It seemed to me that professional associations might be a substitute for community associations in people's lives, and that is, in fact, what I found. Younger people are working harder, are less involved in their neighborhoods, and are more likely to be involved in workplace communities, most notably professional and trade associations.

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Ask them what three things would make them come to an association meeting. And then think creatively about expanding or developing the things at the top of the list, and about integrating them with core offerings at the meeting.

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If you ask someone to serve, they will appreciate it and become even more loyal to you. This is something that practically every good university fund raising establishment understands. Membership associations need to understand this, too.

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The number of targets is proliferating faster than the increase in the rate of joining all across the nonprofit economy. I'm convinced that if we look at the membership rolls of the associations that are complaining about membership, they're getting a lot of people rotating off and that's absolutely a function of competition.

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