Association Trends

‘Let’s meet and discuss...’

Panelists in Washington last week discussed the benefits of people meeting informally through sites like Meetup.com. From left, Scott Heiferman, CEO, Meetup.com; Sean Murphy, COO, Capital Advantage; Susan Sarfati, CAE, CEO, Greater Washington Society of Assn Executives; Jonathan Garthwaite, editor, Townhall.com (Heritage Foundation); and Lee Rainie, director, Pew Internet & American Life Project.

CEO Scott Heiferman said when the lightbulb over his head went on about creating Meetup.com, he never thought of it as a grass-roots building tool. In fact, when he got the idea, Heiferman was standing in line for Lord of the Rings and noticed all these people dressed up as elves and such. How do you bring all these people together to talk about their interests, whether it be elves, or sewing or pug dogs, he thought. Ba da bing!

The concept and tool are simple: You go to the site, find your interest, and see who’s meeting about it in your area. After that, you show up and make friends.

Little did he know that his Meetup concept would become a major organizing tool in the Howard Dean campaign, bringing supporters together in coffeehouses and other public places, to talk strategy. Today, all kinds of groups are using Meetup to build grass-roots interest for their issues across the country. A third of meet-ups today are political in nature, with the majority about other interests.

“When we started this, we weren’t even thinking politics,” Heiferman said to an audience of assn professionals last week at the National Press Club in Washington. The panel discussion was cosponsored by the American Society of Assn Executives and the Greater Washington SAE, with opening remarks by former Sen. Bill Bradley.

Heiferman was touting Meetup.com as a useful tool for assns, noting that 1.25-million people participate in 1,000 meet-ups each week.

“Assns can get new money, new members and visibility” through using the Meetup tool, Heiferman said. He said that groups that meet through Meetup to discuss an assn’s issues, in time might come to “consider themselves a chapter of something bigger.”

Jonathan Garthwaite, editor of Townhall.com, of the Heritage Foundation, used the service for the first time in Dec. At first skeptical, he said that soon dissipated with the success of Heritage’s meet-ups, the last involving groups in 120 cities.

Garthwaite said Meetup fills a void because their budget “does not allow for field directors at the state level.”

“Our goal using Meetup is to connect and activate supporters, and encourage vibrant discussion of policy,” he said.

Garthwaite supplies “hosts” of meet-ups with a suggested agenda, but meet-ups have a life of their own. They can be casual to very formal, and often stray from or do not even have an agenda.

GWSAE CEO Susan Sarfati, CAE, said the Meetup technology can be used in assns, noting that assn meetings tend to be structural while meet-ups are more loose and draw a crowd with diverse thinking.

“There is a lot of opportunity, especially as nontraditional thinkers join assns,” Sarfati said.

GWSAE has yet to suggest a meet-up, she said.

Diversity in the crowd is guaranteed. Heiferman made a very “hard decision that meet-ups are open to anyone.” In other words, assns cannot organize a meet-up through Meetup exclusively for members. One audience member raised a concern that meet-ups could attract those who might be disruptive or have strong differing opinions to what would be discussed. Garthwaite responded that people in Meetup.com register for what they are interested in, and will attend those meetings.

Is there a question of liability if an assn suggests a meet-up? The nature of meet-ups is that they are organized by third parties, and that agendas and activities are not set by the assn, at least not in Heritage’s case. While Heritage might supply a suggested agenda, meet-up hosts are encouraged “to build on their own. It’s not 100% top-down.” He said that they also put disclaimers on the suggested agendas.

Meetup.com has been an effective marketing tool for Heritage. Garthwaite says since using Meetup, “interaction has increased and online fund-raising is up 50%.”

Others on the panel included ASAE CEO John Graham IV, who spoke on leadership qualities; Sean Murphy, COO, Capital Advantage; and Lee Raine, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Raine reported that 64% of adult Americans and 79% of teenagers use the Internet; 74% use it for social interaction; 84% belong to a form of on-line community; and that 56% of Americans joined a group after finding a connection online.

Bradley remarked that the notion of assns is distinctly American, but has grown tremendously in other parts of the world in the past 25 years. He believes that a concept such as Meetup.com “has the capacity to rejuvenate community in this country,” but that it shouldn’t only be thought of in the political sense. Bradley noted that there are meet-ups for such diverse topics as the musical group “Insane Clown Posse.”

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