ASSOCIATIONS should not get too caught up with membership numbers but should instead build communities through sound content value to sustain in today’s environment, an advice attendees took away from the inaugural IT&CM Association Day held earlier this week.
Addressing industry players at the event, Oscar Cerezales, COO Asia-Pacific and global director of association services at MCI Group, said: “The rules of engagement must change. For too long now, associations have been keeping a very traditional approach towards membership, and now is the time for them to relook at this model.
“Instead of building membership numbers, associations need to get into the mind-set of building a community and consider their organisations as open professional communities rather than closed membership organisations.”
Cerezales suggests that associations have professionals interact with the association members so they can be engaged at a relevant level of interest that adds value personally and professionally.
“Fundamental to this mindset shift is the recognition that value is defined by the customer (the new member), not by the organisation. For example, they will realise that many of the new members do not care if they have the right to vote or influence the association’s direction – they are more interested in the association’s content and are willing to pay for it,” he elaborated.
Hence, Cerezales recommends that associations segment their target audiences and allow individuals (or new customer segments) to choose and apply their own perception of value to the community.
He said: “These new rules of engagement effectively serve as an extended recruitment strategy while at the same time expand the association’s outreach and member base.”
Herman Ng, founder of Games Exchange Alliance Singapore, concurred, saying his 30-member strong association relies on a tiered membership system. While the paying members have voting rights, the others who do not thrive instead on the networking opportunities within the gaming industry.
He added: “Our association is driven by volunteers so we must ensure that people can see the value and can identify with the passion in this industry to keep the association going.”
David Chng, Asia-Pacific director of CHWMEG, a non-profit, 270-member trade association that promotes environmental stewardship programmes, said while he does not face any challenge in membership, he agrees on the importance of adding value to content to the members to sustain the association.
He said: “We see the value of education especially in our industry because it is all about knowledge exchange, so that is our selling point.”
