If you Google the word “engage,” you will find many synonyms for it—in this column, I will use three that are relevant to me and important for associations to grow and prosper.
The first synonym is “to participate or to become involved” and this has to do with an association’s most important stakeholder: its members. In my column on September 27, 2017, I mentioned that member engagement in the association world is the hardest to undertake and measure among the five stages in the membership-life cycle framework, i.e., awareness, recruitment, engagement, renewal and reinstatement.
The main reason for this is that member engagement is multifaceted and dynamic and associations find it more daunting and challenging to undertake. It is, in fact, holistic as it is strategic as you will note in its definition by the American Nurses Association, to wit:
“Member engagement is the investment of time, money, attention, and participation, by both the association and its members, in order to provide meaningful, long-term, mutually beneficial experiences and relationships that advance the profession.”
The second synonym is “to attract or bring together” and this applies to the engagement of an association with its stakeholders other than members, such as supporters (e.g., donors, sponsors), partners (service collaborators, e.g., academe) and government (e.g., regulators, policymakers). Needless to say, engaging with these stakeholders brings forth tangible benefits (e.g., funding) and nontangible benefits (e.g., expertise, enabling policy environment) to an association.
The third synonym is “to begin and carry on an activity.” By this, I refer specifically to the use of technology to propel associations forward as they are now constantly challenged, among others, by declining revenues, competition from Internet-based knowledge resources, and changing demographics, e.g., the entry of millennials into associations.
Technology-based solutions, such as using association management software (e.g., for member dues collection, event registration, communication tools and accounting), will make associations more interactive, agile and efficient in their operation.
So engagement in the association context is actually making a strategy which an association can plan, implement, and measure. By putting the above three meanings of engagement together, I have developed a simple “growth formula” for associations:
Engagement with members + engagement with partners, donors, sponsors, other stakeholders +
Engaging in tools and technology = Growth (in membership, in activities, in revenues).
I know that this “formula” is easier written than done, but I have learned, as an association executive myself, that by being open to ideas, looking beyond your usual confines, working with others and having more creativity and agility, can help your association do more for the benefit of your stakeholders and your cause, weather challenges, grow steadily and progress into the future.
****
The column contributor, Octavio Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (Adfiap) and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives. PCAAE enjoys the support of Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board and the Philippine International Convention Center.
E-mail: obp@adfiap.org