Published in the May 2014 Journal of Environmental Health (Volume 76, Number 9), a publication of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA).
I’ve written a lot in recent years about the future of environmental health. With this column, I want to turn tables and talk about the future of associations.
Within the association world today, thought leaders are spinning out some fascinating story lines having to do with why the association of today can’t last and what the association of tomorrow must look like to even exist. These story lines draw from a growing belief that the Internet has irreparably broken the traditional association model in two crucial ways, which I will explain in a moment. Associations that understand this are now rethinking both their identity and their manner of operation. I submit that those association that are merrily carrying on, oblivious to how the world is changing around them, will soon be gone.
To set the stage for the discussion to follow, let me quickly elaborate on how the Internet has proven to be the disruptor that is forcing associations to change.
First, the Internet opens up new and free ways to obtain information, including much of the very information that associations have for years kept locked up behind their membership doors.
Second, the Internet, and more specifically social media, have now given people numerous ways to build communities. If associations aren’t communities above and beyond anything else, then I don’t know what associations are. But with “groups” now proliferating through various social media channels, associations no longer have a monopoly on the creation and management of communities.
Take away our exclusivity for both information and community and what have you got left? Not much!
Fortunately and thanks to some courageous thinking among a small but growing number of leaders within the association world, the outlines of a very different kind of association business model are now beginning to take shape. Let me share with you here how many of us see associations evolving and what the NEHA of tomorrow needs to look like in order to justify your support and interest.
As NEHA is determined to be around for many more years, I’d welcome any reaction you have to any of the points below (see: http://neha-org.blogspot.com). Our fundamental challenge is to remain relevant. To learn how associations are meeting that challenge, we have to pay attention to the association literature and to thought leaders in our industry. But we also have to know exactly what our particular community needs. Hence, your input also and always plays a key role in the reshaping of NEHA.
My commentary below is informed not only by the association literature but also by numerous interactions I’ve had with a wide variety of association leaders, including one group of some of the smartest people I know. I am referring to colleagues of mine who are the executive directors of many of America’s scientific and engineering associations, whom I met with just a couple of months ago, where this very topic was vigorously discussed and debated.
Taking both the literature and the experiences/perspectives of many association leaders into account, it strikes me that the association of tomorrow will feature the following characteristics.
1.) Associations will migrate from membership models to community models.
In a word, it’s all about “communities”! In fact, nothing I say in the following compares in importance and urgency to this single and vital point.
The old association model carved out an exclusive grouping of people (called “members”) from a larger community of professionals. The model then had the association focusing its resources on the needs of this subgroup. Given the community building tools now widely available to anyone, larger and broader-based communities are appearing and self-organizing. The interaction and diversity available through such communities can be richer and more responsive than what is available through association channels. Even corporations are now creating communities with fanfare and success.
In the wake of these developments, a discernable movement now exists within the association world toward nonmember, community-inclusive business models. It is fascinating to follow this movement and its effort to break free from the dues dependency that the existing association membership model is built upon. It occurs to me that growing numbers of association executives are realizing that membership dues function as artificial barricades to association citizenship for large numbers of people who are otherwise honorable members of the wider community that the association claims to serve. With the emergence of alternative community building tools, it is hardly surprising that we’re now seeing heightened interest in more inclusive association business models.
We (environmental health) are a community and to be whole, we (NEHA) need to represent that community. But we also have to be financially sound. It is because of our desire to represent the entire community that in recent years we have undertaken a number of novel programs to try to significantly reduce our dependency on the dues dollar. This plan has been working. Today we derive slightly less than 5% of our total revenue from dues! I know of no dues-based association that can claim such a low percentage. By intention, NEHA is taking the steps that it needs to take to become a much more community-inclusive association.
2.) Associations as information curators.
For way longer than I’ve been around, associations have been the keeper of “the information”! They have been content creators and they have charged people for their exclusive content (with “charged” meaning, dues for the member and higher prices for the nonmember).
That comfortable role is changing because the world around us is changing. Associations are no longer the only creators of content for their audiences. Moreover, much of the content that associations create finds its way into the public domain where it is freely available to anyone. In addition, with many more sources of content now online, enormous amounts of content are now available for free to everyone.
So it is time for associations to say goodbye to their role as primary content providers. However. . . .
