Achieving Your Association's Potential: Involving and Empowering Your Members

The following article has been adapted from a piece written by Ken Thacker, Founding Partner of the Association Resource Centre inc. and was written based on his 15+ years of observation and experience as a strategic planning and governance consultant for not-for-profit organizations at the regional, state/provincial, national and international levels.  It is an excellent 'primer' on member and stakeholder engagement.

All around us, technological advancements are touted as offering the ultimate tools for communication and productivity. E-mail, voice mail, cellular telephones, Internet access…. and yet it seems there are still "communication break downs."

It's a "lack of communication" and "being out of touch" that often surface as negative feelings when associations attempt to find how their members are feeling. While this seems at a glance to be an oxymoron - after all, there are many tools at everyone's fingertips! - The truth is that the lack of communication between members, the Board, the staff and the various stakeholders has taken its toll on the vibrancy and health of many associations.

Why?  The members of any association are the ones who should be in the driver's seat.  They are the ones who should be setting the agenda, determining future direction and feeling they are a part of it. If you don't communicate with them, they'll feel disillusioned and uninterested.

Giving members a voice is all-important. How that is accomplished requires a concentrated effort by the full membership, with buy-in at all levels.  Associations that don't give their members a direct say in forming their agendas often find themselves adrift without focus and, more importantly, with a membership base that feels totally disconnected from their association.

Turning the Triangle Upside-Down

If you look at the structures of typical Canadian associations, most of them are like triangles. The board of directors is typically at the top (i.e. the triangle's smallest point) and communicates 'downward' to committees, task forces and staff (i.e. the broader base). Often, the decision-makers have little or no contact with the membership-at-large and don't really know what's going on.

Whether it's a national association with numerous provincial counterparts, or a provincial association comprised of districts or chapters, it is easy to see that relatively small groups of governing bodies are setting policies and creating programs based on limited knowledge and exposure - and the members have largely been left out. 

In these cases, there is something definitely missing between what members want and what their association is delivering. That's why it's so important to transfer the ownership of the association's agenda to the membership.

Get Buy-In By Having Members Roll Up Their Sleeves

Whether there has been a long history of member apathy or a recent downturn in volunteer commitment, the best way to turn an association around is to make it very visible on the members' radar screens. The crux of this is the ability to win the board over to believe in the process and to actually see it implemented.

The Association Resource Centre has worked with many associations in helping them to examine their mandates, refocus their vision and embark on a revitalized path that has full member support and have numerous case study examples proving that full member involvement and buy-in can be accomplished.

During a five-year period, one Ontario-based association client watched its member participation increase from two percent to about 30-35% (overall - in smaller communities, it was up to 60-70%!). We assisted this group in developing a regional workshop concept, where members regularly provided direction to the Board and helped the association establish its priorities.

A prominent feature of these regional workshops was an association report card in which Board members reported on how the members' input was being used. Periodically, the association went so far as to ask the members to assess the association's performance relative to what they wanted their association to accomplish. It was a very powerful concept - one that enabled the association to build strong member support, enthusiasm and commitment to the association and its strategies.

The process of renewal always starts with self-examination. We ask the members we work with where they would like the association to put its priorities and resources.  If we ask them to consider starting afresh, they can think in terms of reinventing the association and that's when the creative juices start to flow.  

Using the feedback gained from various focus groups, telephone interviews with key players and member surveys, the Association Resource Centre was able to help the association zero in on the issues and concerns that members were most interested in.

How does an association know if it's not operating at its full potential? 

There are many indicators that an association is functioning at a level well below its full potential:

• Lack of volunteer involvement
• The same faces on the same committees and the board
• A lack of focus
• Moving from one crisis to another
• Unproductive political infighting
• Board micro-management.

After the diagnosis, what's next?

Pulling together a planning team with very heavy member involvement is a good way to start.  It's the key to transferring the ownership of the association's agenda to the members. This is an important part of the whole puzzle. You must have processes and systems in place that allow you to feel the pulse of your membership at all times.  This ensures good member participation and enthusiasm; but, listening to them is only part of the solution. If you really want their buy-in, you have to create opportunities for them to roll up their sleeves and actually participate in the organization's decision-making process. They need to be actively involved.

There's no question that an enthusiastic and active membership is the real key to a successful and healthy association. Every association has the ability to operate at full potential. They just have to solve the member participation problem first.