Could we create the first "Pure Online" association here on Banktastic?

I think it’s definitely possible to create an online association. We have been looking for ways to do groups in a intuitive way that will allow for you create these subsets of Banktastic sites that provide even more niche content to their particular groups interest.

The major issues of associations is someone managing them and keeping up with members, dues, conferences, etc. What I’d really like to see is the first online association that is managed by its members exclusively. Decentralize the whole thing and let the association organically grow in the ways the group desires.

In my previous job in higher education, I belonged to an email list for higher ed web professionals, and it was insanely valuable even w/out being an official “association.” This last year of working in a CU I’ve been craving something similar. Web “people” get stuck in either IT and marketing, when our professional needs tend to overlap both groups, and we are new enough as a profession that there aren’t a whole lot of long-standing groups.

Your right on with this…I really like the idea of cross CU and bank ideas. I’ve been recently been sending the Banktastic.com site to my bank CIO friends to get this going. Don’t know many CU CIO….

Yeah..for those of us that remember…There was a DPMA “Data Processing Manager’s Association”...BTW…That was before email…Not sure what happened to them….

Pass the word along…I like this idea

I think there’s a lot of merit to the idea. It will need some structure – a loose organization of conversational threads, perhaps, or ‘topic of the day’ discussion rooms – sort of virtual meetings of the group … a couple of pennies thought for now.

I think Brad has it right in that an online association driven by its members without the overhead of true membership administrative tasks (dues, etc) is the wave of the future. Then true member associations can tap into the organic groups as needed provided there are no ‘opt out’ rules in place by the user.

Well, after several months of feedback on this idea. I think JP hit the nail on the head with the need for structure, “tip of the day”, etc. My only problem with the whole concept is I think there needs to be an “Owner”. I don’t know about you but I don’t know the bloggers find time to keep things going.

There may be a new career for someone to take on online associations “community managership”. I have not figured out a way to get them paid but a focused group should be VERY attractive to niche advertisers. Then again, maybe it should be someone like ICBA or ABA for bankers.