and we have 138 chapters across the globe. So this offers our members a home, no matter where they are geographically or where they want to plug in, as you and I just talked about. And our chapters have a huge number of resources to help people engage with these diverse groups. So always lots of opportunities to engage in AFCEA.

Mike: I love all the chapters, you know, that's a little bit different than some of the organizations that are out there. When I think about your analogy there about the gym, it really is important for people to understand how to connect, how to engage, how to use the tools and everything that are in there. But you also mentioned branding and informing. Tell me a little bit about that and how those work in the program.

Tina: Yes, sure. So AFCEA helps folks connect their brand to the AFCEA world in unique and customized ways, using all of our resources. And developing new ones if they needed in a way that's really affordable. For instance, we have a program called AFCEA Brand Link, and this optimizes companies own content and media. Or we can help them create something new. Through Brand Link, companies can buy marketing, advertising, and sponsorships. Or they can also host a webinar or a video or even sponsor event products. So there's a lot of branding opportunities that help meet the needs of every size company in all marketing budgets.

And as for informing, we have a lot of ways in which we inform. I mentioned our conferences before. We also have networking and training events, and we have a great scholarship program. A huge way we inform is through Signal Media, which is AFCEA's official news media arm. Through Signal Media, we inform government, industry and academia about the nation's security needs and solutions. And our award-winning social signal media and our cyber edge product focus on the news that is important to our industries, so our members stay informed.

Mike: I remember back in the day having my subscription to signal, getting all that stuff. There's always great stuff to read in there. I'm sure a lot of people are, are familiar with that. Given the landscape and how competitive things are in government contracting where the focus is again, so geared at winning, you know how can government contractors, especially the small folks, best take advantages of like your conferences, the networking, training, that sort of thing?

Tina: We have a small business program manager on our corporate membership team. Her name is Laura Allen, and she is dedicated to realizing the success for all of our small business members. And we know that small businesses often have the technical capabilities that the government needs to meet their missions, but sometimes these small businesses need assistance with their business and networking efforts. And that's where the AFCEA advantage makes a difference, is we can help those small businesses make great connections to assist with their business growth.

?We also have a small business committee that acts as a voice of our small business members. So we constantly have a pulse on the needs of our members and what's important to them. So we're kind of like that one stop shop that helps vendors and subcontractors through the strength of our AFCEA community and networking and relationships, and also through visibility and access to timely and accurate information.

Mike: As I'm looking through, one of the things that I think a lot of people brand new to government struggle with is just navigating the federal marketplace. It's very confusing. It's one of the hardest markets initially when people look at it because of how it's structured.

I always tell people: but the great thing is it hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 20, 30 years. The good thing is once you figure it out, it's fairly easy to navigate. But how can a professional association, because I know part of this podcast is not just about AFCEA, but you know, associations in general.

How can a professional association help its members navigate and make sense of this complicated marketplace?

Tina: Great question. So I mentioned our corporate directory. Another key focus of AFCEA is to help educate our members by providing information needed to help grow their business. And we do this by offering a procurement webinar series that informs corporate members about different contracting vehicles and programs that are coming out.

?And the series and our other offerings provide great information for businesses when bidding on and winning contracts. And we help corporate members navigate and understand the complexities of operating a business successfully and the often confusing, as you mentioned, federal marketplace. Also, you know, businesses can't go directly to the federal decision makers to pitch their ideas.

So we create the public events that caters to that need. And it just makes sense for our federal leaders to reach many more people through speaking at public events to discuss their IT needs. And then as part of that event, businesses who see a clear way to support those needs can connect with the speaker to discuss different solutions and make arrangements for follow on meetings.

So through networking at our events, businesses are able to connect with government and military customers to discuss products, services, and solutions. And our webinar programs help deliver solutions to the intended audiences.

Mike: that's awesome. you mentioned the speakers in addition to like, let's say, having government speakers and, and those folks, do you also take speaker abstracts for people to pitch ideas and

Tina: Absolutely.

Mike: things like that?

Tina: Absolutely. We do that at our AFCEA International events. But also our chapters look for speakers to come to their locations as well: from industry, from government.

