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Members are the backbone of any association. Not a deep thought, not particularly revelatory, just something that is. This is the thought that should – and for the most part does – drive the actions, plan, and thoughts of what association professionals do in their day-to-day and their long-term planning.

And yet, time and again, the biggest need, the most basic question that associations have is, what do members want? It’s why “engagement’ is a perennial buzzword in the industry, why tools like PropFuel, Feathr, and other micro-engagement platforms are becoming so much more ubiquitous. It’s why every ASAE Annual or MM&C has session after session around surveying and asking and getting feedback from members. It’s why AMSes and of course our own analytics platform Acumen have some level of engagement scoring (some more refined or comprehensive than others). We want to know what people want from us, what they want to do next.

It seems though like a gulf is growing – or perhaps has been there for a long time – between the perception of the member need, and what people actually want. A recent Association Trends/Community Brands joint survey result showed just this, that the pros running the organization and the people they’re working for, look at the association in different ways. A couple choice numbers that stood out: 46 percent of members surveyed (a cohort of 1011 individuals) found new job opportunities to be important, while association professionals (a cohort of 201 individuals) only 14 percent thought help with employment was an “important benefit” according to the survey.

This was a common thread – 36 percent of association pros thought a professional standard of or code of ethics was important, while 53 percent of members did. Forty-four percent of members found mentoring to be important, but only 28 percent of pros, while again 44 percent of members thought help with career advancement was important, compared to just 28 percent of pros. Numbers like that continue, suggesting a division between a noted need among members to help them improve their career standing being just a blind spot for association professionals.

Perhaps the most stark split is centered around meetings and trade shows. Most association professionals feel the big conference is a major member benefit, a keystone to why people join and renew. From this survey though, while 64 percent of association pros felt it was an important benefit, only 33 percent of members surveyed did. While generally speaking major events seem to have bounced back pretty well in the wake of COVID, this isn’t what the traditional association professional wants to hear. The event pays for all the other stuff the organization does the rest of the year. It takes a ton of work, it’s exhausting, and most times is the most enduring aspect of the association’s existence. If members are seeing less and less value out of it, or find it to be something they could ignore, what shockwaves does that have five or ten years down the line?

This is where the question – what do members really want? – come to pass. Surveys are of course a nice way to check the temperature, but all they do is show what has happened in the past. But they have several issues – first, they’re a static image of what has happened, at a moment in time. They don’t evolve, and unless you follow a strict methodology, comparing them year-over-year can be problematic and flawed. On top of that is the issue of the sampling bias itself. People who answer surveys, themselves aren’t always representative of your membership:

Any surveyor worth their salt is cognizant of sampling bias, but it’s still going to be a struggle to avoid it. Plus, if there’s a large cohort of members or customers that simply aren’t answering, then all you’re doing is getting the voice of the vocal minority. This is why member behavior – the actions taken – is so important.

When someone clicks on an email, when someone attends a webinar, or spends time on a webpage or reads a few forum posts, this tells as much about what they like and want than a simple answer to a question. People’s actions do not lie. This is where smart associations are looking more and more to really understand the needs and wants of their membership. All these things, all these pieces of the broader involvement with associations should be the weathervane that shows where the wind is blowing, and lets leadership know what to do next. It shouldn’t be so hard to make membership happy, and having that singular vision of engagement is what helps associations know what members really want.

So when an association reviews its offerings, taking into account what actually matters to current – and perhaps just as importantly – future members, is much more vital than what was useful 20 years ago. Constant review of what matters is paramount, and the guts to cut underperforming offerings is vital to continued organizational health. Knowing what is trending, how new courses or events are being accepted, and of course using your own insight into the realities of your association backed up by data is where change and improvement come from. Realizing members aren’t a monolith, that some just want to renew their certificate and be left alone, while others want to go to the conference, and get the emails, all the traditional stuff, all of this matters. But you can’t just rest on your laurels. Tracking that engagement isn’t easy, but it’s possible. We put out a guide that details getting started with a comprehensive engagement scoring project, give that a look here:

It’s important to listen, to survey and ask people what they want. But realistically, that’s not telling the whole – and oftentimes not even half – the story. With all the data associations gather, and more importantly all the offerings that they have as benefits of membership, it behooves them to watch what people do, and move based on that. Otherwise, you’re looking backwards, and listening to those who just want to click a radial button from Survey Monkey. If you want your association to flourish, to achieve its mission of member service, data, analytics, and cohesive member engagement tracking is the clear way forward.