Introducing a full-featured, secure online community can help your association:

• Boost member retention and acquisition
• Appeal to the younger members and prospective members who are already using online community tools, and expect them from your organization
• Extend the value and reach of your member conferences and meetings by giving members the added benefit of a venue to share their professional questions and concerns with one another and connect during the 364 days of the year that they aren't meeting with one another in person.
• Connect more directly with members to determine their needs and desires as they relate to the association itself.

GoLightly's online community and collaboration platform can help you accomplish all of those desirable goals:

A) Giving members a vibrant online community with a full range of communications and collaboration capabilities will permit them to broaden and deepen their professional interactions with fellow members and with the organization itself. This can be a tremendous member benefit and an excellent reason for a member to remain a member. By partially opening up that community to prospective members, you will encourage them to want to participate, and become members themselves.

B) Younger association members, in particular, are already using community tools in their everyday social life (like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others). The old one-way communications approach of sending out periodical newsletters or mailings will not satisfy this group's need for real time interaction, accessible 24/7. Providing online community and collaboration tools in an association-controlled and branded environment will be essential to attract and keep this group involved.

C) Annual conferences and periodic meetings are a great way for members to educate themselves, make personal connections, and learn about all the latest innovations and techniques in their area of interest. An online community permits the essential benefits of those conferences and meetings to be extended all year round. Groups can form online to continue the discussions that were begun at the conferences and meetings, and support those conversations with relevant documentation accessible by all or selected members.

GoLightly's collaborative workspaces give the professional members of your association a secure environment to communicate about issues important to your industry or area of interest (e.g., about research, legislation or medical advances.). Members will use the online community to ask and get answers to practical and professional questions, comment on relevant topics, and meet and interact with other members and the association.

D) Online community provides an effective vehicle for the association to inform its members of important initiatives and events, to solicit input on association planning, and is an excellent way for the association to learn more and more directly about what the members want from the association, and to create a closer bond with its members.

Other points to consider:

• When a member interacts with other members throughout the year in an online community, they are more likely to attend your conferences
• Giving members a place to share knowledge with each other strengthens your brand and enables you to position your website as the primary venue for communication and learning in your field
• Having an online community (with integrated Job board) provides another member benefit to encourage membership renewals

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