Since SAC’s founding 20 years ago by our mentor Alan Weiss, the SAC mission has been to foster a dedicated community of consultants who benefit not only from exposure to Alan’s insights and programs, but also from interaction with other SAC members, who are among the brightest minds in the profession today.
In the nearly six years since we took over SAC from Alan, we’ve grown the membership dramatically, expanded into 14 countries, and developed a robust set of programs to serve our members. We took the pandemic in stride—since we were already offering remote programs, we pivoted to move all of our programs virtually and still serve our membership.
Now, 3.5+ years after the start of COVID, we are at an inflection point. Attendance is down on remote programs because people have Zoom fatigue. We’ve tried to schedule in-person events, but we aren’t able to get sufficient commitment to attract the number of participants necessary for these to break even.
We’re not alone in this dilemma—we’ve spoken to a number of associations and groups who are facing the same challenge: Members don’t want more remote programs, but they also aren’t ready to commit to in-person attendance. Hybrid programs are hard to pull off successfully, and many are not interested in those either.
We’ve put considerable time and energy into exploring alternative ways forward for SAC. We spoke to numerous people and groups over the last few months to find a home for some of our signature programs like the SIGs, and a place where our members would feel both welcome and valued, and part of a community of like-minded professionals.
We’re pleased to announce today that effective January 1st, SAC will be merged into theSociety of Professional Consultants (SPC). SPC has been a long-time partner of ours. We just hosted a joint Ask the Expert virtual event in September that was well-attended by SAC members.
SPC is headquartered in the Boston area. During the pandemic, they moved to a fully virtual model and expanded their reach to be international. Their members are very similar to ours, and, in fact, there are a number of people who are members of both organizations.
In June, we moved to a January 1st renewal date for all members, which is why some of you were billed for a partial year this year. As of January 1st, your membership—if you choose to renew it—will be through SPC.
We will be in touch separately with those individuals whose SAC membership extends into 2024, with an offer to fulfill our remaining commitment to you.
Here’s what you can expect from SAC moving forward:
Linda will be presenting the Paths to Published Ask the Expert session on October 12th.
The Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego and virtually on November 14th. This will include the final presentation of our Advancing Consulting Awards.
SAC members are invited to attend Alan’s Remote Millionaire workshop in San Diego on November 15th.
The Mega Mastermind group will meet in person in San Diego on November 16th, and virtually throughout November and December.
SIGs will continue to operate as normal. SPC’s intention is to continue offering SIGs in the future to both existing SAC members and to SPC members, which will give you the opportunity to meet additional professionals in your area of interest.
We are working to transfer the SAC webinar archives to SPC so that SAC members will have access to them moving forward.
Linda and Lisa will be meeting with the SPC team over the next several months to provide input on future programming in 2024.
SPC will be in touch with SAC members soon with more details about what you can expect from the new organization.
It has been our pleasure to lead SAC for the last five and a half years. We thank you for all of your support and look forward to continuing the great relationships we’ve built with the SAC community.
