I just heard that Susan Sarfati’s leaving ASAE and The Center–she’s been president of the Center and the executive vice president of ASAE since the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, of which she was the head, merged with ASAE a few years ago.

ASAE is issuing a statement about it in 40 minutes or so, but wow, what a huge loss for ASAE. I’ve noticed a big difference in the education ASAE offers since she’s been on board, which I doubt is a coincidence. I don’t know whose idea this is, or where she’s heading from here, and I doubt the coming statement will tell us much (they never do when it comes to changes in leadership at our industry associations, which makes me crazy. But that’s another story).

I wish her well. Geez, is Deborah Sexton at PCMA now standing alone in terms of women in leadership positions in this predominantly female industry’s associations?

Update: Here’s the official word:

After more than 25 years as a leader and outspoken advocate for the association management profession and for life-long learning, Susan Sarfati, CAE, founding president and CEO of The Center for Association Leadership and executive vice president of ASAE, advised the Board of Directors of The Center that she will leave the organizations, effective August 31, 2008.

“Susan’s leadership, passion, creativity, energy and commitment are unsurpassed in the profession. She is an icon in the industry and is held in such high regard by the ASAE & Center boards, association professionals and industry partners alike. Susan has been the heart and soul of The Center and will be sorely missed,” said Mark Golden, CAE, chairman of The Center and executive director and CEO of the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA).

“Susan is a visionary leader and innovator who has taken risks that have shaped the profession and we’ve all benefited as a result,” said ASAE President and CEO John H. Graham IV, CAE. “Susan’s passion and strong belief in the importance, possibilities and contributions of associations have always been evident, and we thank her for her leadership at ASAE & The Center and in the larger global community.”

“Going forward, my work and career will continue to focus on leadership development, social responsibility, women’s issues and contributions to the association and meetings industry, which are all my passions,” Sarfati said. “My career over the years has been very fulfilling with more to come. I am proud of my many contributions, including being the founding CEO of The Center, leading the 13 seasons of the Nation’s Capital Distinguished Speakers Series, building a high performance team, and most recently, launching the Global Summit on Social Responsibility and the association social responsibility movement. From now until my departure on August 31, I will direct my efforts toward moving the Summit outcomes to the next step. What I value most are the relationships I have built with volunteer leaders, members, and the incredibly talented staff whom I have had the honor of working with over the years.”

Did you know:

As I mentioned a few months back, I had a glancing blow from the melanoma monster not long ago. So far, it looks like I’m among the lucky ones who get to walk away with some spectacular scars. Others aren’t so lucky.

Know the risk factors and the ABCDs of detection. While fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed folks like me are most likely to get skin cancer, no one is safe–it’s an equal opportunity killer. Visit Carver’s blog for a lot of good links (plus some beautiful photos of flowers from her garden).

Please be careful out there, wear sunscreen, and don’t be shy about insisting that your skin concerns be taken seriously. It could very literally mean your life.

If you need to take a break, or just reset your brain, check out Twistori. The site streams the latest Twitter posts with the words “love,” “hate,” “think,” “believe,” “feel,” and “wish.” In each stream you’ll find thoughts deep and shallow, but always interesting in the way they juxtapose. For example, here’s what I caught just now on the “believe” stream:

Singing to all the songs that make my heart beat just a little faster. I believe that is what my soul really needs to remind me who I am

My abs hurt. I believe that’s a good thing.

I believe I need to get some sleep!!

Services that I believe should be combined, oil change and massages.

And so on. It’s kind of interesting to eavesdrop on a Twittering world’s zeitgeist. (Thanks to Seth Godin for the pointer.)

I haven’t been able to attend ASAE’s Summit on Global Responsibility, which started yesterday, but I hope to sit in on some of it virtually today (in addition to the on-site gathering at the new Gaylord, there also are a number of satellite sites (none near me, alas) and you also can hook into the meeting online. Industry consultant Joan Eisenstodt is at the live meeting, and from this post, it sounds like an amazing experience so far.

Of course, ASAE and The Center’s Acronym blog is posting about it, and Jeff De Cagna has some interesting thoughts on the first day as well.

If anyone else is attending–live, remotely, or virtually–I’d love to get your perspective on both the content of what’s going on, and how the format of the meeting helps (or doesn’t help) participants to reach their goals for the gathering. So drop me an e-mail or leave a comment below. I’m curious to see if this is really as big a deal as I think it is–or could be.

