For many, these uncertain new normal times provide space for reflections on the past, introspection about now, maybe thoughts on future directions. I found myself there recently, spurred by good news shared by colleagues from ISACA, where I worked this time last year. They reached out to me this month, with pride and excitement.

The American Society of Association Executives announced ISACA had won a Gold Circle Award–a prestigious recognition, and, fittingly golden, for ISACA’s 50^th Anniversary campaign. There’s been a flurry of PR, congratulatory social channel chatter, and more, rightly so. ISACA’s efforts were cited for member/volunteer engagement in global programming that extended from late 2018 through 2019. The 50th theme, “Honoring Our Past. Innovating Our Future,” were planned and played out, inspired and imaginative. Pieces of the anniversary puzzle can still be enjoyed at www.ISACA50.org.

My musings on the award and anniversary work mesh with #CommunicationsContentConnections, LaurelComm’s focus today. What would you expect? And what better time to talk about it than now, in April—National Volunteer Month?

Let’s start with #Communications. Organizations that mark milestones make communications a centerpiece. At ISACA the anniversary was envisioned, planned, and managed by the strategic communications team. We used every form of communications, from brand identity to talking points, social media to events to storytelling. We supplied hundreds of communications plans, templates, tools, speaker notes, kits, facts, figures, graphics, games. Oh, the hours and energies spent debating the logo design, colors, the theme phrasing, and punctuation!

But it was the stories, all the #Content, that provided the foundation, the heart, the soul, for those communications. Unlike many professional bodies, ISACA did not have many artifacts in storage or in headquarters display cases. We issued a call for contributions. Cartons of brochures, magazines, catalogues, VCR and audio tapes, photos, training manuals, yellowed white papers, and newspaper clippings arrived. We carefully curated the association’s first published history, The ISACA50 Story. Members recorded their stories via smart phones and in video booths at events. They wrote of memorable moments. Video crews were dispatched to points around the globe. They captured the faces and first-hand accounts of still-living founders and then-current leaders. Recollections and predictions.

The communications outreach, the contributed content, and the many calls to action, to honor ISACA’s past, to shape and innovate its future created connections. ISACA employees got to know the association’s first staffer, Marian King, who did then what most of us do today–work from home. Marian single-handedly supported a burgeoning information systems professional community from the extra bedroom of her suburban Chicago home.

The ISACA community got to know founders Eugene Frank and Howard “Bud” Friedman via video and in-person events. Past presidents and chairs became chums again, attending conferences in the anniversary year. A nearly 20-member 50^th Anniversary Advisory Panel met virtually every month, or more, for three years to add ideas, vet plans and be active ambassadors. ISACA conducted so many firsts across the anniversary period, among them CommunITy Day, uniting thousands of members and chapters for a 24-hour period of local volunteer projects.

And no doubt connections happened among the hundreds who shouted above the music or shimmied on the dance floor at the anniversary kick-off event. “Surfin’ Through the Decades” went into the wee hours way back in October 2018 at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Come to think of it, that event itself was an award-winner, too!

During the communications developments, the content iterations, the connection activities, change happened. Plans and materials were adapted. ISACA moved its headquarters. We scaled back plans for a cool virtual reality experience to more reliable, less-risk formats for conferences. A new CEO came aboard during anniversary year. Some storytelling took on somber tones as we shared tributes and mourned the untimely passing of senior staff leaders, board members and beloved experts.

I am proud ISACA’s a Gold Circle winner. But more than anything, I am humbled and privileged to have been a part of the Comms team who honored the past and its people, and innovated, using new tools and telling great stories, every day. Thank you, Kristen Kessinger, Jay Schwab, Emily Van Camp and Kristine O’Sullivan. You are golden!