The virtual association - The Role of Professional Associations

Library Trends, Fall, 1997 by Edward J. Valauskas

INTRODUCTION

Can an association truly become virtual? Or will it always be locked

into an endless cycle of conferences, workshops, reports, political tugs of

war, and membership drives? Does an Internet site make an association

virtual? Or is it really just a state of mind, a new philosophy to truly

transform an association into a truly responsive organization for its members?

These questions face many officers and administrators of associations

of all sizes and shapes around the world. The Internet provides for many

associations an unprecedented opportunity to reach both members and

the world at large in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. Yet some

associations fear the Internet, and especially the World Wide Web, as a

threat to their unique stature as an information resource and professional

collective for their members. A simple analysis of most association sites

proves the difficulty of transforming an association from an elaborate

tree house club into an electronic wonder. Associations can be more

than politics, egos, and finances. Associations can truly appeal to the best

in human nature rather than be a setting for the most foolish expositions

of pettiness and emotion.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ASSOCIATIONS ON THE INTERNET

Hundreds of associations have established an Internet presence with

World Wide Web and Gopher servers, from the technologically adept

Software Publishers Association (http://www.spa.org/) to the most

cerebral, such as the American Mathematical Society (http://e-math.ams.org/),

to the most fossilized, such as the Palaeontological Association

(http://www.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/PalAss/PalAss.html). Most

associations tend to treat the Internet as a static medium with the result

that the kinds of information on the Internet do not differ radically from

an association's printed offerings.

It is relatively easy to find the commonalties among association sites

on the Internet (for a summary, see Noack, 1997). Most association sites

will offer a history of the organization to instill pride in a given profession

and a sense of heritage for members. There will be a long list of the

benefits of membership, along with easy ways to sign up either online or

by printing out appropriate forms. Most sites will include lists of

publications--journals, books, reports--available for a fee from the

association. There may also be ways online to learn more about other products,

from pins to tee-shirts to bookmarks. In addition, most sites provide

information online about recent past conferences and meetings and details on

upcoming events. Every effort will be made to make these sessions as

interesting as possible but without any allusion to a comparable virtual

conference or workshop. Summaries of adopted standards or regulations

may also be available online with descriptions of new industry standards

in the works. Most associations work hard in Washington and in

state capitols to defend their members against legislative troubles, so most

Internet sites will explain these lobbying efforts and provide ways--by

phone, letter, or electronic message--for members to show their support.

Finally, most sites will provide electronic mail addresses for headquarters

staff, although it is a rare large association that will name every

staff member and give every individual's electronic mail address or phone

number.

In some associations, there are more changes in headquarters staff

than in the elected officers. Of course, all officers and all staff should

be included in the electronic directory. Members really need to know the

size of the staff and whom to contact electronically when necessary. Some

associations purposefully do not put all the names and all of the e-mail

addresses of the staff in the online directories in fear that members will

complain that the staff is too bloated. This is another example of

administrative paranoia about the membership, a wrong-headed approach too

often followed by association executive directors and their assistants.

In the past, much of this online information was provided in the

form of printed membership directories and annual reports, and therefore

much of the material now mounted on an Internet site is static, changing

only a few times a year. That is the problem with most associations

and their approach to the Internet and especially the World Wide Web--it

is treated as a historical extension of an association's print culture.

The situation parallels the early history of printing itself. For the first few

decades of those new things called books, they looked a lot like hand-printed

manuscripts. It was not until an astute businessman and printer

by the name of Aldus Manutius realized that books did not need to be

folio size to sell, that books could be printed in pocket sizes on topics

about which people really wanted to read (such as anything nonreligious)

that books became commodities and substantially transformed society.

The profession is going through a similar phase when indeed every association

Web server looks like the print brochures of an association . But