Are You Receiving Value from Your Trade Association or Professional Society?

If you are not receiving the value you believe you deserve from your association or society, know this...dysfunction in associations and societies prevail at unbelievable levels. I'm always amazed at how these organizations muddle along, especially when their focus is on anything but the member value proposition. So many organizations seem to think that they exist to save the world. NO, they exist to serve their members.

When I’m brought in as a membership growth consultant I generally state to the board of directors, “Realize that when you bring me in to help you grow your membership, I am not coming to make friends but rather to MAKE A DIFFERENCE! I will push your staff and volunteer leaders beyond their comfort zone and many will push back. That's what it takes. Can you handle the heat?” Naturally they always respond in the affirmative...and what's going through their minds is shear terror.

Then there is the belief that the paid staff does not have the bandwidth to achieve certain things...might it be that or something else? Perhaps priority and capability (employee skill-sets) are the true issues? Generally entry-level and untrained staff are squandering much of their time re-inventing the wheel. This is due to their lack of experience and knowledge of best practices already developed within the industry.

What really kills the member value is when staff or volunteer leaders do not want to be held accountable for performance, one of the most common ploys is to use "misdirect" to cover up their failure to perform in delivering member value. The misdirect (also called a red herring) is meant to move your attention to something else (that rarely matters). I tell the leaders that by allowing this, they support non-performance. However they are too busy playing politics, making nice, and protecting their position to hold anyone accountable.

If you look at the true issue, failure to perform, and deal with that...you are developing a culture of performance at your organization. Performance, and not excuse, is the foundation of delivering value to members.

How does one handle the volunteer leader that falls back on the old saw, "I have a day job ya know" when he/she fails to perform? I like to remind him/her that they accepted the position and have received kudos and accolades from their colleagues and they now need to either perform or let someone else that is willing to do the work have the job. I also like the various scorecard systems that use peer pressure as the source for motivation to perform.

If you want more value from your association or society, demand it. Hold the chief staff executive (generally the executive director) and chief elected officer (generally the president) accountable and get your colleagues to do the same. When people are watching, it is amazing how much the leaders can achieve.