Three Things Most Association Staff Never Learn about Their Members

Of all the insights shared in the association management literature, the most frequent seems to be just how different things are now than decades ago, particularly that…

Volunteer leaders had and were willing
to devote more time to their association
because the demands they faced were less burdensome than today.

In discussions about the past, most have been encouraged to believe that…

• Members used to join out of loyalty for their field of endeavor.
• Members used to have time to engage fully and often.
• Members used to assume volunteer leadership roles out of sense of responsibility and duty.
• Members used to willingly recruit others to join the association.

And yet, at least for the last 50 years, you might be surprised to learn that none of these assumptions are accurate…not one.

Sure, it’s possible that for a few members…but a comprehensive analysis of their published histories, conducted by urban sociologist and change process expert, James R. Hudson, Ph.D., for the Melos Institute, has proven otherwise about these long-standing and widely-popular beliefs.

For example:

Associations, even during their formative years, 
faced challenges in getting their members 
to join, participate, volunteer, and contribute to its sustainability.

In essence, when it comes to associations and their operations:

The more things seem to change, 
the more they have stayed the same.

The truth is that challenges specific to members and their engagement existed in the past, exist presently, and if we fail to resolve them, will exist in perpetuity.

Why?

Mainly because we’ve convinced ourselves 
– and the staff that follow us – 
that associations are like businesses and members are like customers.

Neither is true. What is?

Understanding Associations and Their Members in America

Associations, according to most every published history, were establish by their founders’ to advance positive social change on individual, collective, and societal levels. They believed doing so was the only way their usually emergent profession, trade, or personal avocation had any hope of gaining acceptance, respect, and legitimacy from those in their field as well as those in the larger society.

What most founders didn’t quite appreciate was that their effort to secure all that was only possible because they were living in a functioning democracy. Little, if anything, was said about this in those histories about this primarily because that element was taken for granted…never believed to be at risk.

Here’s a sobering thought:

The fact that associations can only operate effectively 
in functioning democracies can no longer be taken for granted…
because ours is currently teetering on the edge of losing it.

These extraordinary volunteer leaders also recognized that their newly formed organizations were wholly dependent on their members to willingly contribute their information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections to a body of knowledge for their specific practice setting; doing so would empower those who engaged to advance their needs, interests, goals, and aspirations (i.e., generate positive and lasting change).

But we don’t teach this history. As a result, few association staff professionals, if any, learn this.

Instead, they are taught to view and treat associations as businesses…to view and treat members as customers; encouraging them to adopt a range of traditional transaction-based business management strategies to achieve their goals. No one has ever cautioned them that doing so would ultimately undermine – unintentionally – their ability to achieve those desired outcomes.

It should be no surprise then why challenges – specially surrounding member engagement – that association management professionals had grappled with nearly 50 years ago, remain as, if not more, problematic today.

Why is it important to establish greater clarity about
associations, their members, and their respective roles in our society?

Dr. Hudson once said, “Associations influence everything we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and feel.”

Yet, despite their ubiquity in our society, they remain invisible to most in our society…that is, until the media puts a spotlight on something they do…too often reinforcing the stereotype that they are “selfish special interest groups.”  

Admittedly, while associations do seek to influence public policy initiatives, for most, that is not their primary mission. If you check out most mission statements, associations exist, at minimum, to advance their members’ practice settings…not just secure legislative/regulatory victories.

If the association management profession has any hope of advancing itself and the associations they serve, those involved must acknowledge:

• the real reason why associations exist in America;
• the role their members’ are meant to play, and; 
• the need for a management paradigm uniquely designed to support their purpose, scope, focus, and goals.

Sounds overwhelming…where does one begin? 

The first step is to acknowledge and accept the real reason why associations were formed – as noted earlier – to advance positive and lasting social change on multiple dimensions; establishing the associations’ primary role as the architects and arbiters of the bodies of knowledge for their members’ practice settings.

The second is to re-orient association staff professionals about their members; debunking the notion that they exist to support the organization as customers, supporters, clients, subscribers, or any other transaction-like role.

Unfortunately, the association management literature does not, as yet, provide this clarity.

But it can be accessed, based on evidence-based research findings, from publications generated by the Melos Institute.

For example, just consider the top three things that staff professionals would benefit from learning first.