If you have any sensitive information on your laptop or other electronic devices, you may want to store it elsewhere when crossing the border, according to this article in Travel Weekly (free sub req’d). From the item:

A federal appeals court in Pasadena, Calif., ruled that the federal government has a nearly absolute right to inspect the contents of the laptop computers and other electronic devices of international travelers entering the U.S., even without “reasonable suspicion.”

The ruling prompted a warning from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) that corporations and their business travelers should limit the amount of proprietary data on laptop computers and other devices when travelers cross U.S. borders. It also warned that personal data, including photographs, finances and e-mail, are subject to examination by Customs and Border Protection inspectors.

Update: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting this one:

In a letter sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary committees today, the coalition urges lawmakers to consider passing legislation to prevent abusive search practices by border agents and to protect all Americans from suspicionless digital border inspections.

“Our computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices hold a vast amount of personal information like financial data, health histories, and personal emails and letters,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “In a free country, the government cannot have unlimited power to read, seize, and store this information without any oversight.”

Check these out: Craziest Shoes From Around The World. While they’re all just bizarre, I’d pick these as the weirdest:

They’re just wrong on so many levels…

This is day two of the Virtualis convention center grand opening in Second Life, and it’s going a little more smoothly for me than yesterday. First and most importantly, I’ve been able to actually hang out for entire sessions, instead of bopping in and out and all about like I was yesterday. I missed James Hogg’s session this morning on emergent technologies, which from what I hear was really good. But I did get to sit in on CMP Boot Camp by Bonnie Wallsh and Marianne McNulty, which was really informative–I somehow get the impression that they’ve done this topic before! There was someone there who had been doing events in Second Life for a long time (relatively speaking) who had never heard of the Certified Meeting Professional designation, and he sounded interested in it. Actually, this guy says he’s been earning a living putting on events in Second Life for a couple of years now, so if you’re looking for a job, you may want to expand your horizons outside of the usual desired city and state.
Here’s a shot of Joan Eisenstodt’s session yesterday in the Eisenstodt Learning Center, which is so cool.

Anyway, then Joe Pine did a keynote on the experiential economy that came off, I thought, much better than the session he did with his fellow Authenticity and The Experience Economy author Jim Gilmore at PCMA in January. It didn’t cover a lot of new ground for me, but it was really fun to see him talk about virtual experiences from inside a virtual experience. I wish he’d done something a little more experiential than the usual PowerPoint presentation, just to prove the point, but the content was terrific.

Taking a break now before heading back to the Virtualis main ballroom for John Foster’s international contract negotiation session in a few minutes. It’s still a little frustrating for me because my Mac seems to have some sort of firewall built in that won’t allow me to use the Second Life voice chat. So I’m using my PC laptop, which allows the voice chat, but is brought to its knees (ankles? toes?) by the Second Life program; everything (especially my avatar) moves jerkily and in slo-mo, and things take a long time to reach full resolution. But it’s still really cool.

One thing I’m enjoying is being able to comment via text chat as the session goes on. I don’t know if that’s distracting to the speaker or what, but the running commentary added another dimension to it for me. Especially the funny bits.

OK, back to the ballroom…

You may not be able to predict precisely which flights will get stuck on the tarmac, but Delaycast may be able to narrow it down for you. From Wired:

It’s a tool that allows users to track delays by airport, airline or specific flight. Sure, you can get historical delay info from lots of different sources, including the airlines themselves, but Delaycast is taking it up a notch — it’s using predictive modeling to anticipate future flight delays.

Definitely worth checking out.

And when you finish cursing the airlines for delays, security theater, and the rest of all that makes flying now such a joy, remember: Bash Airlines All You Want, But Flying Still Beats Driving.

For those of you who have VIPs to pamper, or for the rest of us with hotel envy, enjoy these 10 Of The Coolest Hotel Suites In The World. I actually have seen the over-water bungalows at Le Meridien in Bora Bora pictured above; not so lucky on the rest. But there’s still time, right?

So far, the best April fools have been hanging out at Google, which today brings us things like gDay (”Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now”); and Project Virgle (”starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.”). The Virgle pioneer application alone is a hoot.

Any other good pranks out there?

Update: Wired has some good ones in its top 10 list. Like this one:

1995 The hotheaded naked ice borer, a sort of mole with a searing, bony forehead, lurks under Antarctica, melting the ice beneath the butts of hapless penguins and eating them as they sink. When Discover magazine publishes its retraction, penguins everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Which reminds me of this great one from the BBC: Flying penguins

OK, back to work!