The American Society of Association Executives and The Center for Association Leadership continues its work on social responsibility, picking up where it left off with this past May’s Global Summit on Social Responsibility.

At the association’s annual meeting, held August 16–19 in San Diego, study groups met to discuss some of the 17 social responsibility initiatives that came out of the global summit as they prepare to make detailed presentations on their efforts at an online follow-up summit scheduled for October. In addition, John Graham, president and CEO at ASAE, announced some initiatives that ASAE and The Center plan to implement around social responsibility.

Over the next year or so, ASAE and The Center will focus on a minimum of three ideas from the summit. One, they will put together a set of social responsibility tools and resources that associations can use to get started within their own associations and communities. Two, the association will create a Web site where associations can share information and experiences about social responsibility. And finally, ASAE will work on establishing 10 or so principles for associations to follow, similar to the UN Global Compact, which sets principles for public companies.

The rest of initiatives that bubbled out of the global summit are being fleshed out and will be presented in October at the online follow-up meeting, facilitated by David Cooperrider using his method of appreciative inquiry.