ASAE delivered a letter [PDF] to President Joe Biden yesterday urging the administration to engage the association community in policy discussions of critical importance to the nation.

ASAE typically sends an introductory letter to each incoming administration, though this year’s letter reflects the extraordinary and immediate challenges facing the White House as it works to arrest the COVID-19 pandemic and reverse months of severe damage to the U.S. economy. Much of the Biden administration’s initial agenda has been focused on the related issues of slowing the coronavirus spread and ramping up vaccine production and distribution, and looking at ways to shore up an economy that continues to shed jobs and impede recovery.

Since the pandemic began roughly a year ago, associations have worked to support their industries and professions as they struggled to stay afloat during this prolonged downturn, ASAE said in its letter. It told Biden that associations can be critical resources for the federal government as it works to wrestle the pandemic under control, give families and businesses a bridge to economic stability, and address the stark inequities in our economy that the pandemic has exposed.

“Associations have access to millions of skilled professionals and experts in different fields who can share valuable perspectives, raise important questions, and help formulate strategies for approaching difficult, multi-layered issues,” ASAE President and CEO Susan Robertson, CAE, wrote. “By leveraging these resources to address complex issues like disease prevention and research, consumer and product safety, and disaster relief—just to name a few—associations directly benefit the public and improve the quality of life we all enjoy. Any sustainable economic recovery will involve the industries and professions that associations represent.”

Attached to ASAE’s letter was a document entitled The Essential Pillars and Purpose of American Associations [PDF], which ASAE has used in recent months to educate lawmakers and government officials about the role and purpose of associations.

Joe Biden speaks at his inauguration earlier this month. (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff/Flickr)