October 12, 2005
I’m a Bad Member … Or Am I?
Posted by Kevin | Print This Article
I belong to four associations.
Am I a bad member? You decide.
1) Every year I get a bill. Every year I look at it. Every year I ask myself, “Am I getting something out of this?” Every year I pay it.
2) I don’t participate in committees.
3) I don’t call and ask questions.
4) I belong to umpty-umpteen listserves. Most of those emails, alas, get only the most cursory of glances (if that) before getting deleted, because really, who has time? However, if a subject line interests me, I look at it. And sometimes I respond. Other times I’ve sent emails to various listserves asking a question and have found almost every vendor I love (as opposed to like) this way.
5) I read one of the magazines, flip through two, immediately give another to an employee without even looking at it.
6) In each case, I receive far too many promotional emails from the association proper. They almost always get deleted right away. As a result, I know that I have missed out on programs that would have been beneficial to me. Yet I feel no regret.
7) I get asked to speak at meetings and write articles. Usually I say yes.
I get notices asking me to help refer members through endless member-get-a-member programs. I never do.
9) I ask all of my employees to join at least one association — any at all — of their choosing, and I budget for it. Strangely, some of them still choose not to because they’re not interested. I don’t get upset about it.
10) When I need information about something related to one of the associations, I usually visit their websites looking for it. I almost never find it. Yet, the next time I’m wondering something, I still return, ever hopeful.
11) Though they all have conferences, I only attend a couple each year. I attend the ones that benefit me and my organization. The fact that I don’t attend an association’s conference — and in some cases never intend to — never occurs to me as a reason to belong or not.
12) I often get asked to send a message to my Congressman about something. Nine times out of ten it’s about something that doesn’t affect me or my organization, so I don’t. When it does, I do. Unless I’ve deleted the email the association sent in the first place.
13) I occasionally get formally-written memos from an organization’s elected and/or executive leaders talking about their strategic plan, or restructuring, or annual goals, or rebranding, or whatever. In any event, I couldn’t care less.
14) Does anyone really need another yellow-page-sized association membership directory?
15) Through each organization I’ve met individuals who have enriched my life, personally and professionally. Yet when I take stock and give credit, in all honesty, it goes to those individuals, not the association.
So I’m wondering: Am I a bad member?
Is there such a thing?
You’re probably fairly normal - perhaps even in the top 25% percentile of interactivity with your associations. I believe most people do even less than you have.
My personal opinion of meetings associations is that the majority are happy they exist, but that majority is equally happy that someone else is volunteering the time to protect their interests.
On the association side, I tend to think that they generally look at their renewal/new member rates as their sole measure of validation, as opposed to trying to add value through targeted programs to different types of constituents. There is still too much “one size fits all” marketing.
Perhaps the biggest change I’ve seen over the past decade is the number of consultant members who, like me, are both suppliers and buyers. I don’t think our associations have figured out what to do with us yet. We pay dues and attend sessions on the one hand, yet we also do business at their events without buying a booth. Some still think of us as “outboarders”, although we influence a lot of decisions on what our clients purchase and are valuable prospects to exhibitors. The negative perceptions of what we do has to change.
More to your point, not that long ago I also belonged to four associations. Two years ago I cut that back to one (IAEM) so that I could pay attention to at least that one and hopefully have some impact. Judging by the dust that’s been kicked up, I think I’ve “mattered”. I am on the education cmte, their magazine editorial advisory board and a regular speaker at their annual.
I felt that was the only solution to be able to have any impact. We’re all ridiculously busy and spread thin, so I had no regrets cutting out the other three.
Of course I haven’t been able to get off the mailing/phone lists of those three.