Re: First report from the CAPS Conference

[John Jones <100h@rewrite.aisboard.org>]

Bpb,

I want you to know that I am reading your CAPS reports. I just have not gotten through them yet, but what I have read is interesting and valuable.

Thanks

John
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John and Joanne Jones
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On Jul 23, 2014, at 12:19 PM, Robert Pries <101p@rewrite.aisboard.org> wrote:

> Report #1 from 2014 CAPS Conference;
> 
> The bottom line is all the plant societies are in trouble and struggling to
> regain there once prominent status. The question is now are plant societies
> (or any organization) relevant to their present membership and to potential
> members. I was amazed that at the conference AIS has lots of bragging points.
> AIS and another group were the only associations that were not in freefall of
> membership decline. One society that used to have 20,000 members now has
> 8,000. Our losses from our peak were not more than half and we might claim to
> be holding steady, but that is only the last two years. I believe the great
> deal of change we have undergone has helped.
> 
> The question for us may be can we grow again? Like most association members
> many of ours do not even know about initiatives we have started. I think most
> members had no idea we had a membership contest this year. It is doubtful how
> many articles in the Bulletin are really read, as opposed to seeing the
> pictures. While this is normal it means it is very hard for the national to do
> anything without the concerted help of regions and affiliates. News & Notes,
> by Nonprofit standards, is an incredible success with generally over 60%
> looking at it. Most Nonprofits get a readership of 16%. But relatively few
> people read any one article. So anything and everything we try to do works
> very slowly.
> 
> But back to the conference: The Garden Writers Association gave a
> presentation. They just spent $10,000 on a consultant B to help them turn
> their organization around. They explained some of what they did but mostly
> recommended three books on the subject which I purchased when I got home and
> have read 2. I would recommend these for reading by our officers and
> directors. The most interesting was: bThe End Of Membership As We Know it
> (building the fortune flipping, Must-Have Association of the Next Century) by
> Sarah Sladek. The other two are: bThe Road to Relevanceb and the Race to
> Relevanceb. To summarize they say we must offer benefits to our members that
> are worth the price of membership. That these benefits must be valued by the
> members (Not what we think they should want) and that we provide benefits that
> would be seen by potential members as desirable. What the present membership
> values and what new or potential members value may not be the same and
> sometimes may even be in conflict.
> 
> They point out that many boards do not contain any members who are young
> enough to carry on when the old members leave. They point to the rapid change
> in technology, and note that organizations must stay in pace with the larger
> world. Not all organizations are dying but many are being replaced by other
> groups or elements of our society. For example the AMA which is a shadow of
> its former self contains almost only old doctors, younger ones are joining
> specialty organizations which are growing. I read that just before talking to
> my urologist and even he, who is probably in his late fifties he said he quite
> the AMA and only belongs to his specialty group because he felt the AMA did
> nothing for him. What do we do for our members that they want? What attracts
> potential members? I think we need to constantly be asking these questions.
> 
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