Chapter Structures Continue to Frustrate Associations – So Let them Go
I am a Component Relations Professional (CRP) at heart having served as one earlier in my career for over 15 years at several organizations. Working with the local groups and members was a rewarding and sometimes challenging experience. I learned a lot and I believe it helped the organizations where I worked thrive.
However, all good things must come to an end, and it is time to purposefully abandon the way we do things with chapters. It is time for Chapters to end.
The reason you are finding your systems cumbersome, burdensome, and unattractive to today's volunteer leaders is because these are based on designs from the 19th Century.
When put into historical context, membership associations are using systems designed in an era when travel took long periods of time, there were few if any telephones, telegrams were expensive, and most business was conducted via correspondence that took days or weeks to get somewhere. I call this the era of the "mini me" association; smaller versions of the organization were formed across the country (and sometimes across the world) because of the lengthy periods it took to communicate.
Therefore, you had local boards of directors, local committees, local bank accounts, and activities that happened in isolation without a lot of support from the national or international association. Large conferences or conventions were held every three to five years, and sometimes lasted for months.
As time passed, and travel became easier and communication became faster, the same system was left in place. The adaptation to current ways of doing things didn't happen. And it still hasn’t.
What today's associations should consider is throwing out this old system completely and removing the burden of being a part-time unpaid employee from volunteer leaders at the state and local level. To do that, think differently. What would actually work for your group? Do you need to waste all this time and money on a system that doesn't fit in the 21st Century?
The biggest confusion I see in our profession over chapters and affiliates – which causes a lot of issues and unnecessary problems – is this: Setting up Affiliates and calling them chapters or calling your chapters affiliates and treating them that way.
An Affiliate is a completely separate organization that chooses to partner with yours because you have common interests in the profession or industry you serve.
A Chapter is part of your organization; it does not need a separate incorporation status to protect the overall organization. Lawyers cause a lot of these problems in the pursuit of "protecting from liability" but what they end up creating is a big mess that they don't have to manage.
When I was a CSE at a professional society years ago, I started moving away from the traditional chapter model because I knew it's time has passed. We developed something called Local Networking Groups that did not have to file any paperwork, be formally recognized by the Board of Directors, didn't need to have a bank account, formal local leaders, or anything like the old "mini me" version of chapters.
The national organization would support the organizing of local networking events in collaboration with a local member/volunteer. We sent the communications. We provided a list of names of local members that might attend (but not their contact information), and we promoted it as appropriate in communication vehicles. It was not much different than if a member decided to organize a networking event on their own. No contracts were signed and little if any money was spent.
You might think, "oh that wouldn't work" but it did. While we were still piloting it when I left, there was growing traction for this concept and I know we would have added tweaks as it grew.
Chapters do not have to be difficult. Frankly, chapters aren't really necessary any longer. What you need is a structure that supports local networking with little or no responsibility on the local members/volunteers.
Some people will see nothing but obstacles in changing the system. But what if you let your imagination connect with what people really need instead of "that's the way we've always done it"? Stop controlling and start building. Sometimes the best way to win is to surrender.
