Thanks to BMart, I found out that blogger Shel Holtz, a marketing exec, has had the aha moment when it comes to associations.
This is something I've been saying or thinking for awhile. Ben points out in the comments, quite rightly, that associations have always been threatened by the next big thing and yet here we are. Still, I think that the threat is real as well, particularly for organizations that don't advocate for their members--or who do a bad job of it. We are uniquely positioned to "petition the government" on behalf of our members. Also, Ben, over at his place, alludes to the fact that associations have access to the same technologies as these upstarts. To that I say, true, but unfortunately some boards are not very visionary and they simply won't get the memo in time. Not to mention our often slow-as-molasses pace of getting new initiatives in place.
Mike Mason has another question which pertains to antitrust. It's true that associations can't enable price-fixing, but theoretically, these new media entities are accountable before the law on that issue as well--so they shouldn't have a competitive advantage. And as for monitoring, if associations venture into social media they better be monitoring for all kinds of reasons.
So, yes we'll be around, but I think things will end up looking quite different in a decade or so.
Great points! It's not so much protecting the association (or the website) from liability -- it's the members themselves. If members stray into areas (pricing, obviously) they can open themselves up to antitrust liability. When members meet face to face, at least there's an opportunity for a lawyer to leap to his or her feet and restate the association's antitrust policy.
Thanks for coming over, Mike!
I agree with you but I guess what I'm saying is that anyone would have these problems--not just an association. And with online stuff comes the whole anonymity bag of worms that internet law doesn't know how to handle yet.
Still, though, I am starting to wonder how many people (in associations particularly) are actually prosecuted under that anti-trust legislation and if the risk is really that big... Personally (and I haven't been around forever admittedly) but I've never seen any group even approach anti-trust. I wonder if the exposure isn't overstated sometimes.
Thanks again for stopping by, come back and bring some friends!
@Nick: But assns have much more to lose than a loosely organized self-organizing social network. In my 8 year assn career, I've had to cut off more than one member-to-member conversation over anti-trust concerns. I think what you see as perhaps an over-reaction by assn execs to anti-trust is why you rarely hear of prosecutions. CAEs know that violating anti-trust laws is like a death sentence for the association. Err on the side of caution!
I have a hard time believing the FTC would bother prosecuting associations over this kind of thing. I just ran a quick search over at their site. Here's an example of the kind of thing they actually do prosecute:
According to Judge Timony, for more than 40 years, AIIC [Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence] has set minimum daily rates to be charged by members, required that all interpreters at a conference be paid the same daily rate regardless of skill or experience differences, specified the length of the working day and the number of interpreters to be hired at a conference, and required payment for travel expenses, per diem, cancelled events, rest days and non-working days when the interpreter was away from his or her mandated professional address. AIIC rules also have restricted members’ use of portable equipment; barred commissions to intermediaries, package fees, exclusive arrangements, moonlighting for permanently-employed interpreters, and the use of comparative advertising and trade names; required members to have a professional address and to give three months’ notice before changing it; required charges for the recording of interpretation services and imposed limits on charitable work.
That's a whole lot more than a simple member-to-member conversation. I think as long as the association has a policy against pricing discussions, and stops it when they happen to overhear one, there's very little risk that an underfunded agency like the FTC is going to come after them. In this case, if there's a clause forbidding pricing discussions in the terms of use for the website, the most you would probably get is a slap on the wrist. I frankly doubt it would even get that far.
Hey. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
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