Penny for your thoughts?

The Idea Store is actually a work of art we have commissioned from Athena Robles and Anna Stein, two Brooklyn (and D.C.) artists who we learned of in a post by Dan Pink, “Take a trip to the Idea Store.” (Photo by Dan Pink.) He finished his post with this thought:

“Maybe something like an Idea Store could be a feature of your organization’s next offsite or your association’s next conference. … Maybe having one in your office lobby could generate suggestions and trigger conversations.”

That is our idea for the Idea Store.

Combine this with the brainpower of an association of almost 10,000 CPAs, the most trusted advisers to business, tap their collective wisdom to help solve some of the wicked problems we are facing today, and you have an idea (store) whose time has come.

As a professional association that has been around since 1901, we were built on the idea of associating and collaborating to make our community and our profession better. Recently a group of partners from our Major Firms Group expressed concern about the increasing rhetoric about high taxes and draconian cuts in services and are asking,”How can we help?” and “Is there a better way?”

So we do what associations do — tap our membership for a task force to begin to address the issue.

Then I saw Dan's post about the Idea Store and thought: What if we could take that store to our MACPA events and ask our members for ideas about these issues? We could collect, sort and categorize them and truly tap the wisdom of the crowd.

Isn't that what associations are really about?

So come out and see the grand opening of our Idea Store at CPA Day in Annapolis next Wednesday, Jan. 18 at the Governor Calvert House, where we will be open for business. The artists will be on hand to teach us how to run the store and to share the spirit of collaboration.

What ideas do you have to help Maryland solve our structural deficit and get our economy moving?

And thanks, Dan, for providing the inspiration and challenge.