What if Dues Went Away?

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Yesterday I wrote a post over on Get Me Jamie Notter about the idea of strategy as a “pattern of investments.” This got Scott Briscoe thinking, and he then wrote a post on Acronym taking that to the next level, suggesting five specific things association leaders could do to develop their capacity for actively changing patterns.

(On a side note, this is what I absolutely LOVE about blogging. I read one blog post, that sparked me to share a fairly brief idea, that sparked Scott to share something… So much insight is generated this way, that just didn’t happen as easily before social media. But I digress…)

I love Scott’s ideas for figuring out new patterns. My favorite was his fifth one: imagine that in 24 months your dues revenue will be down by 75%. What would you do? How would you shift to draw in revenue that was not an obligation that needed to be “renewed” every year? You know you’d need to drop programs with such a dramatic cut in revenue, so which ones would go or be transformed? For everything that is “subsidized” by dues, who are the people that really value it? Would they pay? I think these kinds of questions are excellent ones to answer and would probably prompt a lot of pattern shifting, even if your dues were increasing.

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One Response to “What if Dues Went Away?”

  1. Splash: Refreshment for your small staff organization » Blog Archive » Friday Top Five: Happy Independence Day! Says:

    [...] 75 percent in the next 24 months? How could your organization shift to create new revenue streams? What if dues went away? Great questions that all association professionals should think [...]

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