Three executives share strategies for how they deal with member disagreements over policy and the direction of their organizations

Linda Moore joined TechNet as CEO in 2014, only two years after a proposed merger with the Information Technology Information Council fell apart. The effort failed because of disagreements over which parts of their memberships should be behind the wheel of the combined organization. As a result, one of Moore's main priorities was to reassure TechNet members that their voices mattered in charting the association's future course.

"If you don't have the trust and confidence of the members, then you're going to wither on the vine pretty fast," Moore said.

Such was the fate of another technology industry trade group—the Internet Association—that ceased operations last year amid member squabbles over which policies the organization should prioritize. Member divisions have the potential to tear apart an association, so CEO Update reached out to three CEOs to learn how they approach healing member rifts.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution and the CEOs acknowledged it is a complex problem. But common themes include having an association built around transparency and a decision-making process where members feel they have meaningful input.

TechNet has 89 members, all in the technology space but providing a wide range of services and products. That diversity in business models brings diversity in perspective, so the group must strive to be consensus-driven, according to Moore. There may be disagreement over policy priorities, but the one outcome the association will not accept is standing on the sidelines of an issue relevant to its membership, she explained.

"This isn't a place where we come to thwart each other's agenda," Moore said. "It is a place where we're going to engage and we're going to get the best possible outcome for the greatest number of members."

Maintaining transparency

As far as how TechNet translates consensus building into operations, open communication is key. One example: Every year the heads of the group's state and federal advocacy departments update a set of policy principles posted on the association's website. The process usually takes six to eight weeks, in which the staff identify potential updates, gather input from members, then put the proposed changes to the volunteer leadership for a vote.

"So you're putting yourself in a situation where you're constantly going back and engaging members: What do you think our strategy should be? What should our desired outcome be? What are our talking points?" Moore said.

That strategy alone doesn't necessarily lead to consensus, but it allows members who disagree with the majority to feel they were kept in the loop.

"They much appreciate the fact that we're never hiding the ball," Moore said. "They never have to worry about someone having a thumb on the scale and they don't know about it. They know we're always going to be open and transparent at all times."

TechNet's staff all know their members well enough to know when there may be sharp disagreements, she said. The group's goal is to keep members focused on the larger picture.

"We find the common ground and the members come to it with a really great attitude because they know that sitting on the sidelines isn't an option," she said. "They know that they have to work with other people to get the greatest good for everyone."

Professional solidarity

When Sharon Kneebone joined the National Society for Histotechnology in 2015, there was an unhealthy amount of interpersonal conflict taking place within the association, brought about in part by the way its volunteer leadership was structured.

NSH has a House of Delegates composed of representatives from each state. The House, which met once a year, set policy. The much smaller board of directors focused on procedure. A separate judicial committee's mission was to enforce the group's code of conduct, but in practice became an arena for members to air grievances.

That leadership structure proved unwieldy, so under Kneebone, two major bylaw revisions were proposed. The first was to give the board authority over setting policy. The second was to eliminate the judiciary committee. It was not an easy process: "There were not very nice things said on the House floor, but we got past it," she said.

"How we did that is we honored the past," Kneebone said about winning members over. "The society got to where it is on the shoulders of the people who founded the organization, who had a vision of bringing histotechnicians and histotechnologists together to share information and techniques for the betterment of patient outcomes. So we told the story of the past and what was done within NSH, and why we are where we are, and why it served us well at that point in time."

NSH also brought in outside consultants who worked with members to develop a new organizational structure moving forward.

"Rather than taking the approach of telling our members on both sides of the issue what needed to happen, we started with training, using scenarios so that they could come to the conclusions of what they felt would be best for the organization," Kneebone said.

Big tent, small tent

Associations can get in trouble is if they don't have a clear idea about who they represent, according to Anna Bager, CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America. For example, an association that represents both buyers and sellers in a particular industry segment can draw from a larger pool of potential members, but the interests of those two groups may clash.

"You're still going to run into these issues from time to time, but I think that's where it starts," she said. "Once the trade association gets greedy or wants to try and move direction … I don't think it can expand without losing a little bit on the other end. You have to stick to a group because otherwise you will not find alignment."

Of course, alignment is not guaranteed even if your association represents a very narrow range of businesses and professionals. Bager said she works to ensure OAAA has a clear roadmap for how the association should proceed should it bump against an area where there is division among the membership. That includes knowing when to just walk away.

"If we get pulled into something like that, we can remove ourselves… And then you can tell (members) we're not going to lean in, but we're going to look at what can happen afterward and make sure that we work on that instead," she said. "So no matter who wins this particular fight, we can help the industry."