The member value equation has changed. Has your association kept up?

We recently gathered more than a dozen association leaders in Melbourne to discuss and discover the modern definition of member value. There was a clear consensus: the old model of paying annual fees in exchange for products and services is not enough. Today, while the tangible benefits – such as the member magazine landing in your mailbox – might be important, the real value lies in the seemingly intangible benefits that might not be immediately apparent: authority, trust and a heavy focus on community.

Here are my five takeaways.

‍1. Postnominal value 

In many professions, postnominals have long carried prestige, allowing holders to charge more or –  in some professions –  qualify for a higher government rebate. But more than that, they also signified the years of hard work and experience it took to earn them, and were a point of pride for many.

But several of our leaders said today post-nominals are becoming less of a professional flex and more another cost on the wrong side of the balance sheet. In this price-sensitive era, members are looking at those letters and doing a cold, hard ROI calculation. 

This doesn’t mean that they’re redundant, it just means that their value needs to be clear.

“Value needs to be [related to] the things your members care about today, not in the distant past when your organisation was formed.”

Especially true for a younger generation that values impact over letters.

2. Creation and curation

We talked a lot about curation. In a world drowning in misinformation and content noise, associations don’t need to be the loudest voice in the room. They need to be the lighthouse guiding members in the right direction, grounding decisions and minimising risk. Many of them already set the standards for their profession and write the guidelines. But that work is not always visible or easily accessible.

That means a change in thinking right at the planning phase about how these resources are developed and delivered. 

Already, forward-thinking organisations are experimenting with ways to use AI and other tools to make this body of existing high-value intellectual property interactive and easier to use – in other words, more valuable. As these tools and the way we use them grow more sophisticated, we expect this approach to scale across the sector. Meanwhile, others are using collaborative tools to reduce review and update times, cutting down the (sometimes years-long) update cycles and making sure members get up-to-date information every time they access it.

“We don’t need more content; we need the right content, delivered exactly at the right time.”

3. Two-way advocacy 

We know that advocacy is often a baseline expectation rather than a retention driver. But it’s vital that this advocacy is visible as a means of building trust and affinity. Members need to know you are showing up on their behalf. 

When you do this, you make every member an advocate.

This isn't just about high-level policy submissions to the Productivity Commission that might not be visible to the majority of members. It’s about a quick social video or post, showing their organisation is representing them. These low-effort pieces can have a high impact on perceived member value, particularly when they ladder up to a clear communications strategy. When members know what you stand for – and what you are fighting for – these updates become part of a larger story, not disconnected updates.

Tactics like this can also be a way to boost a leader’s visibility to members and the profession more broadly, while ensuring your good deeds don’t go unnoticed.

“The goal is for members to be so satisfied by the value they receive that they are genuinely bewildered as to why anyone wouldn't join.”

4. The long tail of sub-disciplines

These days we hear many stories about how many professions are under threat by the rise of AI tools. But one of the most pleasing themes from this session was the focus on opportunity. 

Most associations are multi-faceted, with dozens of sub-disciplines that are historically very difficult to service effectively without a team of a thousand. For some of these smaller cohorts, the only way to get attention is by being “the squeaky door”.

AI offers the power to finally address this, potentially allowing associations to “provide a specialist focus and agility that even universities struggle to match”. 

While focusing on the core, common needs of your audience should be organisational bread and butter, it’s very important for smaller cohorts to be heard. Getting this right can lead to some of the most engaged and evangelical members.

“Trust is earned in drops but lost in buckets.”

5. The community problem

Held during National Volunteer Week, it’s no surprise that the conversation drifted towards the efforts of volunteers. In the past there was a very clear pipeline: graduate, join, volunteer, become a leader. This pipeline seems to be fractured with the general decline in volunteerism across Australian society amplified in many of these organisations (with a couple of exceptions).

Initiatives such as micro-volunteering as a way to revitalise the graduate-to-volunteer path were discussed but the most common call to action was to focus on community. Events, interest groups, mentoring programs are all great ways to engage members and build volunteers of the future. The core principle around all of this is the shared identity. Associations are not just curators of knowledge; they are also curators of community. 

“[Associations] have always been like a professional town square, where ideas can be raised and tested, and challenges can be solved as a group.”

It’s clear that associations don’t have members, they are their members. Though these members might need different things today than in years gone by, your professional association still offers that same sense of belonging to a professional family that they always have. 

In today’s fragmented intellectual and professional world, the trust, integrity and community of professional associations is more important than ever.