Twenty years ago, I was working for the American Institute of Architects and was about to be laid off, the first wave of lay offs that would ultimately cut staff numbers in half. That era's creative destruction of capital markets, triggered by 1986 tax law changes and S+L scandals, seems like a quaint precursor of what we are experiencing today.
So when asked to imagine what we could be 20 years hence for the January issue of Associations Now, I wondered what would the world be like if associations really mattered.
What if our mission was leadership and leadership development became the primary benefit of membership? Come to think of it, what if ASAE was the Center for Association Leadership? But I digress.
My modest proposal is that we stand up for those our members' serve, advancing the values and causes that first attracted members to their careers, to their enterprises, and still call to the next generation. Other authors offer up open sourcing, decentralizing, and even abandoning the form, as alternative dreams. Read them all.
The point is that if we keep doing the same thing, we will get the same result, geometrically amplified by the next 20 years of progress in technology and science in the hands of both predators and humanitarians.
So it's up to you. Who do you inspire? Where will you start? What will be your legacy? Pass it on: http://bit.ly/associations_2030