The widespread and easy availability of content is not to say that the consumer of this content is better off. In fact, many would argue that content consumers are worse off today because it now takes enormous amounts of time, which no one has in this busy and demanding world, to find that valuable nugget that is sought. This frustrating reality gives rise to a new and important role for associations: that of content curator.
In order to have an attractive value proposition for you—the people we serve—we have to provide products and services that meet your needs. We can do that better by becoming content curators. This means that we must take on several responsibilities. We have to understand your needs and pain points. We must create content that responds to those needs. We must also parse the available content to find that which is of highest value to you, i.e., content that solves your problems. And we must find ways to transform content into meaningful and useful knowledge. Our missions are clearly evolving in the direction of helping you to solve your problems.
To make this transition to content curators, associations are going to have to reexamine the kind of staff we employ as we will increasingly require professionals who can both understand our community and curate information and knowledge for it.
3.) Association management.
It used to be that associations would fill their CEO and even senior staff positions with professionals from the field of practice represented by the association. The American Chemical Society would hire a chemist and the National Association of Mechanical Engineers would hire a mechanical engineer to run their associations and so forth. No more.
The association management field is an acclaimed professional field in its own right. The specific skill set necessary to run an association, and especially in these increasingly complicated times, is considerably different than the one necessary to be a successful chemist, mechanical engineer, or even environmental health specialist. As a result, associations of all kinds now routinely turn to association managers to run their organizations.
In part because the association industry has become so complex, in part because the field of association management has matured, and in part because volunteers have limited time to offer, more and more associations now follow what is referred to as “policy governance.” In short, the professional staff run the association and manage its operations. Its volunteers govern the association and handle key responsibilities such as policy making, general governance, and strategic direction. The association literature is very clear on this point. The successful association of tomorrow will increasingly be managed by its professional staff.
4.) Associations are going more and more international.
With sequestration, budget cuts, demographic changes (and lower birth rates), automation (and the loss of jobs), the globalization of the world economy (and production and distribution now occurring outside the U.S.), and so on, many national association leaders are lamenting the fact that their domestic markets have matured and plateaued. As a result, attention is increasingly turning to the international community as sources for growth and expanded influence.
Add to this the fact that some of the world’s richest content comes from America. While a two-way value to information exchange most certainly exists, the demand for content from America is high and associations are well positioned to provide such content.
The association of the future will increasingly have an international dimension to it (which has interesting implications for governance structures and organizational cultures). By virtue of our deepening relationship with the International Federation of Environmental Health, our new program on international partnership organizations, and even the advent of our e-Journal, which makes getting our journal to professionals in other countries so much easier, NEHA is already building bridges to shorelines in nations far away.
5.) Crowdsourcing will become an important driver for association work and priorities.
I have lectured until I am blue in the face that the only reality in today’s world is speed. Other than maybe a spiritual consideration, I would argue that nothing else matters. Everything is going faster and our job is to keep pace. If anything, technology has accentuated this existential fact of our time. If we have any hope of keeping pace, we are increasingly going to have to use tools like crowdsourcing.
Let’s start first with an example of work: the time it takes to clear and publish a manuscript. Today, in the average association, more than a year is likely to pass between the time a manuscript is submitted and it is published. A large chunk of that time is devoted to the process of peer review. It is conceivable that with crowdsourcing, we could run a manuscript through a group, and with e-publishing capabilities, have that article available within weeks.
In a similar vein, compelling voices in the association community now argue that strategic planning needs to morph into regular crowdsourcing exercises that have the power to much more quickly provide a read on both the troubles and opportunities facing a profession. It is only in this way that an association can be assured that it is remaining relevant inasmuch as crowdsourcing tracks a community’s changing circumstances in real time.
6.) Associations will increasingly consolidate.
While there are some trends on this list that I really like, others—and this is one of them—I personally don’t care for. But my opinion hardly matters! In particular, I worry that in consolidation, we risk losing the identity of our particular community (as in consolidating environmental health with public health). Nonetheless, the phenomenon of consolidation has been in play in the private sector for years and many are predicting that economies of scale will force many associations to follow suit. The lure that consolidation will financially enable an association to actually provide more to its community will be difficult to resist. We shall see!
7.) Associations will become more involved in public policy.
