It started from nothing … just a Meetup group coupled with lots of outreach through LinkedIn. I’m talking about the CXPA Baltimore/Chesapeake Network. CXPA is the Customer Experience Professionals Association founded in 2011. As a young organization representing a young profession, you would expect them to do things a little differently. Their un-chapters are one example.
Back to CXPA Baltimore/Chesapeake. Co-founder Ed Bodensiek said they basically followed a combination of instinct and practicing what they (Customer Experience pros) preach. The instinct part is saying if we were going to have conversations around something we were collectively passionate about – like a hobby – our form would be really organic, not heavy with bylaws and committee and traditional things.
The practice your profession comes in on getting and using data about our “customers”. The data said they wanted to network with a little learning and lots of growing.
Keeping the structure light with a core group forming a planning team and setting reasonable expectations about frequency, they launched.
What helped is that CXPA mirrors its members thinking about local networking. CXPA – Customer Experience Professionals Association’s CXPA Local Networks are “just a group of members who live or work in the same general vicinity. It’s easy to create one or attend one.” These local networks are organized and led by volunteer members of CXPA to bring together customer experience professionals based on geographical location. Events are held on a semi-annual, quarterly or monthly basis with speakers, panels and/or networking. Attendance is free at most events and attendees are encouraged to connect, learn and share ideas and best practices. CXPA provides white glove service to members that are willing to form a local team and CX professionals interested in joining the group are introduced through email. This program is viewed as a critical part of the association’s mission to bring CX professionals together to learn and grow from one another.
This model fits today’s newer professionals and all those time-strapped professionals. This is one example of associations thinking differently about chapters. We gathered others we learned about in the Evolution of the Chapter.
How are you rethinking chapter structure?