Alan DeYoung is the Executive Director and CEO of the Wisconsin EMS Association (WEMSA). He joins us on the Six Degrees of Associations Podcast this week, presented by Big Red M. Alan shares how WEMSA grew into the largest state-level EMS association in the country, despite Wisconsin not ranking among the biggest states by size, population, etc., and what it took to build that reputation through advocacy, incredible events and good old-fashioned hard work. He also talks about his own path into association leadership, from an IT and marketing background to running WEMSA's advocacy efforts as a registered lobbyist, and the personal accident that first connected him to EMS long before he worked in the field. We also dig into how EMS itself is evolving from pure transport to more treatment-in-place and community-based care, and the role of associations in shaping all facets of that progression.About WEMSA: https://www.wisconsinems.com/Learn about Big Red M: https://bigredm.com/

In this week's episode of the Six Degrees of Associations,presented by Big Red M and hosted by Lucas McCann, we visit with Russ Webb, mQAS, CAE.

Russ is CEO of the Bay Area Apartment Association in theGreater Tampa region and joins us to talk association shop. We learn about the advantages of a regional association, which can be substantial, though knowing how to leverage that natural value-add is not necessarily something everyregional organization is able to capitalize on.

Other important themes we explore include:Why bigger is not always better and complacencyis the enemy of innovation.

Not being afraid to fail and learning from thosemoments.

Net promoter scores and leveraging mentorships.

Concentrating on member recruitment at theexpense of retention and fixing the leaky bucket of members who fail to engageor renew their membership.

Learn more about the Bay Area Apartment Association: https://www.baaahq.org/Follow Russ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russwebb/

About Big Red M: https://bigredm.com/

It's really this simple: when building a product, you shouldstart with the user story, and you will end with the best solution.

This week on the Six Degrees of Associations Podcast, hosted by Lucas McCann and presented by Big Red M, we're joined by Pete Zimek, the founder and CEO of NoviAMS. We discuss:

• How a customer-first AMA is solves problems arounda user story with precision
• Why products and services tend to hit different whenthe customer (and not private equity) is calling the shots
• How to build impactful software services arounda user story

Learn more: https://www.noviams.com/

Pete is a prolific problem solver with a lot of resilienceand grit. He had already run two Ben and Jerry's franchise locations and founded a tech company specializing in supporting college towns' off-campus housing (which he still owns and runs), when he was “voluntold” to build a technological solution to solve an absolute dumpster fire of an accounting software issue. The end result (and 600 customers later) it became Novi AMS.

Shout out to Nathan Victoria for his recommendation andnominating Pete to join our show! You can watch Nathan's episode with us here: https://youtu.be/H_gF1n5R9Ws