Three Essential Things Association Staff Need to Learn

Unlike most professions, most association staff professionals – to this day – are forced to learn their job…on the job; sometimes from their CEO but mostly from their peers. It’s not that they are uneducated. In fact, many who are attracted to working in associations tend to possess either degrees or advanced degrees from a wide range of other professions (e.g., business management, nonprofit management, communications/marketing, social work, history, etc.). Those few who are fairly familiar with this profession often are based on a close relationship with someone in their personal and/or professional social network.

What most association management professionals may not realize 
is that it’s one of the few professions that have yet to be recognized and studied 
by the scholarly community; 
often considered a requirement for an occupation 
to be recognized as a profession. Argh!

Scholars’ academic/empirical research on various practice settings tends to generate a broader understanding of them; often adding a theoretical framework to an already established applied organizational one. In essence, their findings explain why one approach may be more effective than another. Or, establish greater clarity about an element within the existing body of knowledge.

While the association management profession has not benefited from that, it has benefited from Dr. Hudson’s curiosity about them. His analysis of over 400 published histories has produced findings that have been revelatory.

His principal finding has revealed that associations 
play a distinctive, pivotal, and consequential role in functioning democracies. 
So much so that they should be isolated from other nonprofits 
and be treated as a unique population of organizations; 
ultimately be categorized as membership-based organizations (MBOs).

But his findings did not end there.

Based on MBOs’ purpose, scope, focus, and goals, he proposed that these organizations had – by virtue of defining the boundaries of their practice settings – had established specially-defined communities (i.e. what we refer to as their membership universe). Those from within that practice setting who joined became part of their specially-defined membership communities.

More importantly, these extraordinary communities possessed all the characteristics of those that were geographically established. The primary difference was that MBOs’ specially-defined membership communities were portable; meaning that their presence could be convened, disbanded, and then reconvened again…not just in multiple locations, but also over a period of time.

Dr. Hudson’s analysis also led him to recognize the consequential role that the founders needed their members to play in their MBOs. It’s far from the widely-popular one that’s shared today. So let’s start there.

What It Means to be a Member

Membership (i.e., becoming a member) is commonly depicted as the means by which eligible individuals gain entry – most often via a dues payment – into a MBO…gain access not just to their programs products, and services but also to other members.

From his research, Dr. Hudson discovered that an erroneous assumption was made by the founders and their successors…one that persists to this day.

To their credit, the founders recognized that their members possessed the core content (i.e., intellectual property) necessary for their bodies of knowledge. The future of their MBO was wholly dependent on their willingness not just to engage but to also contribute their information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections to that body of knowledge. They understood that their members, collectively, would always be the source from which they would develop their programs, products, and services. As such, their members were citizens of their newly formed specially-defined membership communities.

What they did not fully appreciate how little their colleagues understood what it meant to be a member.

As a result, the published histories were replete with founders’ frustrations (from the late 1890s/early 1900s) not so much in getting members to attend events, but instead to also volunteer.

Guess why: members were “too busy to engage.”

Several years later, while conducting additional applied research on engagement, the Institute discovered the reason for this…the underlying root cause…and a solution.

MBOs, even those who conducted orientations (i.e., excuse me: onboarding sessions) assumed that members, because they were adults, knew how to navigate the organization in ways that would fulfill their needs and expectations.

The Institute’s research findings demonstrated that members – to this day – simply have no clue.

This insight came, surprisingly enough from volunteer leaders reflecting on their membership experience. Most reported taking the most obvious step (i.e., attending meetings). If that experience was not satisfying, some gave their MBOs another chance. If that was also not satisfying, some indicated they were about to give up (i.e., allow their membership to lapse) when something profound happened: they connected with a fellow member and/or staff professional who provided the guidance and support they needed to gain access to what they needed, when they needed it, and in a format that worked for them.

Their stories, compiled from multiple MBOs, revealed a pattern: lacking sufficient understanding how to engage as members early in their membership tenure, these volunteer leaders fell back on the only role that seemed similar…that of customer. That role was further reinforced as MBOs unintentionally and continuously shaped their communication with a transaction-based focus; especially during their orientation.

The Institute realized that when members are given sufficient guidance and support,
their engagement became more purposeful, meaningful, and worthwhile…
and their desire to engage and engage fully increased substantially.

The Institute has developed and tested an orientation designed to teach members what it means to be a member and how to engage in ways that are mutually beneficial. Click here to download the complimentary module: Making the Most of Your Membership: a relation-centered orientation module for new and current members.

