About Rethinking How Associations Work

Associations continue to serve important purposes. They bring people together to share knowledge, build professional relationships, solve common problems, establish standards, advocate collectively, and advance professions, industries, and causes.

Over time, we created membership models, conferences, publications, chapters, committees, credentials, governance systems, and other programs to carry out that work. Most of those structures developed for valid reasons. They reflected the needs, expectations, and limitations of their time.

The question is whether they remain the best ways to fulfill those purposes today.

Rethinking How Associations Work is a practical exploration of that question. It examines what is still working, what may need to be updated, and how existing organizations can begin moving toward operating models that work better in today’s environment.

The recurring question is:

If we were creating an association today, how would we design it?

That does not mean starting over or assuming that every traditional structure should be eliminated. Existing associations have histories, responsibilities, revenue models, stakeholder expectations, and organizational realities that cannot simply be ignored. Some practices should be preserved. Others may need to be redesigned or replaced.

The work begins by understanding how a particular mechanism developed, what problem it was intended to solve, what became attached to it over time, and which of its benefits still matter. Only then can we make a thoughtful judgment about what should come next.

The articles published here will explore questions involving membership, knowledge exchange, conferences, education, credentials, chapters, committees, governance, technology, revenue, organizational capabilities, and change. It will draw on operating experience, research, historical context, cases from other organizations, and the objections and examples offered by readers.

I am Barry Schieferstein, an association executive with experience leading and redesigning revenue-generating programs, events, education, membership approaches, volunteer structures, and organizational processes. Much of my work has involved taking established products and practices, understanding why they developed, and asking whether they still serve the organization’s purpose as effectively as they could.

This essays are not intended to provide a fixed model for every association. Different missions, professions, industries, and stakeholder communities require different answers. The goal is to create space for association leaders to question the status quo without deciding in advance that it must change.

The focus is simple: examine how associations work, learn from what is already happening, and develop practical paths from the models we inherited toward the ones we may need next.

Coming next: If membership were invented today, would it look like membership?

The next essay will examine the different purposes bundled into membership and ask whether they still need to be delivered through one annual relationship.

Reader cases, counterexamples, disagreements, and questions are welcome. They will help test the ideas and make the work stronger.