Posted by Kinley Levack Responses (0)

There is a fascinating post on Folio's blog about Hachette Filipacchi Media dropping its Magazine Publishers of America membership and what the future might hold for associations. Tony Silber, general manager of Folio, a brand covering the magazine publishing industry, writes:

... as you comb through your budget trying to make the least damaging and least painful decisions, you see a line for association membership that may be $10,000 or may be $50,000. And in the case of the large companies, it’s certainly over $100,000.

There’s no way—no way—when you see that line that you don’t ask what the value is that you’re getting. Yes, you get lobbying for postal reform. Yes, you get research proving the value of magazine advertising. Yes, you get events with quality programs and valuable networking.

But in a time when all you want is to drive revenue with as lean a business as possible, those benefits are less compelling. Especially when you have to pay for virtually everything the association provides in addition to your dues. And that big, fat budget line becomes an easy target.

What publishers are looking for is not participation in committees and abstract reports and golf tournaments. Those are fine most of the time, but not now. Publishers want tools and resources that will keep them focused on effectively driving revenue in their markets.

So how do planners combat this? The question of "Can we afford to be a member?" is likely to hit across industries and it's up to planners to show that you are doing your part to keep association meetings and events valuable, timely, and irreplaceable. Be sure that you are listening to members and responding to exactly what they need today--because today's needs are very different from last year's, no matter what industry you're in. How are you working with association leadership and members to show that you're on the ball and that under no circumstances can your members afford to let their membership lapse?

In this case it also doesn't matter the cost of membership--although it's a quicker impact to slice $10,000-plus off of a budget sheet, it still helps if you're able to slice $1,500, or $500. We initially heard from hotels and destinations that while corporations were cutting back on meetings and events, the association market was stable. But if companies and individuals end up in a position where they question the value of association membership, we could be at the beginning of a second wave of attrition and/or cancellations, in addition to dysfunction within individual associations.