Mission Without You
I'm at ASAE & the Center's annual meeting this week. I've been having lots of conversations with friends and colleagues around topics that could all generally be filed under the Web 2.0 banner (since it's such a mushy definition). The conversations and environment of the meeting have clarified something for me about the potential impact of empowering individuals and small groups to have much greater impact via the Web.
In short: people can now pursue the mission of an association, with or without them, by connecting, organizing and acting via the Web. The national association is no longer a pre-requisite for pursuit of the mission.
To highly web-savvy people this probably sounds like a bit of a non-sequitor but it creates a fundamental identity crisis for associations. What is the role of the association if your members can pursue your mission without you and do so just as effectively, if not more so, in some cases?
I do not believe this spells the end of associations. Too many people have been burned on predicting that one. :) But I do believe it provides new opportunities to facilitate the mission and purpose of your association in a much broader context than simply through the direct operations of the association.
| | Permalink |
Comments
Hi David - i absolutely agree that self organizing tools like blogs and wikis can provide new opportunities for associations. In a recent email interview I was asked why people need formal organizations now that there are so many self organizing tools available.
In my experience putting on great events, developing content, and facilitating networking takes a lot of time. Self organizing tools are a great way to involve members but i think the association is still needed as the central spot to execute ideas and provide the infrastructure for the group.
The full Q&A is here - http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/08/21/five-questions-for-kathryn-lagden-aims.
Posted by: Kathryn Lagden | August 23, 2006 5:40 PM
Thanks for the comment, Kathryn. I agree that to put on a big national show, you still need the infrastructure. The open question, though, is whether we still need the big national show at all to achieve the same outcomes. E3 just collapsed under its own weight, for example.
Posted by: David Gammel | August 29, 2006 12:55 PM
That is a good question. I'm relatively new to the association world and we don't do a big national show. We do smaller events around a very specific topic and a couple of larger events on a broad topic. It seems that people still like to meet face to face.
Do you know of any associations that are embracing social media and using it to better run the association? It's something I'm looking at for AIMS so I'm interested in any examples.
Posted by: Kathryn Lagden | August 31, 2006 9:06 PM