Sue Pine, FASAE, is with Association Headquarters and was recently selected to be an ASAE Fellow. She has worked as staff for many associations for over forty years. She says community is built by a series of little steps. For example, she insists the association members always state their name and where they’re from when the ask questions at meetings, which helps people remember one another. As another example, for the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals, whose Board was having big challenges, she had the Board identify their core values as a way to build community on the Board. To expand the community to the members, she had the Board get to the main meeting early and form a receiving line for the members. As members walked in, with snappy and happy music playing in the background, they were greeted by the Board, which had a profound impact on improving camaraderie in the association. It’s also important, she says, to push people to be innovative and try to find new ways to build community, such as through community service projects.