In 2008, a conversation I had with Sherry Ford at SSCA about how every state surrounding Alabama had a state association, but Alabama didn't. That became my mission, to build and grow the Alabama Communication Association. I didn't know what I was doing and we made several mistakes to begin with. Soon enough I found out about the National States Advisory Council at NCA. Before you knew it, I had created an interest group at SSCA focusing on state associations. I'm not quite sure how many panels focused on state associations I've been on, but I have my notes about all of the collected wisdom I've gathered from those panels, and I'm going to publish them right here once I write them all up. And all of the panelists will get credit for their parts. So if you are interested in building, fine tuning, or growing your academic state association, check back with this page from time to time.