There 25 TAG societies including the newly formed TAG Corporate Development Society, and TAG Manufacturing and TAG Engineers are in the pipeline for later in 2010. No doubt this is a lot of “special interest groups,” as they were previously called. But too many? I really don’t think so, and here’s why:
First, TAG is a membership organization. Corporations have responsibilities to their shareholders; companies work to keep and expand their customer base. TAG’s charge is to add value to our members, and there are over 9,000 of them, all with a different background, interests, and goals for their professional futures. The wide variety of events is part of TAG’s appeal and has contributed to the growth, and the growth has contributed to the demand for new societies. Our membership numbers and our number of societies have grown in steady concert with one another.
Second, a large part of TAG’s mission (and the inspiration of its very conception, as it has been explained to me) is to unify while we inform – societies are a big part of how we do this. By bringing people together to discuss specific topics from a particular point of view, TAG gives people an opportunity to connect with their peers, expand their network, and advance their knowledge. The nuances of a topic are important - how the Finance Society presents funding challenges comes from a different perspective than how TAG ATDC Entrepreneurs tackles the subject, one would have to think, and certainly the audience members and the questions asked will be different.
Third, it gives people the opportunity to take on leadership positions under the TAG umbrella. Its not like there’s some secret formula to it: you pay your quarter (okay, fine, 960 quarters but it’s a great investment), you start going to meetings, you find ones that are particularly interesting and have people in the room that you want to meet, you get to know the people behind the meetings, you express interest in becoming a board member and show you can add value, you become a TAG society board member. I took a similar approach when I took a telecom job in Atlanta and didn’t know anyone in Atlanta’s telecom industry. Three years later I was standing on the stage in a ballroom as the incoming President of the Atlanta Telecom Professionals (now the Association of Telecom Professionals, a great organization and a TAG affiliate – more about these below) introducing Ralph de la Vega as the Atlanta Telecom Professional of the Year. Sure, I printed a zillion name badges along the way, but I never doubted it would prove to be time well spent, and not the least reason being that some of the board members I served with are still great friends and valued colleagues.
Fourth, the society meetings keep the staff connected to the membership, and this is important (see point one.) My previous position at TAG was as Director of Community and Information Resources. I had two main projects each year – the State of the Industry: Technology in Georgia Report and the GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition. Both are big projects, with a lot of moving parts that have to be managed. It would have been all too easy to become camped out at my desk, but my responsibilities to the societies I covered (these are dispersed throughout the staff) required me to interact with the members.
A couple additional points. Societies don’t just happen - most of the time they take almost a full year to form. The process, in its simplest terms, is:
- Recognize the need
- Develop a business plan: mission, vision, goals
- Create a following: others able to assist in development of group and participants
- Select Board of Directors
- Plan the Calendar – topics, speakers, sponsors
- Drive continuous, leading information
- Provide an avenue for networking and “best-practice” knowledge share
And it’s not like TAG has a graveyard of dead societies, so I’d say there have been some pretty good calculations made on what would make a good addition, and which ones are sustainable. Also, we don’t typically start societies if there is something like it in the community already. A great example is telecom – TAG doesn’t have a telecom society. Instead, TAG formed affiliations with both the Atlanta Telecom Professionals (now the Association of Telecom Professionals) and the Wireless Technology Forum, both groups who were already doing great things in the space. TAG has seven such affiliate groups (including TiE, Gwinnett Technology Forum, Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, PMI, the MIT Enterprise Forum Atlanta, and the IT Service Management Forum, and also now hold the Georgia charter for TechAmerica and also partners with ATDC on several initiatives), and as a result TAG members get into their respective events at the same price the groups charge their own members (see point one), and the affiliate groups get to display their events on TAG’s event calendar and several other negotiated benefits (discounts on tables for the Georgia Technology Summit, entry to TAG’s otherwise member-only quarterly field trips, etc.) It’s not about trying to be everything to everybody, as I have heard TAG accused of at least once. It’s about, well, see point one. :)
