IIUSA Leadership Circle Concludes 3rd Annual EB-5 Leadership Summit: Part 1
On September 9-10, 2024, members of IIUSA’s Leadership Circle convened in Washington, DC for the 3rd Annual IIUSA Leadership Summit. The Summit was founded in 2021 as a way for the IIUSA’s Leadership Circle to have more direct input about the strategic direction of the association in the near and long term.
The Summit consisted of two days of carefully planned programming. Day one was strategic conversations related to five key areas of association services: Membership, Education, Events, Data & Research, and Government Affairs. Day two led a group of Leaders to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers to advocate for the future of the program, tout the benefits and success of EB-5, and overall provide education to legislators and their staff.
This summary is exclusively about the Day 1 internal strategic planning meetings. Day 2 – Hill Day – will be addressed in a Part 1 post.
Leaders were welcomed Monday morning in DC with well-prepared discussion topics on the association services listed above and below. Each IIUSA staff member that generally overseas each category led attendees through several question prompts which resulted in heart discussions and brainstorming that ultimately will help staff craft a 2025 Strategic Plan document and more generally prepare for 2026 and beyond. Getting a better understanding what benefits and services our members are aware of and additional ones they’d like to see offered, is critical to ensuring IIUSA continues to build a worthwhile, successful, and valuable community of which EB-5 stakeholders are eager to be a part.
While there were many insightful takeaways from our day together with the Leadership Circle, staff is still distilling the conversations and analyzing how to best use our time and resources to create and improve upon services and benefits as they relate to these discussions. However, below is a brief summary of conclusions and/or action items as they related to each member service category:
Membership
- Continue to build the IIUSA membership base with new and returning members
- Continue to expand and enhance member-exclusive benefits and services
- Create special services for new member onboarding
Education
- Maintain that IIUSA is the go-to for industry education and information
- Look to expand CLE offerings
- Expand upon the success of the digital EB-5 Basics Module to bring it life in a live seminar in conjunction with the Industry Forum.
Events
- Maintain IIUSA’s status for hosting the premier EB-5 events domestically and overseas with the most reliable and up-to-date information and education grounded in facts and substance
- Launch IIUSA “Office Hours”
Data & Research
- Improve communication to members about the data resources available to them
- Increase response rate and collect additional data points of member-submitted data
Government Affairs
- Maximizing meetings on Capitol Hill to educate members and staff is a must
- Encourage “home” meetings with members (meetings in the members state/district, not in DC)
- Grow the IIUSA PAC
- More orgs with signed prior approval forms
- More individual contributions from PAC members
- More PAC contribution checks delivered to candidates
- It’s never too early to start advocating for 2027 reauthorization
- Continue to push for engagement with USCIS via congressional offices and conversations with the CIS Ombudsman Office
If you are interested in a more detailed synopsis of the outcomes of the discussions from this event, consider joining the IIUSA Leadership Circle. Your involvement helps make possible many of the member-exclusive benefits of IIUSA in addition to supporting our advocacy initiatives. Leadership Circle members also enjoy a bevy of other benefits, including the opportunity to attend the Annual Leadership Summit where leaders have direct access to influencing the future of the association and the EB-5 Program.
Learn more about the IIUSA Leadership Circle here or email info@iiusa.org to join.
A summary of Day 2, IIUSA Hill Day, is coming soon.
