ASAE's not dead yet, apparently. Cool.

Got some some great comments to my recent post asking if ASAE was dying. Of course, I don't think it is, not yet anyway, but I do think it has a particular role to play in showing its members how one might make the transition, if strategically worthwhile, to using social technologies (for example) which might help it thrive in the long term.

Jason Della Rocca had an interesting thought: "One role most associations play is the keeper of the status quo. So, in keeping the status quo of the traditional association model for its own members, ASAE is potentially "purposefully ignorant" to change when it comes to how it does things." Seems to me that this is an interesting paradox for ASAE, because of course it want to be the leadership model, but equally it has a lot vested in the status quo at the same time.

I will say that as a new member of ASAE's Technology Section Council, I am very particularly interested in this state of affairs because we have some pretty radical ideas of how to change some things from the inside out. Obviously we won't know if it will all work out according to plan or will stay in the realm of big ideas, but I am a "doer" more than a "talker" (believe it or not) and I'm pretty good at energizing people, as it turns out. The Tech council is only a tiny subsection of ASAE's work, of course, but it's a good a place as any to start and there's a natural fit for trying a bit of experimentation. We'll see what's what, but the idea of being a leadership model while working within an established structure is very much at the forefront of our thinking.

Bruce Hammond and Peggy Hoffman had good posts following on from this discussion too. Thanks, guys, for chiming in. I think we'll come back to this issue a lot more as time goes on. This conversation is not over, not by a long shot.