Acronym

Being an artist, I really like McDonald's graphic approach to illustrate some of the communities of non-profits. Being an (scarred) exec, I'm struggling to find some new application of the information. We all know that our associations serve many internal and external audiences/communities. We know it's a wild, whacky, confusing and changing environment, as the graphic certainly depicts.

Someone help me...what am I missing that's new and useful in the graphic, or its use? Sorry for my duh moment!

One thing that struck me when I looked at the graphic was how decentralized it was, and how few of the communities staff connected to (in the grand scheme of things). Should staff be reaching out to participate in, assist, or otherwise connect with more of the communities created where the circles overlap?

I also wondered if it might be worthwhile in some associations to create a graphic like this one to represent the communities within their own sphere (it may or may not be possible to represent all of the communities in existence, of course). I've seen graphics before that were intended to show the structure of particular associations that were set up as a series of concentric circles, each one surrounding the one before. That implies a level of interrelationship and centralization that probably doesn't really exist. A graphic like this one may help show a more realistic picture of a particular association's universe.

Just a few thoughts that occurred to me--I'll be interested in what other folks may think ...

Virgil: There is nothing new here. I am simply trying to illustrate a simple fact: there are many competing "communities" for the member's time, attention -- and money. For example, look at how easy it is to set up a discussion group on Facebook for a specialized topic. It takes a couple of minutes.

Depending on how engaging the topic is, such a low cost venture could have serious repercussions for a professional association struggling to please longtime active members as well as new and younger members.

True, there have always been competing demands for a member's time, but ten years ago it would have cost thousands and thousands of dollars to provide special interest group support for small, enthusiastic groups. Now you can form such groups in minutes using readily available web resources. Are the resulting groups really the same? Of course not. But might the new group -- formed outside the official sponsorship of the association -- be "just good enough" to provide practical benefits to members outside the ranks of the association's movers and shakers?

Lisa, I still see the "concentric circle" model occasionally and agree it does not represent reality. Nor does the static model which I provide, though I'm not sure how useful creating an animated version would be.