Change is coming, but that’s nothing new, we’ve known that since, well, forever. However, within the current tide of change, associations must decide if that change will be the long hoped for type of change that Sam Cooke sung about or if it will be the change that steamrolls its way through our organizations. That’s what this year’s Aptify conference was all about. Specifically, embracing technology to lead and harness the power of change. One key theme that stuck out, was that not only do members expect things at their fingertips, so do employees. This fact was highlighted in Jamie Notter’s (Author of “When Millennials Take Over”) keynote speech about millennials in the workplace – “The Power of Millennial Alignment”. It isn’t enough anymore to know what members expect and to kindly say “we’re working on it”, we must be able to deliver what they want when they want it (and when do they want it? NOW, of course). That’s where technology partners like HighRoad come in. Partners in the association space are working alongside associations to harness the power of technology to deliver member services and respond to member needs.

I'm either proud or ashamed (on any given day it varies) to say that I've been in and out of the association world for about 20 years so I have a certain longitudinal perspective on trends and certainly, on digital technology adoption. I worked at National League for Nursing way back in 1996 while I was studying at Columbia in an admin role and the only reason we had a computer was for email.  Over the course of twenty years, I was here for the advent of websites moving from brochureware to content management systems and was on the front wave when social media and mobile hit.

I've worked on every type of software product that associations use and how to best apply these to business challenges. What that translates into is hundreds of completed projects and probably more that weren't completed because of shifting priorities, summer Fridays off and slashed budgets. Hundreds? Yes, I mean hundreds and that probably equates to thousands of meetings spent consulting with associations cross-departmentally to understand how their normal course of business can translate to digital, how digital can be used to promote, measure and increase their brand reach and how workflow processes change when digital is central to the process.

So here we are in 2016 and I'm fascinated to see that there is a new trend emerging that is busting up the predominant philosophy that has governed association management thinking for the last 20 years:

Stop the do-it-yourself (DIY) madness and outsource the work.

During my time here at HighRoad, I have attended a lot of association events here in the Washington, D.C. area. At those events, I have been fortunate to meet many smart people in the technology arena. These people are looking to change up the technology game and use terms that encourage a new way of thinking. Here are some buzzwords I hear floating around when I am out and think are worth a deeper look.

Top challenges this summer are in membership

One of the key challenges that I've heard all summer surrounds membership. The two-fold challenge of how do we grow? and how can we do a better job of limiting year 1 to year 2 attrition seems to be the key focus area for many associations right now. We are spending a ton of time working with organizations to re-think this two-fold challenge and apply social marketing principles and digital marketing techniques to arrive at unique solutions. 

the secret challenges no one wants to admit

For most membership organizations, there are actually more than two problems. There is a very big elephant-in-the-room set of challenges that few organizations are comfortable discussing. Namely: 

1) How well do we currently know the consumption patterns and user behavior of our current membership?

2) How well do we really understand generational splits and tastes & preferences, cultural references and lifestyles of our membership?

3) How well are we spending the time we have to strategize on membership campaigns to help us overcome our challenges?

Today kicks off ASAE's Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference at the DC Convention Center. From the association technology vendor viewpoint, this has long been thought of as a low investment show. One where you have to show up, but you minimize your spend and don't make a big splash because it doesn't usually draw the technology people whom have long been the traditional buyers of software. Due to lack of big budgets and being seen as an influencer of technology purchases, but not a decision-maker, MMC professionals traditionally have not been seen as power players in the association industry. This observation is backed up by our research which found that a small margin of associations have a MMCer at the VP level and an even smaller percentage of the already small percentage have an MMCer with a title that begins with the word "Chief". 

Congratulations to Robert Spangler for winning the Volunteer of the Year award from the New York Society of Association Executives. Bob is the senior director of marketing at the New Jersey State Bar Association where he's always ready to push his organization forward by better leveraging technology.  We've been honored to partner with NJSBA for more than six years to help support their digital marketing and Bob has been a key player in creating a solution driven by both business and technology considerations.