John Graham on the “New Normal” for Associations
ASAE The Center for Association Leadership, which supports the interests of more than 22,000 association executives and industry partners representing 10,000 organizations worldwide, demonstrated at its heavily attended annual meeting in Detroit that you can’t ever stop reinventing yourself. While mobile is the future, professionals of all ages relish face-to-face interaction with their peers and industry thought leaders.
We sat down with President John Graham about new membership models and game changers he sees happening for associations during the coming year.
Today’s young leaders put more emphasis on work/life balance and are drawn to organizations that value work/life balance.
Mobile changes the way members interact with your organization and how they access the information and resources they really want.
Expect to see more associations adapt transactional and organization-wide membership models.
Association Adviser: John, we’ve been talking about the “new normal” for a few years now. How do you think associations are handling the transition to the faster-paced, “what’s in it for me” demand from their members?
John Graham: Actually, it’s a huge opportunity versus being a challenge for associations. But a lot of these tech advances are expensive. Many associations don’t have the resources in reserves, but you do have to make the investments. For instance, we’re a larger organization, and we invested about $5 million over the last three to four years in our website redesign. We had to take money out of reserves, not from the operating budget. That’s a big commitment in the future.
AA: You referenced ASAE’s hybrid membership model in your opening remarks. Can you tell us more about how it will work and how other types of new membership models are working for other associations?
JG: It’s going to work exactly like the small staff association model works for us now. If you look at small staffs, generally only the CEO (or executive director) is the member and [the] rest of the staff has to rely on the CEO to share what they learned [from ASAE]. Our new model lets [staff] who wouldn’t normally be members access the same information and resources as full members. That, coupled with our education loyalty program, gives us the opportunity to reach a much larger cohort of an organization’s staff.
AA: John, can you walk us through this new membership model?
Sure. Membership will be based on how many staff an organization has. So for the price of “X,” the CEO and/or directors will be regular members (including receipt of print member magazine) and all the other staff, if they opt-in, will be electronic members. They’ll have access to the same benefits, but will get the magazine electronically. I think many other associations will adopt hybrid and transactional membership models.
We now have organization-wide membership based on three tiers:
- Small associations (less than 10 staff);
- Midsize associations (10 to 50 staff);
- Large associations (over 50 staff).
Each group not only receives different pricing and membership benefits, but content will be customized to the appropriate size organization. ASAE expects to double its membership to 50,000 by 2018 by dramatically increasing the number of organizational memberships versus individual memberships.
AA: What do you think the biggest membership communications challenges are for today’s association?
JG: Information overload and clutter continues to increase. There is so much information that’s flowing to people from all different sources that it’s easy for your message to get things lost in the clutter. Even in simpler times it was hard to get your message through. What’s the old marketing rule — it takes seven touches to make your message resonate? Now there are so many other ways to reach people. I don’t [know] what the magic number of touches is today.
AA: Are any new channels particularly effecting the touchpoint equation?
JG: Mobile! It changes the dynamic of how people communicate. Associations used to drive information and content out [to members]. Mobile allows the individual to [proactively] seek the content they really want from the organization and not have it pushed to them. So your organization needs to be nimble and flexible enough to make it easy for the individual to seek content from you in a very efficient way.
AA: Now that members of Next Gen are starting to assume leadership roles, what are you seeing as the biggest differences between their management styles and those of older generations?
JG: What changes more from generation to generation is personal experience each generation had growing up. Every leader, regardless of age, seeks face-to-face interaction and interpersonal relationships. But, technology actually enables communication. The younger generation is much more comfortable with technology. It’s viewed more as a communication enabler as opposed to “something I have to learn how to do.” It’s part of their way of life.
AA: So we can expect more technology-based communication from the next generation of leaders?
JG: No. I don’t see it that way. It’s just that younger people have a much higher expectation for technology. Their management style is not that much different. People think every generation is different, but I just don’t see it. Some of the [perceived] differences have to do with the economy when young people came out of school. For kids coming out of school today, it’s a very different experience than it was for kids coming out of school 20 years ago. The other thing we see is that younger leaders put much more emphasis on work/life balance and are drawn to organizations that value work/life balance.
AA: What is the next “game changer” you see on the horizon?
JG: It’s still mobile. The use of mobile today is as much a game changer as the advent of the personal computer was 30 years ago.
AA: If a typical association team leader got an unexpected 50 percent increase in their annual budget, how do you think they would (or should) spend it?
JG: Two areas: technology and messaging platforms. In terms of tech, associations don’t need to be on the “bleeding edge,” but they should at least be on the cutting edge if they want to remain relevant with their members. In terms of messaging platforms, it’s critically important — especially for trade associations — to invest wisely in their messaging platforms. As they try to get the message out about their industries — from solar to petroleum to mining to beverages — messaging is a critical component of what you do and what members expect.
AA: John, there have been some great speakers and sessions here at ASAE this week. How can attendees put all the great tips and insights to use after they get swallowed up by the daily grind back home?
JG: An excellent practice is to bring multiple staff to the meeting and make sure you don’t cluster. Network with different people and attend different sessions. Soon after you return to the office, get together and share what you learned — not only with those who were at the meeting, but with many others who couldn’t attend. And think about having more people join under the new membership model for next year [laughing].
