The Association Blog

The Association’s Vice President of Programs reflects on 2025 progress and shares what’s ahead in 2026

As we move into a new year, I wanted to share The Association’s 2025 report card with you—forward progress we made toward the goals outlined in our strategic plan, as well as some things that you might see changing in 2026. Spoiler alert: It’s all good news!

Right off the bat, what stands out to me as a big win in advancing our strategic plan—the Rising Stars Initiative. The Association recognizes that we have a lot of leaders who are going to be headed into retirement, and as a field we haven’t always done a wonderful job at cultivating and retaining talent. So to support the future of our entire profession, we offered 50% off registration for The Annual Conference for those who were nominated as emerging leaders by their managers and executive leadership.

While yes, it was part of our promotional strategy for the conference, it was really aimed at so much more than getting cheeks in seats. We had a total of 69 nominations of rising stars and more than half of them actually came to the conference! And for the first time ever, we had more new members and first-time conference attendees than we did existing members and attendees who’d been at multiple conferences. Cultivate, mentor and champion the next generation of leaders? Check, check, and check.

We also saw forward movement around our strategic goal to expand our professional development and credentialing programs. In 2025, we revised and beta-tested the next iteration of the CAWA exam to ensure it stays current with the industry. About 50% of those who took that exam passed, and we ended up with 110 new CAWAs at year’s end. Oh, and we also brought the CAWA exam onto a new platform, and have so many more plans to increase user satisfaction with the whole accreditation process. The UX will get better and better next year and beyond.

I also wanted to remind you that we are absolutely listening when you share feedback with us. Time and time again you’ve told us that you look to us for strong professional development opportunities—and so we have committed to seriously leveling up. Going forward our events will be anchored in adult learning principles and curriculum designed to offer you opportunities to connect and network. In 2025 we redesigned our online Leadership Summit to incorporate small-group discussions, and took care that our panels consisted of your colleagues in the field.

We took a similar approach with The Annual Conference, ensuring that our keynote speakers not only inspired you, but guided you toward takeaways and practical application of the ideas they shared. Conference attendees felt the difference: More than 90% reported being satisfied or very satisfied overall, and 92% agreed with the statement, “I felt welcomed and included”—a metric our team is particularly proud of, as we work to build a more connected, inclusive field. Networking, keynotes, and practical takeaways rose to the top as the most valued elements, affirming our focus on peer learning, applied leadership development, and intentional community-building.

As we look to 2026, we’ll continue to think about how we can be better across all our learning programs. And we’re specific about how we’re going to achieve that—for one, we’ll be building content to support managers in need of supervisory training, and adding a fifth track at the Conference focused on mid-level managers.

Another top priority for 2026 involves our strategic goal to build members, connections, belonging, and engagement and strategy. That includes a more structured, personalized new member onboarding process—including the full design and launch of a new member orientation and a revitalized regional representatives program.

The latter includes a recruitment campaign for new representatives—so consider this your official invitation if you want to get more involved with The Association in a volunteer capacity. Keep your eyes and ears open for more about how to get involved at the regional level. The wheels are already in motion, and we want you along for the ride. Complete this form or contact support@theaawa.org if you want to know more about getting involved. And if you’re not already one, learn more about becoming a member of The Association.