Members are still paying dues, registering for the annual conference, and showing up in your online community. But somewhere between last year’s conference and today, many of them joined a Slack group for industry professionals, started attending monthly peer calls there, and now get most of their best ideas from people they met in that community, not yours.
They’ll probably renew again this year even though your association is no longer where they get charged up professionally. Members stay on your roster out of loyalty, habit, or the expectations of employers, clients, or peers. Meanwhile, they’re doing their real growing, learning, and relationship-building somewhere else.
Online courses are one of the most effective tools your association has for staying in your members’ professional lives.
The Real Association Membership Risk: Present But Checked Out
Ed Rigsbee, CAE, described this “influence loss” in a recent LinkedIn post. He says you should worry about the members who renew while getting their professional development, peer advice, and industry intelligence from communities operating outside your association.
Those communities are everywhere now. In our industry, Professionals for Association Revenue (PAR) built a thriving membership organization specifically for association professionals who want to sharpen their business development skills. Association Women Technology Champions (AWTC) created a peer community for women in the association technology space. Association Latinos has built one for Latino professionals in the field. Across industries, professionals are finding their people in LinkedIn groups, informal communities, Slack channels, and mastermind cohorts.
These aren’t rivals trying to poach your members. They’re filling gaps your association left open. A member who knows more people in a 200-person Slack group than in their own 10,000-member association didn’t go looking for an alternative. They went looking for connection and found it.
What Informal Communities Do Well and Where They Fall Short for Members
Informal communities are agile, low-friction, and peer-driven in ways that associations often aren’t. Someone posts a question about a difficult sponsor situation and gets three useful replies within the hour.
What these communities can’t do is credential what you learn there. A peer forum tells you what others have tried. A well-designed course shows you why something works and walks you through how to do it yourself. Association courses feature expert instructional design, sequenced content, and material vetted by subject matter experts (SMEs)—the kind of structure a group chat thread can’t offer. And when the member completes the course, they have something to show for it.
A newer professional might pick up a handful of useful tactics in a Discord channel but has no way to document any of it for their performance review or their upcoming credential renewal. Stackable credentials, certificates, and CEU documentation require structured learning programs. Your association is positioned to build those. Informal communities aren’t.
What Online Courses for Associations Offer That Informal Communities Can’t
In addition to serving as a revenue line and membership benefit, your course portfolio is an influence asset. It’s how your association stays present in your members’ careers.
Well-designed online courses do three things that informal communities can’t.
Keep Your Association in the Member’s Career Trajectory
Credentials and learning pathways tie your organization to the member’s career. When a member earns a credential through your association, your name appears on their résumé, LinkedIn profile, and employer’s training records.
Give Members Reasons to Return to Your Course Portfolio All Year
An annual conference only happens once a year. A course-based learning portfolio gives members reasons to return to your learning platform throughout the year. They come back to complete a course, pursue a microcredential, or learn about the next program on their learning pathway.
Establish the Kind of Authority That Informal Communities Can’t Match
A well-designed course draws on vetted SME content, your organization’s research, and instructional design that turns information into skills. That’s a more influential product than a group thread or one-off webinar.
A construction industry association redesigned its project management certificate so each module addressed a stage in the project lifecycle, such as estimating or subcontractor coordination. Enrollment and course completions went up because members were learning skills they’d used right away on the job.
Online Course Strategies That Strengthen Association Influence
Design Courses Around Career Problems, Not Topics
When a member gets promoted into their first supervisory role, they’re looking for help with a specific situation they’ve never handled before, like the first performance review or the first time they have to tell former peers what to do. Courses built around those career moments appeal to members when they’re most motivated to learn.
Make Credentials Employer-Relevant
Credentials and digital badges displayed on LinkedIn or shared with employers put your association in front of the managers and colleagues who matter to that member’s career. Credentials carry the most weight when employers have a hand in shaping them. Getting employer input on content and competency frameworks makes your programs more relevant and valued.
Go Deeper Than Informal Communities
PAR and AWTC are thriving because association professionals want peer learning, business development and technology skills, and community they can access outside the annual conference. There’s often room for both an informal community and an association course to serve the same audience. When members talk through a problem in a Slack channel, they’re often identifying exactly what they need to learn next. A course that picks up where that conversation leaves off gives them a reason to come to your association for the next step.
Add Cohort-Based Learning to Your Portfolio
Informal communities are sticky because of the peer dynamic. Members are learning alongside people who are working through the same challenges at the same time. Associations can offer cohorts too, in a structured format with expert facilitation, designed outcomes, and credentials waiting at the end.
Cohort programs don’t have to replace self-paced courses. They expand what your learning portfolio can do. A member who finishes a cohort program has built expertise and relationships. Your association gets credit for one of the most meaningful professional experiences of their year.
The member doing their best professional growing inside a Slack group isn’t disloyal. They’re resourceful. They found what they needed in a place their association wasn’t showing up. But that community can’t give them a structured learning experience designed by people who know their field, a credential their employer recognizes, a pathway that connects where they are now to where they want to go, and peers working through the same material at the same time. A well-designed online learning program gets members to think of your association as the place where their careers are built.
Apti designs online courses that give association members reasons to stay engaged: structured learning, credentials they can use, and pathways connected to where they want to go professionally. If your online education portfolio needs a boost, let’s talk.