This one should be worth keeping an eye on:
Starting today, the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) will be engaging its entire global membership base of more than 1,000 public participation experts in a three-months long consultation about the future of the organization.
From the president’s announcement email earlier today:
Dear Members,
I am very pleased to invite all IAP2 members to participate in our engagement process on the future organizational structure of our association.
The International Board is proposing that IAP2 move to a federation of affiliates. The Board believes that an organizational change is necessary to direct more focus on two critical functions: developing and advancing our practice at the international level, and extending our membership base and activity at a local level. After examining a number of options the federation of affiliates has emerged as the preferred model.
[...]
The Board is now seeking member input to confirm, or not, whether a federation of affiliates is the best way forward, and if so to assist with the decision making process about how it will function. [...]
All IAP2 members are encouraged to participate in this discussion on the overall structure of the association – those who are direct members of the international body and those who hold their membership with an affiliate, or both. We welcome questions, comments, suggestions and advice.
[...] In addition to the online forum there will be other opportunities for the conversation – in person for some chapters, or via webinar and teleconference.
This is the first time IAP2 has engaged all its members in a conversation of this magnitude. [...]
On behalf of the Board of Directors of IAP2 I look forward to hearing your voice in this vital conversation about our Association’s future.
Best
The board’s recommendation to adopt this new organizational structure was first presented during the annual general meeting at the 2009 IAP2 Annual Conference in San Diego, CA back in September. During the meeting, it soon became clear that a fair number or members weren’t quite on board yet and may have even had some reservations about the proposed changes. Out of these discussions, a broader engagement approach started to emerge.
The project’s main online forum is powered by Bang the Table, an Australian provider of online stakeholder engagement services.
Most if not all of the accompanying materials are publicly available, see for instance the Member Engagement Plan (PDF, 532 KB), which lists the objectives as follows:
Member Engagement Objectives:
(What do members and the Board need from this process?)
- All IAP2 members and chapter leaders have the information they need to understand the current challenges, the proposed federation model, and related governance issues.
- All IAP2 members worldwide are able to express their opinion on the proposal for a federation of affiliates (positive or negative), be involved in online discussions, provide ideas on how a new model could be implemented effectively in their area (if they are not already in an affiliate structure) and across the world, and offer alternatives if they do not support the federation model.
- Chapter leaders in North America are involved in specific online discussions (and possibly face-to-face) to consider how the affiliate model can best be implemented in their area/country, given their current leadership role and the tasks and support needed for implementation.
- The Board understands what members and chapter leaders think about the federation of affiliates, draws on member ideas for the details to put in place a federation of affiliates, knows what the members want from both the affiliate level and the International level, and in doing so, has the information it needs to make decisions.
At first glance, the project looks very well thought-out (as can be expected from this organization). It leaves considerable room for participants to self-organize (either face-to-face locally or online along some other line of shared interest), so as a nice side effect I look forward to getting to know a few fellow IAP2 members from around the world over the course of the next few months.
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