Let's Not Lose Our Uniqueness or Our Thumbs!

Article after article about the changing nature of associations. Quote after quote about business ventures, "partnering," technology, knowledge-based management, etc. In the words of that famous swamp philosopher, Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Trying to keep up with all of the changes in the association world is a real challenge, especially with so much competition coming from outside (non-association) entities. For many association leaders, the response has been to try to run their organization in a more "business-like" manner, and I think that's great. We should be efficient and well-managed organizations. However, I'm seeing a trend that can, if not monitored, get out of control and deprive us of our biggest "competitive advantage" - our uniqueness.

What makes organizations like ours - associations, societies, chambers of commerce, etc. - different isn't just our designation as not-for-profit organizations. Indeed, more and more leaders are realizing that "not-for-profit" is a tax status, not a business philosophy. What truly makes us unique is the role of the volunteer. While associations are in many ways like any private (for-profit) company, we're the only ones who actually involve our customers (members) in the management of the company! As our members continue to have more and more choices about where they can go to get service-information, continuing education, marketing data, etc.- we need to emphasize our uniqueness. Unfortunately, many associations are doing just the opposite.

The culprit, of course, is time.

Technology and communications systems have created a 24-hour work day for our members, so they have less and less time to "get involved" in their association, society, or chamber. They would rather pay someone else to do the work of the organization not because they don't like to get involved but because they honestly feel that they can't get involved. As understandable as that is, if we continue let staffers do the work that was traditionally done by volunteers, we become just another provider of products and services. They are connected to us only through a publication or a statistical report, items they will eventually be able to get better, faster, or cheaper through some other source.

Here's an example of what I mean. For several years, my wife has been the block captain for the March of Dimes. Her job was to raise money from the 20 families in our neighborhood. Last year, instead of contacting all 20 families, she decided that she would break the work up among 3 or 4 others.  She went to a neighbor and asked her to collect from 5 families -her own and the families in the next four houses on the block. The neighbors first question was "How much time is this going to take?" My wife said - "It's only your house and the next four. I've already filled out the envelopes with the names, all you have to do is collect the money and give the envelopes back to me. How long can that take?" The neighbor thought about it and said "Well, it won't take long but what if some of them aren't home? Then I have to go back, and then you'll be calling looking for the envelopes, and I'll still be chasing people around for days. How much are we trying to raise, anyway?" My wife replied "We're only trying to get $10.00 per family"

You guessed it. The next things the neighbor said was "How about if I just write you a check for $50.00?"   It wasn't any dislike of the March of Dimes, and it wasn't the money, it was the time. (One friend told my wife she should have had the same conversation with the families in the next four houses, too. She might be able to get $50.00 per house!).

We need to be careful not to let our members write too many checks to get out of their time commitments. After all, volunteer involvement is what makes us unique.

Topic Number Two - Our Thumbs

As the century draws to close, we're seeing all of these "100 Greatest" lists.  One of these lists was the 100 best television shows. Among my all-time favorites on the list was an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show. In this show, an alien (who looked like Danny Thomas) came to earth and changed people into zombies. You knew you were being changed when you lost your sense of humor-and your thumbs. The two symptoms went together.

I'm afraid a lot of us are in danger of losing our thumbs, because it seems as though we've already lost our sense of humor. Too many association execs are forgetting that part of what we do is supposed to be enjoyable. That fact apparently isn't as obvious as it used to be. Pressures to get all the work done have caused people to take everything way too seriously.

Each year the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives (GWSAE) sponsors a number of sessions of their program entitled "Association 101: An Orientation to Association Management". I've had the honor of teaching this program for the past several years, and I like to start the program with a fun exercise that gets people up and talking to others. It's not just a game, there are a lot of points we make during the rest of the program that relate back to the exercise. It becomes the focal point for many discussions later in the daylong program. On our evaluation forms, more and more attendees are asking us to do away with this exercise because they feel it's "a waste of time." The say that we "could have just told the attendees the points you wanted to make." To these people, I really have to say "LIGHTEN UP!"

It's o.k. to have fun. It's o.k. to goof around a little bit. It's o.k. not to take yourself so seriously. What frightens me a little about these comments is that they come from people who are new to association management. If they start their careers being too serious, I'm afraid they'll never get the true enjoyment out of their careers that many of us get. In fact, if they're that serious, they probably won't stay in this business for very long, and that's ashame.

Be careful not to let your members "buy" their way out of involvement by letting the staff do everything. Don't give away your uniqueness.  Oh, and by the way - keep those thumbs up!


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