Bigger Bases and Pitch Timers

I recently listened to an interview with the Phillies announcer about the changes to Major League Baseball (MLB) that will be implemented next season. I should note that I am not really a baseball enthusiast (unless the Phillies are in the World Series!), but this conversation caught my attention because it reminded me of challenges that are facing other organizations. The merits of the MLB changes may be debatable; however, the fundamental reasons are relevancy and safety. Baseball is too slow and there is not enough action, so they are losing fans. Also, the risk of injury has increased over the years and that has become an expensive liability for the league.

It must be so hard to change the rules for a longstanding and beloved institution and, certainly, there are many fans and players that are unhappy with them. But the league is moving forward because the decision makers have done the research, the testing, and they believe this is what is best for the game.

The MLB is making the bases bigger to reduce collisions and injuries. They are also implementing a pitch timer to keep the game moving faster. Defensive shift limits will also create more ball action in the outfield. How do the MLB changes correlate to associations?

While the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) is not the MLB, we are facing similar challenges of relevancy and risk. What do we need to change to address them? These are a few observations and trends that are threatening the NAEA’s relevancy and creating risks in our current structure:

• In-person education event attendance has plummeted post-pandemic, but it had already started to decline before then. We have the advantage that our members need to get continuing education for compliance. However, there are a lot of sources for it now.
• We live in a virtual, digital world. Gen Z, who will make up 27 percent of the workforce by 2025, has only ever lived in this world. Plus, geographic boundaries are less relevant in many ways.
• People still want to connect and interact with each other but have found many ways to do so outside of in-person networking and at education events.
• People are more protective of their free time, and that is if they have any free time at all. Thomson Reuters reports that tax professionals work an average of 60 hours per week during busy season, and that busy season is getting longer and longer. They also found that 82 percent of tax professionals experience some level of burnout.
• Virtual and micro-volunteering options are growing in popularity. Long-term volunteer commitments are less appealing.
• Running a not-for-profit organization of any size is very complicated and filled with risks and liabilities. The volunteer leadership model may require more time and expertise than busy tax professionals can provide.
• Our members are consumers and current expectations apply to their association in terms of service and experience. We know that service and experience is not consistent across all our components and that reflects upon the whole organization.

Membership has been in decline for at least one decade, yet the number of enrolled agents has not. How can we best serve enrolled agents across the globe and make the NAEA more relevant? I challenge you to step outside your own bias and how you have historically engaged with the NAEA and/or the state affiliates and think more globally. If we were starting the NAEA as a new organization today, what would it look like?