Your organization is unremarkable, therefore no one remarks about you. You keep piling on mediocre features in the hopes one of them will get you across the tipping point. Your board is discussing relevance, which is a word dangerously close to irrelevance. What follows is a conversation about changing everything and a decision to change nothing. There you are, lost somewhere between high convenience and high fidelity, just like the post office. Eighty percent of your members don't show up for anything, yet you still tout participation as the best way to get value from membership. Members will get value when you provide it without requiring their attendance. You tell businesses that your organization is valuable, yet you don't put a value on it. You give away much and charge little. Will you continue to reward your most time-consuming members (the ones you should have fired) with the lowest membership rates? You're losing the advantage of proximity. Your members who work next door to each other would rather send an email than meet up for coffee. How will your local association be safe from borderless alternatives? The tools you need to look as smart as you are have never been more affordable, but your board still says "maybe next year" when it comes to that member-management software investment-the one you've already been putting off for far too long. Something has gone awry in the world of membership organizations when your members are starting to detach from your association and start their own thing. If you can't imagine your organization without its sacred cow parade, pageant, or pancake feed, this book is not for you. If you are not an employee, board member, or high-level volunteer of a chamber of commerce or business-focused association, this book is not for you. Many of today's membership organizations are living on yesterday's bread while their members drink tomorrow's wine. If your members are putting up with it now, they won't for long. This book is about renewing your membership-development strategies because your memberships may be worth less than you think.
