Acronym

I recently completed my third year of study in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organization Management program. (One year to go!) One thing that’s really struck me during my time at Institute is how rapidly a sense of community and connection can spring up within a class.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Institute program, attendees spend one week a year for four years at a variety of sites around the country, learning how to run an association or chamber. In theory, you attend at the same site each year and begin and end the program with the same group of classmates. (In practice, some folks “fast-track” by attending multiple sites in a year, and others change sites for various reasons.) As you go through the program with this group of fellow professionals, you get to know them, you learn with them, and you become committed to helping each other succeed.

For me, it was returning for the second year that really sold me on the program. Coming back, seeing these folks again, feeling welcomed by them—that was when I felt our little community of classmates really solidified.

Online communities are in the spotlight right now. And they certainly have their place. But there is something special and important about an in-person, face-to-face connection.

Imagine a mini-Institute for your members: Recruit groups of 10-15 people that plan to attend your next annual meeting. Set up those groups with a series of things to do together during the event—sitting together at general sessions, attending one or two education sessions together each day, eating brown-bag lunches in an extra meeting room, going out to dinner one night. The meeting itself will serve as a common topic of conversation in the beginning, and then things will branch out from there.

Have those members commit to attending the next two annual meetings together in the same way. (This might work particularly well for associations with very large meetings where members can feel lost in the crowd.) Between meetings, a listserver or other method of communication can help keep ties fresh, but the face-to-face element would renew their connections each year.

I bet those folks would build a community—at no (or minimal) extra cost to them or the association. Would that be something your members would appreciate?