Helping members learn how they can customize their membership experience is an critical first step if the goal is to increase and expand their individual and collective engagement.

Yet, its effectiveness can be unintentionally undermined if the MBO’s staff professionals do not fully understand or appreciate their MBOs’ inherent purpose and what members’ engagement is designed to accomplish.

What Engagement is Designed to Accomplish

Ask most volunteer leaders and association management professionals what their MBO does. Most will suggest their MBOs exist to help members develop personally and professionally.

While basically true, most may not be able to explain exactly how that happens.

Most MBOs, again unintentionally, have focused more of their attention on developing their programs, products, and services – along with marketing them – than teaching members how to engage in ways that matter most to them.

Essentially, members are left on their own to figure that out…often with little to no guidance and support.

And yet, we know thanks to highly-engaged members and volunteer leaders that their profound experiences were not just the result of attending meetings…but instead from making relevant connections with fellow members…many of which eventually became purposeful, meaningful, and even transformative for them.

Too often, volunteer leaders and professional staff are required to view and treat engagement as a statistic; measuring increases or decreases in members’ participation in their MBOs’ programs, products, and services.

While it is essential to track and evaluate the roles that members play (e.g., participant, volunteer, volunteer leader, etc.), the founders wanted engagement to be viewed and treated as something entirely different.

They believed that members’…

• initial engagement
  provided opportunities for information and knowledge to be shared and exchanged in a setting within which members could further develop their competencies and capacities (i.e., via their participation);
• broader and ongoing engagement
  provided opportunities where MBOs were able to benefit directly from the members’ information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections (i.e., via their volunteerism), and;
• dedicated engagement (i.e., a select few via their volunteer leadership)
  provided opportunities where members could contribute in ways that helped MBOs not just to achieve their goals but also advance their members’ practice settings.

What the founders’ did not fully appreciate – that we have since recognized – is the degree to which MBOs serve as a conduit for members’ continuous personal and professional development. And, as long as MBOs were developing learning opportunities (i.e., programs, products, and services) that resonated with members’ needs and expectations, that every member – with guidance and support- could develop an engagement plan; one customized to meet their immediate and specific needs, interests, goals, and aspirations.

Unfortunately, for decades, this approach has been overshadowed with the belief that MBOs cannot be all things to all members.

While that is somewhat true, the assumption refers only to MBOs’ programs, products, and services…ignoring their greatest asset: their members.

Consider this: MBOs’ ability to assist their members is not limited solely to the tangible benefits they have created. When and if those do not address members’ needs or expectations, MBOs can help establish connections with members who currently possess the needed insights. Further, if for some reason, such a member does not exist in their MBOs’ established boundaries, there are usually other MBOs representing the same discipline (i.e., also local, regional, statewide, or national) who just might.

Since volunteer leaders look to their professional staff for guidance and support on how to best serve in their respective roles, this extraordinary opportunity for members can only be made available if everyone adopts the notion that associations possess this extraordinary capacity…and abandon the scarcity mindset that “we cannot be all things to all members.”

Helping volunteer leaders and staff professionals appreciate that engagement is not just the means by which members’ expectations are achieved through their participation, but that they can accomplish even more through their contributions as volunteers and volunteer leaders. Interestingly, in doing so, that kind of engagement is pivotal to helping MBOs advance their goals and priorities…ultimately advancing their members’ practice settings.

Adopting this understanding is key to changing MBOs’ culture from transaction-based to relation-centered…from viewing and treating members as customers to viewing and treating them as citizens of their specially-defined membership communities who enjoy rights and privileges as well as expected to fulfill specific duties and obligations.

Finally and in light of the ongoing demands placed on staff professionals, how can MBOs make such a transformation? Wouldn’t it require MBOs to make a radical shift from its current operations?

Thus far, efforts to replace traditional transaction-based business management strategies with those that are more relationship-centered DO NOT require a massive restructuring or a radical shift.

They merely require the willingness to adjust them…and those adjustments can be introduced at any point and anywhere within MBOs; preferably starting with their membership development related functions…but since membership development should already be integrated in every other function, they can begin anywhere!

This last element focuses on what association staff professionals need to learn about their members beyond their needs, interests, goals and aspirations.

