High touch: FPA executive director Marv Tuttle's ambitious advocacy and professional...

At a staff leadership retreat at a mountain resort in Utah in June, Marv Tuttle, the new executive director and CEO of the Financial Planning Association, kept pounding at a single theme: membership growth.

"We knew it was huge on the list, but we hadn't held our hands together saying all across the board: 'This is important. Yet without continued growth we will struggle to move forward our external agenda," remarked Tuttle after the retreat. "We can only do lip service until we grow membership."

A half-year into his new post, Tuttle, 49, is quickly putting