12/30/05

Expertise

Janet G. McCallen is skilled in facilitating groups and teams who desire to enrich the depth, meaning and effectiveness of their conversations.  McCallen is a widely-respected leader, visionary, facilitator, and association management practitioner.  Some of the questions she has noticed groups reflecting on recently are:

Ø      how to spend more time in meetings talking about what really matters, instead of getting side-tracked by personal agendas;

Ø      how to reduce fear of change and vulnerability and increase trust in each other;

Ø      how to create new models that will allow voluntary organizations to realize their potential to serve their missions and society effectively; 

Ø      how the concept of strategic planning can be lifted out of its formulaic past and recreated as a living process that provides visionary, real-world guidance for organizations; and

Ø      how to create a culture of conversation and embed it in the fabric of the organization.

If you are wondering how to increase learning and creative thinking in your group, McCallen can help you learn how to set the stage for and conduct gatherings that participants find meaningful, rewarding, effective, and fun – and that get to the real issues. 

“I’ve been looking forward to this meeting,” is a refrain of many Board members with whom McCallen has worked.  And of the experience of serving on a Board she has facilitated:  “This was a transformational experience in my life.  I learned so much, and felt we made such a great contribution.”  “I am a better person, a better leader because of working with you,” said another.

Do you wonder what your group should be focusing on?  Or know, but cannot get them to spend their time that way?  And would you like to know how to design a gathering to get past the “administrivia” or “positioning” that leach the life from many meetings?  McCallen’s 30-year experience with voluntary associations, their leadership, organization, and management provide a rich, real-world background for her consulting and facilitation for any group that depends on the commitment of its members to succeed. 

McCallen has direct experience with these association situations:

Ø      merger and unification of several organizations

Ø      creation and splitting off of new organizations

Ø      turnaround (both financial and membership)

Ø      integrated associations with both individual and institutional members

Ø      associations with both US and non-US members

Ø      creating and fostering productive interactions with related organizations

Ø      facilitating the creation of vision, mission, and core ideology

From an officer with whom McCallen worked recently:

“Janet has a generosity of spirit and patience that allows association leaders to discover what matters for themselves.  Her ability to remain unattached to particular outcomes provides the space and opportunity for stakeholders and leaders to reach their own clarity and find meaningful direction.  Janet has a lot of tools in her bag for keeping meetings lively, purposeful and conversations on track.  She knows how to create the environment in which people can feel encouraged, inspired and safe to truly engage in dialogue and challenge their own assumptions.”

Biographical Information

McCallen most recently served as CEO and executive director of the 29,000-member Financial Planning Association (FPA).  FPA is the membership organization for the financial planning community.  It was created when the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) unified on January 1, 2000.   

Prior to taking the position of executive director for FPA,  McCallen served as the executive director for the IAFP.  In that role she increased its membership by more than a third, strengthened the value of membership, and increased its member retention rate by over 20%.  Before joining IAFP in 1991, McCallen served as director of communications for TAPPI, the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.  She has been an association manager since 1974.

In 1990, McCallen was named a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives.  In 1989, she received the Clifford M. Clarke Award as Georgia’s outstanding association executive from the Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE).  She was 1986-87 president of GSAE and 1988-89 chairman of its Foundation.

McCallen was named a Certified Association Executive (CAE) in 1984.  She graduated summa cum laude from Georgia State University with a degree in journalism.  McCallen is married and has a son in college.