How We're Busy Beating the Heat

At NASAA we’re beating the heat this summer with a variety of activities designed to catapult our work on behalf of state arts agencies (SAAs). Here’s a glimpse of what we’re up to these days.

With an eye toward fiscal year 2023, planning and budgeting is well underway. Driven by member aspirations and needs, a revised strategic plan has been developed to chart NASAA’s long-term course. It chronicles our path toward fulfilling our mission: strengthening state arts agencies. The plan also expresses why state arts agencies matter to America and how our enduring values will continue to guide decisions and actions. As always, the plan has been informed by members; thanks to those of you who gave of your time for interviews this summer, and thanks for continuing to reach out to let us know what’s on your mind.

Simultaneously, the Planning & Budget Committee, led by NASAA Treasurer and Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples, is developing NASAA’s FY2023 action plan. It will help us respond to immediate state needs as well as emerging issues in our field. Organized in alignment with our longer-term strategic plan, the action plan will keep us on course; it will ensure we’re taking on key issues and services in FY2023 that are most important and timely for members. Both plans will be considered for approval by NASAA members at NASAA Assembly 2022 in September.

Speaking of the Assembly, all hands are on deck to produce NASAA Assembly 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri. It’s been too long! I can’t overstate how enriching it will be to connect with colleagues—in 3-D and as a community of professionals who learn best from each other. We owe immense gratitude to our colleagues at Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA), our hosts, who are working diligently to welcome us to Kansas City and welcome us back to sharing physical space together. M-AAA and our SAA colleagues from the region are celebrating M-AAA’s 50th anniversary as a regional arts organization; let’s help them mark that milestone while we’re there. You’ll continue to hear more details about the Assembly in the coming days and weeks.

Here are a few additional ways we’re beating the heat this summer:

We’re gainfully working on NASAA’s targeted advocacy project. With assistance from our SAA colleagues from Nevada, Ohio and Utah, we’re working with rising congressional appropriations leaders to deepen support for federal investments in the arts.
We’re also onboarding new SAA executive directors. As leaders in our field shift, we’re supplying tools and counsel to aid in their success. New executive directors can look forward to a preconference opportunity to jump-start their Assembly experience and their relationships with each other.
Peer group convenings have continued via Zoom. Although sharing strategies within virtual rooms has been important the last couple of years, it’s great to see the pivot toward planning peer-driven discussions that will take place in September.
We’re also managing the upcoming NASAA Leadership Awards, Nominating Committee activities, and Dues Task Force deliberations; mining SAA best practices to share with members; and much more. If you’d like to learn more, please check out our action plan highlights after the fiscal year closes; we’ll share them on our website, enabling all members to see the results of this year’s work plan at NASAA.

In the meantime, keep as cool as possible this summer. Call whenever we can be of service. See you in September!