Inside AASA
Meghan Moran on Membership Affairs
School Administrator, February 2021

Meghan Moran

AASA’s new membership and marketing director, Meghan Moran, has worked on membership issues with several professional organizations over the years. Her move to AASA last April, just as the association moved staff into remote work mode owing to the coronavirus pandemic, brought her back to the education sector.

A product of public education growing up in Old Saybrook, Conn., she described it as a good fit. Moran most recently worked for the International Association for the Study of Pain and earlier filled a senior marketing post with TESOL International Association, the professional organization for teachers of English to speakers of other languages.

The following interview with Moran by School Administrator senior editorial assistant Jacqueline Hyman has been edited for length and clarity.

What brought you to AASA as membership and marketing director?

Before I came to AASA I was a director of marketing and engagement at the International Association for the Study of Pain. Prior to that I was at an education association called TESOL International Association, and there I worked as the senior marketing manager. And after leaving TESOL and going to a medical association, while it was a great job and a great team, I really missed being in the education sector.

I found that I felt a lot more passionate about working for students and working for education and educators and those that are hoping to lift up the youth of America, and everywhere.

So when the job from AASA came up it really just caught my attention because it was back in education. That was something I could not resist.

You joined AASA just after the COVID-19 restrictions forced staff to begin working from home. What was it like learning the ropes and meeting coworkers completely virtually?

It's been interesting. Everyone's been so great and really nice. I often laugh and joke with people because this is actually the biggest organization I've ever worked for, and we’re not all that big.

This is culturally a shift in the amount of people that I'm working with. I think that alone is interesting and then doing that in a virtual environment, you're trying to understand where everyone fits and what exactly their role is … but everyone's been so great and accommodating.

Working in membership and marketing … I have a little bit of advantage, even though I’ve been totally remote, is that I've worked with all the different departments in different capacities. So I feel like I've gotten to know people in different ways, even remotely.

What are your goals for AASA membership and the marketing of the organization?

Right now, I think that one of the most important things for our members is that they stay connected with each other. It’s a huge problem, not only in work, but also in life, that we keep our personal and close connections and have that sense of community, and people you could talk to and share your challenges and your triumphs and everything in between with.

Not having a physical space to go to or being with your colleagues every day or even getting to get together in person as much provides a challenge. So, one of the things I want to make sure we continue to do is provide that sense of community for our members and keep them connected, especially right now.

A big goal is to increase our member engagement within the online community and really start having more conversations there giving them a safe space to connect with each other, and really helping them cultivate those relationships and those networks with each other. 

Another goal of mine is to expand our suite of member benefits. We’ve been evaluating what we have right now and really what we'd like to do is start looking at ways we can expand them and how better we can serve those members. We know work for them is not the same as it was even just a few months ago. 

Are you launching any new or exciting initiatives within the membership department right now?

I'm looking at launching a member champions program. And what that will do is help tell the story from our members’ side and it's a tool in a couple of different ways. We're looking for highly engaged members who enjoy being members of AASA … and they want to help us get the word out about AASA. They want to be proponents of our programs and our services. They want to help. 

And then in turn too we want to tell their story and how they use AASA in their day to day life. What challenges are they facing, and how a membership might be able to solve their problems or help them along the way or help them with their career goals. And just providing that more personal connection because I can go out and tell you how great an AASA membership is, but I'm not a superintendent, I'm not a school leader. But we know that we have wonderful members who would love to tell their story and [about] the things that they've benefited from over the years, with an AASA membership.

In my vision it will hopefully be a multi-faceted campaign where we get to tell their stories in ads and maybe blog posts and articles and then they get to tell our story by helping us with some social media posts and getting the word out to their colleagues. I’m hoping we can launch this in 2021.

As a membership director, you’re responsible for getting to know members, learning about their needs and determining how the association can best address them. How have you gone about learning the distinctive role that superintendents or other administrators play?

I talk with Leadership Network a lot since they're so closely working with superintendents and they're hearing stories directly through their cohorts and from their lead teachers about what they're going through on a day to day basis. I'm talking with those people who work with leadership that were formerly teachers. I've been involved in sitting in on a lot of the COVID Task Force meetings, which has been great because I think that, again, has given me a good vision of just hearing what the school leaders are facing in their own words directly from them.

And then also I have been looking through all of our past membership surveys. I talked with Jay [Goldman of School Administrator magazine] about the readership survey to really try to understand what sort of content or membership craves and needs and wants and likes. It's a variety of different things but I think something that's so, so important too is just to really be able to hear directly from the source as well.

How do you think AASA distinguishes itself from other professional bodies that are vying for superintendents’ time, attention and resources?

I think the fact that we've been around for so long speaks to itself. We are a trusted, highly regarded organization. We know how to get things done. We move quickly, we are agile, as we have shown during this pandemic that we can quickly pivot our content to meet the needs of school leaders, and we are able to get things done on Capitol Hill. We're doing so every day to advocate for public education and for our members.

And we have this huge network of people that you can connect with. They have a variety of different experience, and they've been where the aspiring school leader has been before. And they've gone up the ranks and vice versa so we have programs and benefits for you every step of the way.

Our member benefit package is, no matter where you are in your career, on your leadership journey, we can help you go further, right? We can help you succeed as a leader, we can help you connect with others around you — as Leadership Network calls them, “critical friends.” Those who will tell you the truth and help you along your journey and be there for you through your challenges and your successes. And we will never stop fighting for public education and for equitable education for all students.
Is there anything AASA is doing that you are particularly excited about?

There's a big reckoning in our nation right now around lots of different things. And the fact that it's ingrained in our mission that we fight for equity and equitable access. And that is really a huge push — it always has been, within our organization, but we see so much going on right now around that. And lifting up underrepresented leaders, making sure we get underrepresented leaders in the pipeline.

Also making sure we are addressing the homework gap and equitable access to education, especially during remote education and hybrid education. And we're just doing a lot of different work across different departments right now which is really cool too, so it's pretty awesome to see it all come together and to be a part of that.

*Inside AASA is a feature about AASA services and products and the staff members behind them. Read full versions of the interviews here.*