Technology vs. gravity

In this technological age, businesses and individuals alike suffer from advances that seem to be moving faster than light. Just as you buy an iPhone (the last big thing) a new one comes along; before you pay off the $1800 laptop an improved one is available for $600. As I catch up with tech purchases I’ve been behind on, my capitalist heart goes out to the companies that must struggle even more with the pricing: the manufacturers.

As friends know, I move in a circle of associations and nonprofits. Hence the title of this entry. In associations, it’s not usually tech vs. better tech, but how to move straight to rockets from the horse and buggy. Even the largest organizations with the biggest budgets operate with frugal constraints, and it can be hard to convince a volunteer board why it will cost XXX (often topping a million dollars) to create a new website that will enable dynamic order processing, event registration, member interaction, etc. Boards are active in their organization and don’t always think like the “average” member, so they don’t realize the scope of problems encountered by members navigating a site that has evolved organically from its 1995 origins. They don’t realize the encumbrance placed on an eager new member when they have to download a form, fill in a credit card, and fax it back, so a human can hand-capture the purchase. (Hint: the fax better be in a locked room to comply with bankcard requirements.) There are organizations that don’t even allow that ….you apply, and a staff member or committee decide how much you should pay, and then send you a bill, and then you send in the payment, maybe, or maybe you postpone that part until 3 or 5 months go by and you get the journal for free in the meantime perhaps, and then you decide not to pay, and then maybe someone takes you off the rolls but you probably still get the enewsletter because frankly, there isn’t enough staff or any updated management system to coordinate all these efforts.

Then someone calls me because the membership retention is down…

I think the hardest pill for association executives to swallow is believing that things can change, that a business case can be made for improving processes. Because Board members and other volunteers are an organization’s greatest evangelists, they deserve to envision their organization as the modern center of its field. Once in a while, at least once a year, help them overcome gravity by painting a picture of what it would look like…before a competing organization does.

With that in mind, look forward to the launch of the Social Networking and Media Association, which promises to set an example of just how far into the stratosphere associations will need to go in order to trump what the internet can do without them. Kudos to Andy Steggles for giving legs to the vision.