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Conventional wisdom says that associations should keep a padlock on their benefits and services, reserving them for paying members, and giving nonmembers at most a taste of what the association has to offer.

It is membership according to the Costco model: no membership, no entry, no access to the goods.

Nowhere is the members-only standard more common than with association publications, which are frequently the most tangible benefits of membership, and the most valued. Typically associations resist offering controlled circulation or low-cost nonmember subscriptions for fear of weakening the value of membership.

However, the reality is that the membership value proposition is already severely weakened. In many fields, it is no longer the case, as it was 10 or 20 years ago, that members have to join an association to gain professional education, specialized information, or networking opportunities. Avenues to gain information and engage in professional networking abound, whether through for-profit publications or Web sites or through Web-based communities. In fact, many of these alternative information and networking resources are more useful and usable than those from associations, as for-profits are often more agile, customer-focused, and technology-forward than their association counterparts.

In this situation, where specialized, high-quality information flows about as freely as air and water, associations have lost much of their intrinsic value, since information is their major product. Professionals are often promiscuous in where they get information services, and they don't automatically believe that an association is the best place to get information. Most are by default skeptics with no natural affinity to their association.

Frequently, an association strives to be a "true membership organization"--one that commands loyalty through deep and resonant connection with members who believe passionately in its purpose and goals. But true membership organizations are a dying breed. With information and networking and other services so widely available, the benefits and services of associations have been largely commoditized.

In this situation, it may be a losing battle to prop up the value of membership by trying to inhibit nonmembers from gaining access to association information in journals and magazines. That is like locking the prison doors after the prisoners have escaped; the information that was once solely the province of the association is out there, like it or not.

Thus, it may make sense to offer low-cost nonmember subscriptions or qualified controlled circulation. You may be able to reach a group of people who realistically in this non-joining era will never become members, while generating more advertising revenue and reaching many more people than you would by keeping information solely in the hands of members.

The way to preserve the value of membership (and entice your nonmember subscribers into joining) is not to hoard benefits and services, but simply to write a better value proposition for today. Value will be based not so much on the content you possess but on the context you deliver--a social environment that helps members sift through the deluge of professional information they receive and find the nuggets that help them improve their professional and personal lives and perform their jobs better now.

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