Cliché question, yes… one that meeting and event planners should ask and answer because your association may be starting to hang around your neck like some bad boyfriend straight out of a made for TV movie.
I am sure that you can answer what you have done for your association lately:
- Given them your hard earned money
- Volunteered to sit on some committee
- Attended that freaking awful networking event
- Given them more of your money
That is all well and good but if you cannot answer what your association has done for you today, yesterday or in the past few months…. Maybe it is time to part ways, find new digs and a new place to hang your “association member” hat.
Think about it… you spend $100, $200, $400 or $1000 dollars on membership, and even more throughout the year and what do you really get in return… a crappy quarterly magazine, the occasional crappy networking event, crappy marketing emails from every company they have sold your name too, crappy educational offerings and the ever popular crappy annual event….
Whoopee shit my friend.. in essence you are paying top dollar for a steaming pile of crap and they expect you to love it, they expect you to be there and they take you for granted.
Maybe it is time to walk away from this really bad relationship, this dysfunctional nightmare.
Oh, the old association will come sniffing around, they will whine and they will cry and they might even plead for you to take them back telling you how they have changed… but be strong, you can live without them.
You can do it, you have been living without them since the day you joined.
