Fifteen years ago, Robert Putnam published a book entitled, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. The title of the book derived from data regarding the popularity of bowling. One of the observations from this data formed the thesis of his book. In short, while the number of people bowling had increased, the number who bowled in leagues had decreased. From this simple observation, Putman constructed an expansive argument that demonstrated that “bowling alone” or “going it alone” had negative implications for most social and civic organizations that depended on broad participation and interaction. Recent events at FPSA reminded me not only of Putnam’s thesis, but underscored one of his conclusions…that going it alone is not always the best option.
Last year, a number of individuals became frustrated with the current state of some trade shows. If each of those individuals acted alone, their recourse would have been to simply not exhibit at some or all trade shows. This action would have had little or no impact on the source of their frustration nor would it lead to any meaningful change.
But, because those individuals belonged to an organization, FPSA in this case, they found out 1) that they were not alone in their frustration and, 2) they had a receptive and response ear in their organization. As these individuals grew into a group and then a task force, their collective voice led FPSA to recast PROCESS EXPO to new dates and a new biennial format beginning in 2011.
You have received information about these changes. You may have participated in a webinar on the topic last week with over 100 FPSA members. The point of this message is not simply the changes that are occurring to your show, but why and how these changes occurred. IF YOU EVER QUESTION THE VALUE OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN FPSA, REMEMBER THIS LESSON AND ITS RESULT. This is one case where going it alone was clearly not an option.
Not all benefits of membership are as dramatic as the example of restructuring a tradeshow. But, there are many and varied examples. The FPSA Compensation Survey was the result of one member’s frustration at not knowing whether or not his company’s compensation package was competitive in the industry. This year’s fall OPS Conference has its origins in a question raised at an industry council board meeting when a member asked, “Are you guys finding that your customers are looking to you to help them out in financing their projects?”
Having a forum where you can express your views, articulate your needs, a vent your frustrations can lead to some productive results. And these are results that arise in an organization like FPSA because “going it alone is not always the best option”.
David Seckman, President
FPSA