Many associations tightly adhere to their educational missions and take on public policy issues at their margins. They do this because very real resource and legal constraints limit their public policy options. Nonetheless, the deteriorating quality of public policy debate demands that professional perspectives be considered, and professional communities are asking for no less. Accordingly, associations are expected become more deeply involved in this kind of activity.
8.) Associations will be better capitalized.
I’d say that the vast majority of associations are essentially altruistic and dedicated to their good causes. Finances have always played second fiddle to the cause and mission of these nonprofits. Even in NEHA, the value system has always been to keep margins low and financial accessibility high.
The shockwaves emanating from the Great Recession and its aftermath were strong enough to turn this kind of thinking on its head. Following the pain of layoffs, downsizing, and even closure, associations are now much more frequently adopting financial goals quite independent from their missions. Building reserves is a refrain now heard frequently and loudly in the association community. Associations are also keen these days to have enough capital to afford anything from needed infrastructure to investment opportunities. Some associations have even stepped into the world of creating for-profit subsidiaries where the profits accrue back to the nonprofit mother ship association.
Given the projection of an endless uncertain fiscal environment, watch for financial issues to necessarily take on a larger role in the affairs of associations for years to come.
9.) The importance of innovation and creativity will become much more important to associations.
In virtually every book and study that I read that touches on the topic of job creation and business success, over and over again the message boils down to innovation and creativity. (To those concepts, I would add daringness, experimentation, acceptance of failure, and risk tolerance.)
Great business books like Blue Ocean Strategy, The New Geography of Jobs, and The Coming Jobs War all make the case that without a capacity for innovation and creativity, good luck, because that’s about all you are going to have going for you!
In a fast moving world where product life cycles are often defined in months (and less), the need for creativity and innovation has never been stronger. Associations are hardly immune to such pressures.
I envision that the successful association of tomorrow will have a capacity for being innovative and even daring as it tests new products, approaches, and services to both remain of value to its communities and safeguard its financial health. NEHA has engaged in some daring adventures in the past couple of years including our Entrepreneurial Zone and our Center for Priority Based Budgeting. Watch for many more such ventures as associations of all stripes push the boundaries of what passes for acceptable programming, because they will have to, to survive.
10.) Associations will become more agents of change.
We are learning that to attract younger professionals in particular to our associations, we increasingly have to stand for something. And standing for something does not mean discounts on books, access to networks, subscriptions to our journals, or opportunities to hold committee positions. Standing for something means standing for a cause like food safety, the proper regulation of cottage foods, harmonization of regulations between states, building healthy communities through community design, educating policy makers about the health effects of global climate change, etc., etc., etc.
Baby boomers were good at supporting associations because it was what you did as you advanced in your career. Younger professionals—veterans of volunteer community projects through their schooling—are more likely to support an association if they can buy into its cause. Look for associations in the future to have causes that they can be agents of change for.
11.) Associations will become more drivers of collaboration.
The very nature of an association involves bringing a community of people together on behalf of some purpose. From there, much effort gets expended on consensus building as associations seek to formulate common ground that its community can stand for/on.
Given our consensus-building skill set, it seems apparent that associations have the capability to bring stakeholders together to forge ways forward. Associations can even play such roles outside of their walls when engaged with other associations on behalf of grander causes. (NEHA today participates in a National Partnership Council for Environmental Health that involves a wide assortment of institutions that have a stake in the environmental health issue. Our collaboration has advanced a number of major concerns to the benefit of environmental health. Watch for more such efforts.)
12.) Associations will develop leaders.
Even today, associations provide a remarkable array of opportunities for members to grow and develop their leadership skills without even realizing it. We rely on volunteers to conduct a wide range of work for us but we fail to see that this experience helps to develop leadership skills in the volunteer.
No oversupply of leaders exists. I imagine that associations will become much better at developing their volunteers … with intention. As this transformation takes place, we can help our volunteers acquire leadership skills and experiences. As that process gains traction, I also see that associations can become a source for needed leaders in the wider communities in which we live and work.
One school within the strategic thinking field insists that any discussion of the future include a definition of what success will look like. Having such a vision helps to better understand if that picture is one worth aspiring to. It also provides a clear reference that progress can be measured against.
I sincerely hope that the picture of success that I’ve drawn for you in this piece conveys that NEHA takes seriously the obligation to keep up with the times and to continually earn both your support and respect. We would never want our “community” to expect less from us.
