Spooky season is here, but associations don’t need to fear the future

Halloween’s upon us – perhaps a bit scary – and those of us working at and leading associations in the midst of “dues renewal” season could be wondering if 2021 might be scarier still. As we think about the challenges this year has brought and ask our members to join us in facing those that lie ahead, it’s worth taking a look back at what we’ve learned this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been front and center in a challenging year, both personally and professionally. Many businesses in a wide variety of sectors have been savaged by pandemic restrictions. Meanwhile, all employers – whether companies, or trade associations like the NCA – have been working diligently to protect employees’ health and safety, while doing our best to continue serving our customers, members, and stakeholders.

While bringing profound disruptions in many ways, in others, COVID-19 has reinforced the fundamentals. For associations like ours, that means our role as a one-stop resource for members has become more important than ever before. Here at NCA, the pandemic has only underscored the critical mission captured in our motto – “we serve coffee.”

Within weeks of NCA’s annual convention in March, the pandemic surged rapidly and questions from our members began to flood in.

The first rush of calls were about health and safety – obviously crucial for food-related businesses, especially those serving coffee.  

Members then shifted to needing assistance in navigating the impacts of various shutdown orders and “essential business” exceptions. While addressing business continuity, we also focused on providing the latest information about loan and relief programs.

With the environment shifting rapidly and vast reams of information coming from every direction, NCA served a valuable role in filtering, consolidating, and delivering the most up-to-date resources and making information and tools easily accessible to members through tools like webinars and our widely-used online COVID Resource Center.  

We also assessed gaps and moved quickly to fill them - for example by commissioning member-exclusive consumer polling and market analysis to identify exactly how COVID-19 impacted consumers’ coffee habits. NCA has always been the coffee industry’s leader in market research, and our flexibility to conduct rapid analysis now will arm our members with the data they need to plan for a new future.

Lastly, throughout the crisis, NCA helped ensure our members’ contributions to COVID-19 relief efforts were amplified and recognized, showcasing the coffee community’s good work like donations of free coffee #FuelTheHeroes on the frontlines of responding to the pandemic. 

All the while, we never let up on our core mission and objectives. We continued to provide the technical advice coffee businesses rely on. We kept up our commitment to and partnerships on environmental sustainability and equitable development in coffee. We championed the overwhelmingly positive evidence on coffee and health (including the evidence that drinking coffee can reduce the risk of depression, particularly welcome news during these trying times). The list goes on.  

It hasn’t always been easy, but my biggest lesson from leading NCA against the backdrop of this challenging year is that the fundamentals work. Crises come and crises (hopefully) go, but we have been and must remain laser-focused on our goals - in NCA’s case, to truly serve coffee.  

Of course, no one can predict with any certainty what 2021 will bring, but as association leaders we should be confident that a clear-eyed assessment of our strengths and our members’ needs can deliver more value than ever before. In November, I’ll be joining association colleagues at the New York Society of Association Executives webinar on “Creating Change in the Time of Crisis.” I’m looking forward to hearing from colleagues and sharing more about how we can create value for members in these times and always.

As anyone who’s seen a good horror movie knows, shadowy figures lurking in the darkness can become a lot less scary with just the flip of a light switch. 

NCA: We Serve Coffee.

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