3 ways to manifest your association chapter visions and turn wishes into reality

Updated: Feb. 2, 2023  |  Categories: Board Productivity  

Are there things on your “association chapter wish list” that would make your chapter member experience more enjoyable and valuable? Do you have programs you can’t hold because of budget constraints and lack of revenue?

Whether you want a few iPads to make it easier to register guests at meetings, fund a scholarship for students, or bring in new and more exciting speakers what can you do to finally turn these wants into realities?

How about an association chapter board vision board? Before you laugh and move to another blog post, hear us out. A 2016 TD Bank survey found that one in five small business owners used a version of a vision board when they started their business. Many top executives use vision boards, and some of your members use vision boards in their work and person lives to better focus on getting new jobs or promotions, new homes, etc.

According to the survey, people who imagine their financial and other goals are much more confident about achieving them than those who don’t. And those who use images, photos or vision boards to document their goals are almost twice as confident they will achieve them than those who don’t; 67 percent of individuals surveyed believe pictures will improve their odds of achieving their goals.

Executive coach Dr. Tara Swart, author of The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, The Science of the Brain, says that looking at pictures on a vision board (or an action board, as she also calls them) “primes the brain to grasp opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed. That’s because the brain has a process called ‘value-tagging’ which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessary information. The brain assigns a higher ‘value’ to images than written words on a ‘to-do’ list,” she says. “And the more you look at those images, the more those images move up in importance.”

It's easy to use this same concept successfully in your association chapter to better focus and deliver the chapter improvements you’ve been talking about for years. Vision boards can help get everyone on the same page and focused on those things important to your chapter.

Here are three ideas that will help ensure your association chapter vision board will help the way you want it to.  

Create the right vision board. The most important step is to figure out exactly what you want to focus on. Make creating your chapter action board a board activity to help ensure everyone has a say in what you focus on. What are your association chapter goals for the next year? If you haven’t already, work with your board to agree on them and document them and then use them to choose the right pictures for your vision board. Do you want iPads because they would improve the  event registration experience for volunteers and members? Maybe pictures of iPads and smiling people are what you need. Are there any speakers you really want? Post a picture of them on your vision board.

Visualize having already achieved what you want. And doing what it takes to get there. When you and your association chapter board look at your vision board, imagine what it would feel like to have and do those things. According to Swart, the brain sees strong similarities between imagined visions and experiences happening. Picture easy registration and a full room of members and guests listening to that top speaker. Think about what you’d need to do to be able to afford three new iPads or find the perfect speaker for your annual conference and imagine completing them – who would help, what would you do, where would it take place, etc.

Regularly review your vision board. “Create it and it will happen” won’t work here. Swart says reviewing an action board regularly can help you make better decisions and be more willing to act on achieving your goals. She also says that when you try something new, your body often has a stress response to what you’re doing. But when you do it repeatedly, your brain no longer sees the activities as new or scary. If you’ve created an online vision board, send it to your board members on a schedule, with reminders to review it and what they should think about when they do.

Update your vision board at least once a year. If your association chapter vision board is reflective of what you want, and you’re regularly reviewing the board and acting on those pictures, those images should become realities. What pictures can come down and what new ones should replace them? Or have you achieved everything on your existing board and it’s time for a completely new action board?

Manifesting what you want takes more than a board

Of course, a chapter vision board alone won’t magically bring in new iPads or new speakers. They’re a great way to be more conscious of what you want and provide visual reminders that drive you to work towards your goals, but you and your board need to do the work to make those pictures reality. Having a vision board will just make it less painful and easier for you execute on the plans to get you there. 

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