So, Who’s Next?

So my question is: Who will be the next Sam Cook?

I’m not trying to put Sam out to pasture just yet, of course. I’m certain he will still be around, willing to lend a hand to his association just as he always has. But who’s next? Who will be the next volunteers to lean hard into the role of real leadership and impact the next 20 years of NMEDA the way Sam has the last 20? Many unbelievably influential and charismatic individuals have stepped

And that starts with our committees. Serving on a committee is the ideal way for a person to start to have his or her voice heard on industry matters. Our committees are the breeding ground for the future leaders of NMEDA. They are where our association’s lofty goals meet the ground-level practicality of strategic implementation. Put a simpler way: the goals articulated in NMEDA’s three-year strategic plan are largely aspirational; our committees work down from their prominent leadership roles with NMEDA during my sixplus years here. Tim Barone, Richard May, Nick Gutwein, Bill Koeblitz, Jud DeMott, just to name a few…and now Sam. Folks, those kind of leaders don’t grow on trees. It is incumbent upon all of us to find that next generation of talent, those folks who will lead NMEDA and the auto mobility industry into the coming decades, and to GET THEM INVOLVED. with staff to ensure the goals are actually achieved, in the real world.

NMEDA is fortunate to have a really good staff. Like, really good (not that I am biased). But I have worked for associations for going on 20 years, and I can tell you this for a fact: no staff, no matter how talented and hardworking they are, can do it by themselves. We are knowledgeable about the industry we represent, but that is very different from actually working in the industry itself. Make no mistake, NMEDA staff is in the association business, not the auto mobility business. And, as stated above, they are good. But they (we, us?) need input from the real world— and that is exactly what committee members provide. When an association is hitting on all cylinders, staff is working seamlessly with volunteer leaders to craft solutions, programs, events, policies—you name it—that meet the real-world needs of the membership.

Ok—time to climb down off this soapbox. Hope I have not belabored the point. But I’ll close with this: