Seth Godin's take on associations

I am leading a discussion in August of Seth Godin's All Marketers Are Liars for ASAE's Emerging Leaders group. (If you're a member of ASAE and would like to join the group, click here for more information.) The group had covered Blink recently, which was very timely considering Malcolm Gladwell is the keynote speaker at ASAE Nashville, and was looking for a book in the same vein.

I had just finished All Marketers Are Liars and thought it would be a good fit for the group. When I recommended the book, I somehow got appointed group leader for the book (thus the dangers of speaking up).

Seth is known for being responsive to his readers, so I thought I'd try and e-mail him a few questions pertaining directly to associations. I have to say that I was extremely impressed because he e-mailed me back in just a little over an hour! (I think that's way beyond responsive, myself.)

Here are my questions and Seth's answers:

Have you ever joined an association?

once or twice

Professional, personal or trade?

professional

If so, what stirred you to join?

fear of being left out

desire to be part of the in crowd

Do you feel that the rise of self-made online communities and networks is a threat to the traditional association model?

totally. I belong to hundreds of online interactions and zero associations

If small is the new big, what can associations do to make their big feel small?

make promises and keep them

figure out how to create value outside of the traditional association promise

take intellectual risks, don't follow

If this has piqued your interest, Seth has a blog here. And a blog for his book here, which includes an excerpt. (Fortune also offers an excerpt from the book here.) If you have stories to share about how your association is addressing these issues, send them to me at slea@mhanet.org.