I’ve previously written that we must change our paradigm of thinking about associations from one of a transaction based service (what I get now, for the dollar I spend now, like a coffee at Starbucks) to one of a life-long university experience, in which dues (tuition) represents an incredible value for benefit received. I identified four aspects of university experience that only associations can offer for professionals across the career span: access to a meaningful network, a hotbed for emerging content, a laboratory to experiment, practice, and grow, and a platform from which to launch. In this post, I want to highlight the Networking only association engagement can offer.
One might argue that social networks in a new interactive world diminish association membership as a way to facilitate network engagement. However, even in one of the best books on the changing paradigm to social that I have read, A World Gone Social, authors @tedcoine and @marksbabbit say that to fully activate the benefits of social, networks need to have both virtual and physical world connections (cups of coffee, face to face eventually matter).
Ted Coine identifies three aspects of a network that make it meaningful: He says that “it isn’t the size of one’s network that matters. Rather, what matters most is
- the quality of expertise within our networks,
- the ability to quickly and easily find these experts as needed, and most importantly–
- their willingness to lend a hand when called.”
There really is no other mechanism, system, or entity where professionals can find, develop, and sustain the kind of networks necessary to succeed today than through membership and engagement in a professional association. Social may build it, but to have confidence in these three characteristics of your network, you need the lifelong university found in associations. What is your plan to prepare and sustain yourself well with a deep, meaningful network? And remember: Prepare Yourself Well–There is Plenty of Room at the Top; It’s the Bottom that’s Full.
Executive Director's Toolkit 