A youth movement is hitting Wisconsin trade associations as a new generation of leaders replaces directors who sometimes held their posts for decades.
One new leader, Matt Banaszynski (pictured, top left) of the Independent Insurance Agents of Wisconsin, is only 29.
“Yeah, I’ve had a few people ask me if I’m shaving yet,” quipped Banaszynski, a former legislative and congressional aide who heads an organization where the average member age is 54. “Unfortunately, I look even younger than I am. But I can dish it right back.
“The bottom line is that I’ve had to work extra hard to earn their respect.”
Karen Rockwell (bottom left), the new executive director of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association, is 39. Kurt Bauer (bottom right), president of the powerful Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and Rose Oswald Poels (top right), the Wisconsin Bankers Association president who succeeded Bauer at WBA, are both 45.
Roger Cliff, the 63-year-old chief administrative officer of the 44,000-member state Farm Bureau Federation, said he’s seen a number of colleagues who ran trade associations step down in recent years. Cliff, who has run the farm group for nine years, will leave at the end of December.
“A lot of us are baby boomers like me and getting to the point where we want to retire,” said Cliff, who has worked for the Farm Bureau for 40 years, 30 as its chief lobbyist.
“That’s just the natural process by and large. And yes, I have seen a youth movement. We’ve certainly been hiring a lot of young people here, so now we’ve moved into all the social media like Facebook and Twitter.
“We’ve even brought in interns to set up regular tweets. With our membership, we’ve got all methods of communications covered.”
Banaszynski, executive vice president of the insurance trade group, took over from 67-year-old Bob Jartz a year ago. He said he’s worked hard to bring his association into the 21st century.
“Frankly, I think the model for trade associations that’s been around for 100 years is broken,” said Banaszynski, who has worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and state Rep. John Nygren, both Republicans.
“Our association has been here since 1899,” he said. “But the old ways of doing things don’t work anymore, in part because people can get access to information a lot easier and faster than they ever could before.”
And as the older generation of men and women transition out, he said new leaders will need to recruit new, younger members and find new sources of income — in addition to updating operations.
“We’ll keep the things that worked, but we are struggling to find relevance while continuing to provide valuable services like our continuing education and pre-licensing courses,” said Banaszynski, whose association has more than 5,500 members.
“Being a new and younger state executive, I brought in a whole different viewpoint about technology and how we do business. We’ve created new websites, interfaces and automation systems. We’ve also taken our technology and put it on the cloud, so it’s all remotely available to anyone no matter where they are.
“And as more young people come in to fill the ranks of other associations, you’ll see increased strategic planning and additional face lifts, too.”
Bauer, who took over WMC two years ago at age 43, said he’s not sure how much his age mattered to members.
“Jim Haney, who I replaced, was actually younger than I was – just 35 – when he started,” said Bauer, who had led the Wisconsin Bankers Association before making the jump to WMC. Haney retired at age 65 after leading the association as president for a quarter century.
Bauer said he tweets his 3,500 members fairly frequently and has advocated a “more aggressive” use of Facebook.
“I think turnover and change is normal,” he said. “Seasoned executives do want to retire after awhile.
“But change is inevitable, and it would have occurred here even if Jim had stayed. I might be taking a different course, but we remain just as unapologetically pro-business as we were under Jim.”
And while he’s embraced Facebook and Twitter, Bauer has moved the other direction by starting what he calls an “old-fashioned” print magazine.
“That’s one of the first things I did when I got here,” he said. “WMC hadn’t had a print publication in over 10 years and never had a magazine. So despite the fact that many people like to communicate by Twitter or Facebook, there are still a lot who like older methods, whether they are reading a newspaper or using their tablet. They like that format and how it’s delivered.
“Besides, paper remains a big industry in this state and we proudly put on the magazine that it is printed on Wisconsin paper.”
Bauer said he’s also upgraded electronic publications and revamped the WMC website, which hadn’t been changed in more than a decade.
“Communications are very critical for trade associations,” he said. “You have to be able to tell your membership what you are doing for them. If you are not explaining your value and how hard you are working on their behalf, you might as well not do anything because no one will know about it.”
Poels, who is just six months older than Bauer, leads an association with more than 270 banks and savings institutions as members. She worked for the WBA for 20 years as a lawyer and moved into management.
“Because I was promoted from within, I’ve made organizational changes to replace myself and do a little realignment,” she said. “We haven’t made any drastic changes in services we provide to membership.
“But we have launched several new products as well as new delivery channels. We’re also out on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter now. That’s all recent.
“So we are making sure we are in touch with that next generation that I’m a part of and the one behind me who are very in tune with social media and delivery that way.”
Poels also said she plans to switch a compliance publication to electronic delivery but adds the association’s monthly newsletter will remain on paper for “the immediate term.”
“In today’s world, we are dealing with people who get their information in a variety of ways. And some of them continue to really like paper.”
Rockwell, who headed the Chippewa Valley Home Builders Association and worked with the Minnesota Trucking Association before she took over the chiropractors group six months ago, said she was flattered to be considered young at 39.
“You’ve made my day,” she chuckled. “I like being considered youthful.”
Rockwell said her predecessor, Russell Leonard, was younger than she is when he took over the association in 1990.
“I really don’t think I was considered ‘wet behind the ears,’ because I’d already run another trade group,” said Rockwell, whose group has 1,250 members.
Like other, younger executives, she has made communications a priority.
“Most notably, that’s with our website and social media presence,” she said. “Technology is changing so quickly, especially for my generation and the one that’s younger than mine.
“When I was a college undergrad, email did not even exist,” she said.
“The younger generation that is now entering the workforce and is part of my target audience to recruit has a really good handle on technology that we have to acknowledge and react to. If we don’t, we can’t get them as members of our association.”
But despite the technological changes, Rockwell said she doesn’t believe trade associations will go the way of the Rolodex.
“I’m a huge association advocate,” she said. “I’m of the opinion that when times are tough, people will look to trade associations for assistance and that when times are good, you have to do more to create the value for them.
“With big changes in health care coming, chiropractors need to have information and advocates,” she said. “We’re looking at huge federal changes that have yet to be defined.”
Todd Stuart, who took over the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group six years ago when he was just 33, said he came in ready to lead because of the strong energy background he picked up from his work in state government.
“My hiring didn’t raise eyebrows because we’d just passed a big energy law and I’d worked closely with Rep. Phil Montgomery, who was later appointed to the Public Service Commission, and Sen. Robert Cowles.”
“I made some changes early on to better fit my style,” said Stuart, whose trade group is relatively small with only 30 members.
“But we are still fairly low-tech, and I don’t Twitter,” added Stuart, a former Marine and self-described energy policy wonk.
“For our members, we don’t need that. But I did start a weekly email to communicate with members to update them on what’s happening with regulatory issues and rules, construction cases and at the PSC.”
Stuart said his philosophy has always been that he needs to work hard to keep members happy.
“It’s always in the back of my mind that I need to add value because when times are tough, membership in an association is often one of the first things to go.”
— By Brian Clark
WisBusiness.com
