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New Association
By Susan B. Waters, CAE, Sextant Consulting
I have the privilege of being the chief executive officer of an association-in-formation. This will be an international, virtual bar association called Internetbar.org (the first association that I’m aware of that is using its URL as its name). The purposes of the association, in brief, are to teach lawyers to practice legally, ethically and successfully in cyberspace; to work to harmonize laws internationally around privacy, identity and e-commerce; and to form a world-wide community working together democratically across national, cultural and linguistic borders.
What is so wonderful about this experience for me after being CEO of four traditional associations with proud histories is that this association has no history! The experiences that the Board members and I have had with associations with long and proud histories have caused us to reach different decisions than those made by the organizations we have all been involved in in the past. For instance, members have all of the traditional rights of members, except the rights of governance, which is held by a self-perpetuating Board of Directors. Membership will be free for the first two years, while we present the value of membership, rather than asking members to take our value as a leap of faith, and pay for the opportunity. Our 501(c)(3) is a supporting foundation of the 501(c)(6) and has only one member Internetbar.org. We think we have taken most of the temptations for individual domination or takeover out of the organizational design.
There are no sacred cows, no old, unprofitable programs or publications that we are struggling to “sunset” over the objection of long-time members. There will only be one class of membership (other than Board members), although we may have different price points haven’t decided that yet. We have incorporated in Massachusetts, and will incorporate the international umbrella in Brussels next month.
Our staff will be virtual, too. All services, including mine as CEO, are outsourced to other companies, so no employer taxes, unemployment or workers’ compensation liabilities. We will add capabilities as we scale up, and will be able to place our resources whenever and wherever we want them.
We are basing our committee work and collaborative work (for continuing education, publications, etc.) on open source technology that is free for all to use. We can work in synchronous or asynchronous manner, whatever works. For the first time in my career, technology is truly an enabler, not a barrier or limiter of capabilities.
Will it work? That is the main question, but I think this opportunity to “reinvent” association is exciting, and I am energized by the experience, as are the Board members. I wonder if longstanding associations can ever try anything nearly so radically different from the past.
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