9.12.2008

Is ASAE dying?

Bit of a heavy subject for a Friday, I grant you. But listen to this recent comment:

"While I am an ASAE member (solely because I get it free through my work) I have a lot of gripes with how the organization incorporates vendors into the mix.

It seems not a day goes by that I get an email from ASAE promoting a vendor related product, i.e. "Are your webinars falling flat" was yesterday's one.

The logging in to rate or post comments on an ASAE article is the tip of the iceberg over there.

While I love networking with other Association folks, I'd love to do it with less noise, spam and log in credentials.

I find using Twitter and checking blogs like yours I can accomplish what I need without ASAE.

Just my two cents."

This post is not meant to turn into a gripe fest. I'll be honest. I love ASAE. I wouldn't be where I am without it. I have made tons of friends through it, kick-started my career through it, made myself a reputation through it, and I plan to be a member for a long, long time, assuming I can afford it, which is not necessarily a given now that I'm going into business for myself.

But I have to tell you, I am hearing these kind of comments from lots of different places.

There has been the whole Susan Sarfati being kicked out debacle (all hearsay, btw, I don't pretend to personally know or care about the inner politicking), lots of commentary about educational content of conferences not being great (especially since the merger), the whole thing with consultants feeling like second class citizens (I guess that's the other side of the "feeling spammed" comment above), and lots of stuff about poor usability and friendliness (having to jump through hoops to join a committee, having to log in to access anything and everything on the ASAE site, etc).

Now we all like to complain about stuff (some more than others!), but this is what struck me about my commenter's words, and something I have heard more than once, from all sorts of different people:

I find using Twitter and checking blogs like yours I can accomplish what I need without ASAE.

Those of us who work with social media and several of us association bloggers have been warning for a while that associations need to watch their backs for this exact reason. We think of this being a big threat to smaller associations, perhaps, or niche associations, or trade associations with a finite pool of potential members... but could it really happen to THE "association of associations"? Could it happen to ASAE?

It's not just about people being able to find information elsewhere - it's now about people being able to congregate and learn and network elsewhere too.

I linked to YAP there, but we are very aware of having a value FOR ASAE, and a really nicely symbiotic (if unspoken) relationship. But that could turn at any time, and would we need ASAE for YAP to survive - and thrive? Of course not. We've built a community that members care about, and that provides resources that members need. And we don't charge a dime, by the way. We are totally open, totally friendly, totally welcoming. There's some awesomeness you can't pay for even if you wanted to.

So - are you hearing negative comments like these too? Assuming you think ASAE does have a value for you, what should it do as a leadership model to counteract this?

I have lots of ideas about what ASAE can do to be awesome. I want to hear what you think.

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4 comments:

  1. Like you I'm a big fan of ASAE, my boss on the other hand is not, but he's been a member much longer than I have. He says he belongs to ASAE so it is something that he can put on his resume. He attends the occasional meeting (rare!), but thinks the content of the conventions are not of the same quality as they once were. On this I think I agree, though I haven't been to a previous ASAE convention. I didn't go to the convention this year for 2 reasons:

    1. I had other things in my personal life that took precedence the weekend before.

    2. There wasn't enough programming that was of interest to me to justify having an insane schedule that week. (I was in the middle of doing a show on the weekend, then taking off work to fly to SD, then fly back and do the show... too much)

    As much as I like to absorb all the Social Media programming I can, I'm also starting to find it a little repetitive. I hear the same things over and over again, I'm missing hearing that new fresh idea. Maybe it's because all the programming that is out there if for "new" users to Social Media, and though I am by no means a guru, I have a background in it.

    I do find value in some of the programming (like the mentor program on Tuesday at AFP) and I've met some awesome people through ASAE. My mother has been a long time member of ASAE, has found value in it and now I search for the same things.

    I think it still all comes down to value. When working on a project, I look to ASAE as a knowledge resource to help supplement anything else I've found. I wish they had more external items and links more readily available on their site though. I guess they do when it comes to examples, but I think I'm looking more for articles and the like.

    If Social Media teaches us anything, it's that people want information for free and having the association spending the time to provide the information in one place keeps the member happy, or at least it'd keep me happy. ;)
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  2. A little heavy for a Friday yes but also interesting pondering for a Friday. I too am an ASAE fan largely because of the communities I've jumped into. I may be able to make connections without ASAE but it certainly made it very easy to find where I wanted to be by starting with ASAE. I look at it as a shopping mall - I have my favorite mall and I go there because it has some of my fav stores and others I've come to call favs having found them in the mall and because I know my way around the mall. ASAE is my professional mall. I will stop going there - not because of Twitter or blogs - if they shop being comfortable or stop refreshing themselves with new "stores." I stopped by the bloggercon in San Diego - that was my new "store."

    So what can the leadership do? Focus on new stores, focus on being comfortable, focus on having members - not the elite sitting around the board or the staff - build the organization.

    This prompted me to blog a little on the topic :)
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  3. Mads, this is a great question, and not just for ASAE but for all associations. I'm going to respond with an anecdote.

    For the past almost 5 years, I've been part of the Greater Washington Network group that puts on biennial CAE training. There's a popular Study Guide in circulation that we use as one of the foundational documents for the course. That Guide was revised this past spring, too close to the spring training course here in DC for us to use it.

    As we're prepping for the fall course, the GWN volunteer group started reviewing the Study Guide and realized that there are significant errors. We're in the process of preparing a supplement to address them that we'll distribute to course participants along with their Guides.

    So what's my point?

    Another alternative for CAE prep is to study on your own. Or to form a local study group comprised all of candidates. These types of people often purchase the Study Guide as an aid to their exam prep. YAP is in fact going to host such a group this fall.

    Without the resources of an authoritative organization to vet information, everyone could just end up using the Guide, studying incorrect information without knowing it, and...well, that's not going to have a positive effect on your likelihood of passing.

    Some types of organizing and some types of information are amenable to self-directed community creation. Some (certification, accreditation, standards setting, peer-reviewed journals and conference programs, courses for formal credit, etc.) are not.

    So is this a death-knell for associations? No, I don't think so. I do, however, think that, just as when the Internet first became "a thing" in the mid-90s, associations are going to have to change quickly and dramatically in order to remain relevant - particularly those that don't hold a monopoly on the types of information/communities I mentioned above.
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  4. Jason Della RoccaSep 14, 2008 08:32 PM
    Chalk me up as another that gets (and contributes) value out of ASAE.

    However, as the association of associations, it may be doubly blind to the changes occurring in the association world.

    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.

    For example, was totally bummed that Clay Shirky wasn't named as one of the keynotes for the next Annual Meeting in Toronto.

    Hmm...
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