So a recent poster on an ASAE listserv ended his request for feedback with the directive “You are allowed 15 minutes to deliberate and respond to this test question. Please do not tweet your answers.”
I chuckled at first and of course had the immediate need to tweet. But then I paused – you mean you’re going to tell me how to answer? Not to mention when to answer?
This is so typical of our aging associations. We are still 90’s-centered in our member relations-scripts. ASAE’s Designing Your Future trends research tells us clearly that we need to become member-led and collaborative. It tells us that to survive and thrive in the world, we need to ambidextrous. That to me means reaching out in multiple channels and receiving in multiple channels. It means asking members how they want to engage and then opening the door.
Okay, maybe this writer isn’t on Twitter. Got it. And he was polite asking us to “please” not tweet. There is no association today though that shouldn’t be on Twitter in some manner. And the essence of collaboration is pulling together people who bring different skills, different thoughts and ideas, and different backgrounds so that you can reach out in many ways.
The call to action here is to examine if within our association are we ambidextrous. Please tweet, Facebook, email, post, call, mail your responses!
PS the subject of the original post is what is now going to replace electronic publishing? Tweet your answer and I’ll copy and paste to the list serve 🙂