Big Ideas for Chapter Leaders

Cynthia D'Amour works with associations that want to get more members involved and leaders who want outrageous results. Her blog is designed to give chapter leaders food for thought - in a fun way. Her blog was recently focused on Acronym.

Acronym  has been developing theme months on a semi-regular basis, and for December reached out for help asking for some creative thinking about big ideas. It was called, “what if” month.  The comments below reflect a few recent suggestions for finishing the sentence, “What if associations …?” i.e.

• 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 lost their fear of change and saw new things as opportunities for advancement?
• What if associations realized that social media was the greatest tool for building community, networks, and loyalty since blood oaths?
• 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?

Posted by Scott Briscoe we site a few more “what ifs”

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 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 realized they do have the power to choose, which means they have the power to change, and the power to create?
• What if associations required every staffer to work in a similar functional job at ANOTHER association for 3 days?

Food for thought indeed!

And now, moving forward into a new decade, it has been stated regarding Associations, whether we activate any of the above “if’s” or not:…  “whether we use a social network on the web or face to face or just by phone - it is all about building and sustaining relationships - it is what we do as association professionals.”