Mike: I've always felt like that was one of the best not only branding exercises that a company can go through, but just marketing and just awareness activity, just to let people know you even exist and you are an expert in cybersecurity or whatever it may be. Like if people don't know about you, it's hard for them to pursue you. When you're on the stage in front of whether it's 30 people or 3000 people, you can get your name out there really, really fast. So I, I highly encourage anybody listening to this: look for those opportunities to submit a speaker abstract and get on stage in front of your peers.

Tina: That's great advice, Mike.

Mike: Thank you. the title of the podcast today is, you know, six Excellent Reasons to Join a Professional Association. So help me bring this full circle here. let's talk about what those six reasons are. I'll let you list them out.

Tina: That's a great question to end on. So I would say: getting your name or your company name out there, continuing education, mentoring programs, networking opportunities, access to vital resources that you can't get in other places, and professional

Mike: Yeah. Those to me are really important. It goes back to understanding how to use the organization and who in the organization? I, I've definitely found as you plug in more, whether you volunteer to be on a committee, volunteer to work at the conference, volunteer to be a speaker: you get to know more and more people that are behind the scenes and the more you get to know behind the scenes, the more you learn about these opportunities. Whether it's continuing education, a mentor program, or something else, those opportunities come up because you plug in and you find those ways. I know, when I join something, I'm always like, what needs do you have? Where can I be of service?

Because I will help. And then as a result, I'll learn a lot of these different things and the people. And the people will get to know me. At the end of the day, people is what make it go round, right? That's a big deal. Is there anything we missed today as we wrap up and we kind of get to your final thoughts?

Tina: Yeah, the only other thing I would add, I mean I talk about how AFCEA is a member-based association, but we're also a volunteer based association. I mean, I mentioned our 138 chapters. They're made up of amazing volunteers. And every hour our volunteers spend with AFCEA is an hour that they could choose to be doing something else. And so we don't take it lightly here at headquarters that our volunteers choose to spend time with AFCEA. It's an amazing way to give back because, since we're a nonprofit, the events that our chapters do: the proceeds for those events go to support scholarships and STEM classrooms and different initiatives in the schools.

And it's just a great way to give back to the community as well as, it's definitely growing your business, growing your personal brand, connecting, getting and winning contracts. But there's also an element of AFCEA that's giving back to the community that I think is really special.

Mike: That's awesome. Given the way things work today with, we're in different locations on Zoom recording this, I would assume if I'm not located near your headquarters, I can still volunteer to help out with things going on at headquarters. Is that true?

Tina: Absolutely. We love our volunteers. There's always room to volunteer at AFCEA.

Mike: There's a way to plug in. You’ve just got to look for it. Right?

Tina: Exactly.

Mike: I really thank you for coming on and, and talking about AFCEA. As much as we focused on the organization itself, giving all of the insight that you did about your organization: that mirrors a lot of the professional organizations out there.

They have similar things for their industry. And again, if I go back to the title of this, the Six Excellent Reasons to Join a Professional Organization, I think we've laid out today a lot of reasons why it makes sense for government contractors to plug into things like this for their industry. We didn't talk a whole lot about this aspect of it. But on the continuing education side, you get to learn a lot about your industry when you're rubbing elbows with tens of thousands of people in the industry. You know, you're going to learn those really great things.

So, there's some stuff that happens in that unofficial networking side of these things. Whether, again it's, you know, you're remote on a Zoom call, you're networking on LinkedIn, or you're actually at an event. Just being part of something makes you have that commonality with somebody else.

And I, I think that's a really good aspect of it. Thanks for coming on and sharing all these insights, particularly with AFCE A, but the larger side of this into why it makes sense to be part of a professional organization. I really appreciate you coming on and talking about this today.

Tina: Thank you for the opportunity. Talking about AFCEA is one of my favorite things to do. So thank you for this, Mike.

Narrator: Thanks for listening to Game Changers for Government Contractors. For a full list of episodes and other resources, be sure and check us out on the web at www.rsmfederal.com/gamechangers.