Acronym

What if associations abandoned the notion of hierarchy and every employee was valued equally? What if associations suddenly started paying huge salaries and everyone wanted your job--are your skills on par with current job candidates? What if associations had to swap lives with their respective memberships--e.g. had to go work in their members' fields--would you still think members complain too much or would their complaints seem more valid if you had to walk in their shoes?

What if associations replaced traditional chapters with ... well untraditional org models? Like local networking groups.

What if associations let members design their own membership - like designing your own Nikes?

What if associations leveraged all the content created by all the chapters for use by any other chapter?

What if associations provided the tools for people to collaborate the way they want to collaborate?

What if every association chapter meeting was simulcast for free so that any member of any chapter could watch and interact?

What if associations no longer charged membership dues?

What if associations (even trade assoc) embraced the social web without fear?
What if associations were truly transparent about their finances, meeting minutes, plans, etc.?
What if there were no more staff meetings?
What if you never saw another badge ribbon again? ;-)

What if Associations could function "On-Demand" when members want/need (have the time to find) to utilize Association resources?

What if associations moved to an open-data model?

What if associations lost their fear of change and saw new things as opportunities for advancement?

What if associations realized that "social media" is just a faster form of blast fax? What if associations realized that social media was the greatest tool for building community, networks, and loyalty since blood oaths?

What if associations forgot the phrase "that's the way we've always done it"? What if association staff people forgot to be afraid to speak up with new ideas?

What if associations forgot all the petty internal machinations and focused on the mission? What if mediocrity was not allowed?

What if associations realized they do have the power to choose, which means they have the power to change, and the power to create?

What if associations put aside a percentage of their budgets to try out some offbeat ideas?
What if they actually welcomed outside ideas from members and staff?
What if they promoted volunteerism in their own staffs so that the staff could understand what the member volunteer is up against, and learn to interact with them better?

Thanks for all your suggestions so far, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

What if associations tore down all members only walls on their websites?
What if associations came up with visions so compelling they would transcend petty politics?
What if associations adopted values statements that were truly authentic instead of filled with the usual, "service to the members, integrity above all" platitudes?
What if associations eliminated "membership" and automatically embraced their entire industry or profession?
What if associations stopped "spinning" every communication?

What if association staff weren't permitted to use email internally?

What if associations insisted every staff member serve as CEO for a day to gain the big picture?

What if associations promoted all of the lowest-ranking staffers to VPs for a week--what changes would they immediately make?

What if associations required every staffer to work in a colleague's job twice a year--would that help end silos?

What if associations required every staffer to work in a similar functional job at ANOTHER association for 3 days?

What if associations offered no agenda at its next staff retreat other than "show up and talk about how we can be better?"

What if associations required every staffer to cold-call one member each week just to connect and listen?

What if the smallest associations were the engines of innovation for the association sector as a whole (as in this FOLIO article, which says that small publishers have much more freedom to be innovative than large ones)?

What if associations didn't take themselves so darn seriously?
What if associations cared more about results than being associations?
What if associations didn't need to be the "preeminent/voice/leader/..." in the industry?

What if associations weren't so afraid to utilize practices from the corporate world?

What if associations realized the retention is directly related to the value a member perceives they personally have received from their membership?

What if associations began to realize that their future members are growing up surrounded by technology, and began to really embrace these new technologies in all aspects of their everyday work - not just in communications and marketing?

What if associations started looking at what college admissions offices are doing to recruit students these days, using some of these techniques as models for recruiting young members?

What if associations decided that sometimes, telling a member 'no' is an acceptable practice?

I also LOVE all of @kristin clarke's comments from above... Very thought provoking and interesting.