Associations need to focus on bottom-line benefits to grow annual membership numbers
SOME members of representative trade, sector and professional associations have difficulty valuing and justifying their ongoing participation, according to Barry Urquhart, managing director, Marketing Focus.
Periodically, attrition rates spike with the receipt of member renewal accounts, he says, when members do not renew.
This is despite the fact that the complexities of modern commerce and society mean it is seldom advisable to ‘go it alone’. Collegiate endeavours, learnings and the sharing of experiences underscore the worth of being involved with those of common interests.
Inputs from the disciplines of law, accounting, finance and human resources can be invaluable within context.
But in times of suppressed demand, intense competition and increasing digital disruption, many association members, the owners and managers of small businesses in particular, find little value in learning that their own association executives have mainly been busy tramping the corridors of power to put forward collective and individual cases. The need for cashflow often is greater than some lobbying ‘win’ that seems barely relevant to a small business’s survival.
Even more unsettling, disturbing and irritating is the seeming widespread transformation of association activities towards the conduct of networking events. Compounding the qualifications of such pursuits is the declared or undeclared preference for the repeated, at-no-cost use of Board members or selected membership luminaries to address attendees at gatherings.
Profiling to targeted audiences can be, and often is, a great generator of business for those chosen few. But at what cost to individual association members, and their commercial interests?
The membership of elected Boards and governance committees or professional associations can be enlightening.
Large percentages, sometimes majorities, can be made up of lawyers, accountants, bankers and recruitment consultants, none of whom have direct participation in the activities of members.
Doubtless, their perspectives, insights and expertise are valuable and valued, but all of these can be solicited from outside the composition of the Board.
Strikingly apparent to some is that Board memberships of associations, institutes and federations of the disciplines of law, accounting and banking in particular, seem totally homogenous. Each is dutifully qualified in skills but there is a noticeable absence of plumbers, carpenters, travel agents, graphic designers and advertising professionals.
Boards, committees and governing authorities represent an opportunity to enhance the interests of members. Ideally, they should also be representative of those members.
Understandably, some ethnicity-based associations have similar characteristics.
For non-conforming intending members, judgements should be made about seeking to be an (inner) planet, or being a ‘satellite’. The light (and benefits) typically shine on those bodies closest to the ‘sun’.
