The 2025 Chapter Performance and Benchmarking Report told us many chapter models are struggling to foster belonging and sustainable engagement.
At the 2026 ASAE Annual Meeting, association executives Lindsay Currie, CAE (CUR), David Johnson, CAE (NAFA), and Chuck Willmarth, CAE (AOTA) picked up that conversation and pushed it further, asking what comes next once an association recognizes that change is necessary.
The session Future-Ready Connection: Reimagining How Members Find Their People, led by Diana Tucker, FASAE, CAE, looked at how associations can turn the research into action while highlighting today’s challenges and presenting two case studies which reinforced the themes already covered in the benchmarking report:
- Community is increasingly about belonging rather than geography.
- Chapters should be viewed as engagement structures rather than governance structures.
- Volunteer burnout is driven by administrative burden.
- Engagement and belonging are different measures.
- Organizations need more flexible community models.
In doing so, they shone a light on the practical implications of the research and the tensions in acting on research. Below are four takeaways from that conversation.
1. The real issue is not restructuring chapters. It’s redefining their purpose.
One of the strongest moments in the discussion was Lindsay’s distinction between governance and engagement. That feels bigger than a structural conversation. The implication is that many associations are redesigning chapter models without first answering why those communities exist.
That is a much stronger takeaway than “belonging matters.”
2. The case studies prove the challenge is operational, not philosophical.
Most association leaders probably already agree that belonging is important. What was interesting in the session was seeing how both NAFA and AOTA removed administrative work from volunteers so they could focus on leadership, community-building, advocacy, and strategy. Read the case studies here.
The lesson may be less about community theory and more about this: If volunteers are busy running the business of the chapter, they don’t have capacity to build community.
That’s a significant insight.
3. The session surfaced a new success metric: organizational agility.
David repeatedly talked about the ability to quickly create, test, and sunset communities. That’s not something that was a major theme in the report yet the idea that success is measured by how easily members can form new communities may be one of the most forward-looking concepts from the session.
4. The panel showed that culture change is harder than structural change.
Both case studies emphasized multi-year timelines, leadership transitions, transparency, trust-building, and preparing boards for resistance.
The Mandate is Clear...
Let’s redesign components as community and engagement structures with purpose at their core.
It’s not only an operational shift; it’s also a cultural shift that requires sustained commitment, thoughtful leadership, and a willingness to bring members along at a pace that allows them to create meaningful connections.
— Diana Tucker, FASAE, CAE
FINAL THOUGHTS
The report identified symptoms. The session exposed the reality that transformation is largely a culture and change-management effort, not a governance project. Here are several calls to action you can use to get started…
- Build community around purpose. Community starts with WHY. Organize members around shared purpose, identity, and values to create meaningful connections.
- Design your component portfolio intentionally. Belonging and participation are not the same thing. Members can feel a strong sense of belonging even when they are not actively engaged, and active participants may not necessarily feel connected. Help your members find their community.
- Assess readiness before making changes. Be prepared to pilot, adapt, and sunset models as needed, while embracing intelligent failure as part of the learning process.
- Shift the question. Move from asking, “How do we run our chapter?” to “How do we build belonging?” Equip leaders and staff to facilitate community rather than simply govern it.
The future of chapters is not about eliminating local components or abandoning geographic communities. It is about creating systems that are sustainable, flexible, and aligned with member needs.
About the Panelists:
Lindsay Currie, CAE, is Executive Officer at the Council on Undergraduate Research, which supports faculty and administrators to create research opportunities for their students. CUR has 14,000 individual members and 600 colleges and universities. Members group along academic discipline lines.
David Johnson, CAE, is COO of the NAFA Fleet Management Association, which serves government and corporate fleet managers. NAFA provides education, training, and networking opportunities for its 3,500 members across the U.S. and Canada. Members are organized by geography and fleet type, with 29 local networking groups grouped into eight regions.
Chuck Willmarth, CAE, is Vice President, Health Policy and State Affairs with the American Occupational Therapy Association. AOTA works on policy and advocacy with 52 state affiliates, which are separately incorporated.
Diana Lee Tucker, FASAE, CAE, is Founder & President of Gr8 Measures Strategies LLC, bringing more than 25 years of association leadership to fractional and C-level executive consulting.