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Is The Association Model Broken? The Case for Reinvention
In our recent survey of the strategic management practices of associations, nearly 51 percent of the 459 respondents reported their membership levels have been flat or declining during the past three years. Specifically, The Situation This appears to be a continuation — and possibly an acceleration — of a broad trend identified some time ago, which has had an increasing number of association executives concerned over the past five years or perhaps longer. The “customers” — members, prospective members, clients, constituents, donors, patrons, supporters — seem to be wandering away. While many associations are surviving well and growing, some even rapidly, it appears that, overall, associations have a problem. Like the nightclub that used to be the “in” place but lost its glow as the crowd migrated to some other “in” spot, some associations seem to be losing their special places in the personal, professional, or business lives of the people whose needs they used to serve. Few would dispute that the number of associations facing membership challenges is growing, and some argue that the association model itself is in danger of drifting toward irrelevance. Framing the issue in those terms poses a dramatic question: Can association leaders reverse this long-term secular trend by diligent effort — “doing the same thing harder” — or are we faced with a case for reinventing the association model itself? Can we simply work our way to a more successful place in the competitive arena by overhauling the Web site, revamping the annual conference, adding new services, fancying up the membership recruiting package, and the like? Or do we need to dismantle the business model and reconstruct it according to a new rationale? 
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Summer 2005