What Association Staff Professionals Need to Know ABOUT Their Members

Most staff professionals, me included, were trained when members asked “What’s in it for me?” to respond by launching into a long list of our MBO’s programs, products, and services. We were trained to use marketing language (i.e., sell the sizzle not the steak!) to convince them of its value. If that wasn’t convincing enough, we were then encouraged to focus attention on how being a member would help them save money…often by highlighting specific savings from member-only discounts.

Depending on the members’ practice setting…that sometimes sufficed.

It’s not entirely clear if that is still the standard approach; though based on the number of recent conversations with staff professionals as well as a review of the association management literature…it appears to be so.

Why might this approach still find prospective and often renewing members unconvinced of the value that membership can provide?

Think for a moment…what’s missing from that conversation?

At no time does the conversation take time to listen and learn
the members’ immediate and greatest concern…
or the one issue that has become most problematic for them.

The conversation is designed to impress members with what the organization is and does; less how it can be a vehicle or conduit for members to advance their own needs, interests, goals, and aspirations. Further, it requires members to figure that out – interpret it – on their own.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Remember that few, if any, of us were trained to recruit members from their perspective. Our approach was focused on getting members to be so impressed with what our MBOs had to offer…that they joined as a result. Our conversation was all about membership being their first purchase. We didn’t realize just how much doing so made recruitment a whole lot harder. And, that doing so deprived us of learning more ABOUT members…their background, training, achievements, connections, and more.

As important as it is to help members recognize how to participate
in ways that are beneficial, it’s as important to know more about them
to offer unexpected ways they can engage – like as volunteers – to benefit even more so.

Too often members view volunteerism as a sacrifice…a drain on their time. Yet, highly-engaged members and volunteer leaders have intentionally instead taught us that volunteerism – when matched to the right opportunity – often empowers them in ways they could never have imagined.

Many recalled initially being resistant to assuming such roles. But they did so because a fellow member, a volunteer leader, or a staff professional encouraged them to do so…and promised they would provide ongoing guidance and support. Ultimately, on reflection, most admitted that assuming an advanced engagement opportunity made a consequential difference in their lives.

Some volunteer leaders and professional staff initiate these conversations intuitively…out of a sincere interest in their members. Most, for decades, do not…only because they don’t realize it’s something that can be done easily and quickly. All that’s required is to ask a few probing as well as a few simple solutions-oriented questions.

Those that do often assume one of two roles:
talent scout and momentary mentor.

Those serving as talent scouts are eager to learn about members’ backgrounds, achievements, experiences, expertise, and connections so that they can assess ways in which those members can contribute (not just participate) in ways that not only benefit the organization but those members as well.

Those serving as momentary mentors are focused more on learning members’ most immediate needs and expectations in order to offer some very specific options – including making relevant connections with key members – that they might consider (i.e., participation and/or volunteerism) that would help address them.

Those willing to do this outreach with their members are ready to employ one or the other…or sometimes both depending on their conversations that take place. Those who have done this often report a high degree of satisfaction knowing that a short interaction made such a difference in their members’ lives.

Helping volunteer leaders and professional staff – regardless of the position they hold – realize that one of their responsibilities is to serve as momentary mentors is key to creating a memorable membership experience; one that is frequently shared with prospective and current members. More importantly, these interactions have an immediate and direct impact on helping members make the kind of social connections that evolve into purposeful and meaningful relationships…ultimately building greater social cohesion and social solidarity within MBOs’ specially-defined membership communities.

Doing so ensures that when MBOs put out a call for action…the majority of their members respond.

Three Seemingly Simple Things…Yet Benefiting Members in Extraordinary Ways

If after reading this, your immediate reaction is, “This makes so much sense…why wasn’t I taught this years ago?”…you’re not alone. That’s the reaction most association management professionals have…me included. I’ve often wondered just how many members I could have helped in knowing this…regretting not doing so. Unfortunately, no do-overs when it comes to the past.

But once this approach is initiated, you and others can and will influence members’ lives forever more.

Is it worth it?

No harm or risk in giving it a go…find out just how rewarding it is to adopt the extraordinary role of empowering members to engage in ways that achieve their inherent potential…and quite possibly contribute to your MBO in ways that ensures its long-term success and sustainability.

Let us know of your experience…we’d love to share it with others in a future posting. Contact us at: info@melosinstitute.org.

If you’re interested in reviewing some of the publications listed above, visit our website…specifically our LibraryHub.

© copyright 2026, Melos Institute Santa Fe, New Mexico

Patricia A. Hudson, MPsSc is the founder and president of the Melos Institute.