Deirdre Reid writes about association and business management, with a focus on building communities in the association, non-profit and business world. She also shares her ideas at Reid All About It and on Twitter.

As I was studying for the Certified Associate Executive (CAE) exam, I came across some ideas by Bruce Butterfield in “Professional Practices in Association Management” about defining the future. He says that by studying the customers of our members, we can better anticipate the emerging needs of our members and be in a position to provide true value to them. He lays out the steps of this process:

• Examine the trends and emerging issues that will change the kind of customers the association’s members will face.
• Identify new demands that these customers will place on the association’s members.
• Identify the new skills, services and partners our members will need to meet these new demands.
• Recommend new functions, products and services that the association will need to help its members meet these new needs.
• Define a new position and revenue models for the association based on the new mission.

Later in the book, Richard C. O’Sullivan writes that “associations need to think in terms of demand networks in which their members’ customers, not the members themselves, command the focus of association business planning.” He says that we must look beyond our members to engage a wider range of stakeholders whose interests align with our goals and with the marketplace success of our members. For example, a home builders association would think beyond the builders and their contractors and suppliers to the homebuyer and also those in other businesses and organizations that serve the homebuyer or affect the new housing market.

When we go through our planning process, we normally rely on input from members and staff (via surveys, focus groups, committee reports, town hall meetings, etc.), and we examine the trends and issues affecting our members and their businesses or profession. But are we digging deeper to look at the changes affecting our members’ customers or clients?

How does this affect an association’s revenue model? Instead of relying on our members for revenue, can we tap a new revenue source, the members’ customers as well as other individuals and organizations that are aligned with our interests by offering products and services of value to them?

There is a lot of concern about the viability of a membership dues model for associations. Yet, if we are providing real, bottom-line enhancing, value to our members by understanding the changing needs of their customers, and providing services and products that make a difference, associations will remain healthy evolving organizations. And if we diversify our revenue sources, we can fund both operational and strategic budgets that will meet current and future (“visible but not yet seen”) needs of our members.