Attention all ASTD chapter leaders—this post is for you!

National ASTD supports chapters in many ways. One way is through a six-person Chapter Services department, fully dedicated to supporting the chapters. This team provides resources ranging from the Chapter Administration and Membership Program (ChAMP) to the annual ASTD Chapter Leaders Conference. Your chapter coach serves as your "go-to" person for anything you might need from national ASTD.

Chapters are also supported by the National Advisors for Chapters (NAC). (I have the privilege of chairing this group, and hence the reason for writing this blog post.) We are a group of former chapter presidents who liaison between chapters and national ASTD. We advocate for chapters at the national level. We partner with the ASTD Chapter Services team on various projects. We communicate with the ASTD Board of Directors, and I serve on the Board as the voice of chapters. On the flip side, the NAC also advise chapter leaders on various issues. And we connect chapter leaders to one another, to enable best practice sharing and idea exchanges.

One of our ongoing challenges is communicating with chapter leaders. This challenge is partly due to turnover of chapter leaders at the local level. We try to keep up with leadership changes but it's not always easy to do. This challenge is also partly due to the information overload that we're all faced with. National ASTD publishes a monthly Chapter Leader Connection Newsletter with news, announcements, and resources for chapter leaders. We have chapter leader groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yahoo Groups. We host monthly webcasts for chapter leaders, and sponsor two in-person events each year (Chapter Leader Day at the ASTD International Conference and ALC). We also send out separate email messages to chapter leaders with news and requests for information. Despite all of these communication tools, messages don't always get through.

We now have this blog. We'll use it as an additional way to connect with chapter leaders. It won't replace the other methods of communication, it will simply supplement them. We'll use this blog to dialogue and exchange ideas with chapter leaders. You'll hear from both the NAC and Chapter Services, and perhaps occasionally we'll have guest posts from chapter leaders. We hope you find it useful. We also look forward to hearing from you, and invite your comments.