We make association leaders think.
For almost 20 years Jeffrey Cufaude’s writing, speaking, consulting, and staff leadership has helped individuals and organizations envision more powerful possibilities. In his current role as a principal and founding partner of Idea Architects, he is working to build communities of ideas and idealists. His past experience as executive director of two national associations and as a student affairs staff member at two large public universities informs much of his work today. Very active professionally, Cufaude has twice served on the Indiana Society of Association Executives Board of Directors (ISAE), and has been named the ISAE Meeting Planner of the Year. Cufaude serves in a variety of leadership capacities with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives (GWSAE), and the Center for Association Leadership.
Doubt that gaming is becoming a core marketing strategy? This New York Times article about the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia might challenge your mindset.
Gaming is not a new tool in the military’s recruitment approach. Along with several corporations and a few nonprofits, the military has used video games the past few years…
January 6th, 2009 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued
I’ve had some time blocks open up while I am in Washington, DC for another commitment.
Contemplation
by Bradford Shank
It is good
To put the world together
now and then
Into an unbroken piece
And to contemplate it whole.
If done in sincerity
This form of prayer
Dims the cutting lines
Of past abstraction
Permitting us to carve out
New fragments
Of greater utility
And beauty.
Or
If you like it better
We can reverse the analogy
And recommend the periodic destruction
Of our…
I don’t care whether it’s the local PTA, a community organization, your city council, or an international corporation, the decisions made in supposed times of crisis send deep, lasting messages to stakeholders and constituents that reverberate beyond the actual problem being solved.
“Things will never be the same” is such a cliché, but when someone you love dearly—a close friend or a family member—almost successfully commits suicide, it is an undeniable truth.
You know that time does indeed heal all wounds and that eventually you will stop bursting into tears at inopportune times…
September 18th, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued
All the world’s a video game, and we are just merely players.
“The first national survey of…
If you can look at the current political campaigns dispassionately (I know, next to impossible for folks of just about any political persuasion), they raise an interesting question for both individuals and organizations: what experience most matters?
Too often individuals in leadership positions see their job as solving problems for others instead of engaging others in problem solving. Our mayor recently made this error when announcing he was considering the possible sale of neighborhood pocket parks.
Like many cities, Indianapolis faces some significant budget challenges. Our new mayor…
August 31st, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued
Are you aware that you’ve had two claims in the past two years?
It’s been many, many years since Starbucks arrived here in Indianapolis, but I remember the announcement well. The press coverage suggested this was yet another sign that we were a vibrant city playing in the big leagues (ironic now I know given the ubiquity of the chain).
You’ve no doubt heard…
July 31st, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued
Al Gore’s challenge to have 100% of our electricity come from “renewable resources and carbon-constrained fuels within the next 10 years” has provoked many a can’t be done comment. Here’s the reaction though that is really worth remembering:
July 25th, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued“But that’s the thing about visionaries. They don’t imagine what’s easy. They imagine the…
In the August issue of Esquire (not yet online), Chris Rock credits Eddie Murphy for telling others that “This guy’s (Rock) kind of funny.” Rock goes on to describe the value of what Murphy said: ”That definitely made people give me that first look. You need that first look.”
July 21st, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued“I honestly feel a large part of the reason we are successful is we had no idea what we’re doing and spent no time trying to figure it out…. Our whole inspiration is, Are we having fun doing it? Is what we are doing exciting us? Is what we are…
I’ve been in a few meetings recently where association staff members spoke of their employer as if it was “their” professional association and volunteer board members who acted as if their seats on the board are something they own in perpetuity. Nothing unusual about either of these circumstances, and I…
July 14th, 2008 | Jeffrey Cufaude | Comments | Continued
Among all the ways we can slice and dice others with whom we share this world, recent travels have led me to place other hotel guests into one of three categories:
Done (just love having a to-do checked off so quickly). Thanks. Now to practice writing that on checks ;) 
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