Membership Isn’t Declining - Relevance Is

When people tell me their “membership is declining” what they usually mean is: people are hesitating to commit - and we don’t like what that might say about us. 

Fair enough. No one enjoys watching a once-loyal base become a bit … non-committal.

But the truth is that membership doesn’t decline first. Relevance does. And when relevance slips, membership follows - quietly at first, then all at once.

Membership Myths We Need to Retire

There are the old stories we tell ourselves in associations to make ourselves feel better about poor membership performance:

• “The market is changing - the drop membership is probably just part of that.”
• “People just don’t join organisations like they used to.”
• “Younger professionals don’t see the value in membership the way earlier generations did.”
• “With cost-of-living pressures, membership is one of the first things people cut.”
• “There are so many alternatives now - people can get similar value elsewhere without joining.”

Sometimes those are real factors. But they are rarely the main factor.

Because when an association is deeply relevant - when it reduces risk, increases capability, provides identity, and gives people a place to belong - people still join. 

They find the budget. 

They find the time. 

They find the reason.

So, if membership is wobbling, the better question isn’t “how do we market harder?” It’s where have we become less essential?”

What Relevance Actually Means 

Relevance is not “being liked”. It’s not “being visible”. It’s not “running lots of activities”. Relevance is when a member looks at your organisation and thinks:

• “My membership makes my job easier and keeps me current.”
• “My membership protects my credibility and reduces my risk.”
• “My membership gives me access I can’t get elsewhere.”
• “My membership helps me influence the legislative environment I work in."
• “My membership helps me connect with my people and my professional community.”

It’s when the association helps members do something they can’t do alone - or can’t do as well alone. That’s the bar now. And it is much higher than it used to be.

The Five Ways Associations Lose Relevance

Relevance doesn’t usually collapse. It erodes - in sensible-looking decisions made over time. Here are five patterns I see again and again.

1. The “Museum Effect” - You keep doing things because they used to matter. Programs, structures, benefits, even language - preserved like artefacts. Meanwhile the profession has moved on, and your value is being experienced as historical, not helpful.
2. The “Menu Problem” - You offer lots of things, but none of them feel essential. A long list of benefits can read like clutter when members are overwhelmed. Choice isn’t value. Clarity is.
3. The “Internal Comfort Trap”- You build value around what’s easiest to deliver, not what’s most needed. Associations are brilliantly capable of staying busy. The risk is becoming busy in ways that mainly serve internal rhythms - not member outcomes.
4. The “Identity Drift” - You can’t clearly answer: who are we for and what are we here to change?. It's when your identity becomes broad to please everyone, it becomes meaningful to no one and your value proposition sounds like it could belong to any association. Relevance loves focus.
5. The “Transactional Relationships” Problem - Your members don’t feel a sense of belonging - they feel like customers. The relationship is defined by what they can get, not who they are part of. And when value is framed purely as a transaction, loyalty is fragile. They have no reason to stay when another option looks cheaper, faster, or easier.

Relevance Is Built - Not Announced

You can’t reword your way back to relevance. You have to deliver your way back. Relevance is built through what members experience consistently:

• Do you remove friction, or add it?
• Do you guide decisions, or leave people guessing?
• Do you create confidence, or create noise?
• Do you protect standards, or simply talk about them?
• Do you help members act with confidence, or just give them more information?
• Do you anticipate what’s coming, or only respond once it’s already here?
• Do you design for member outcomes, or organise around internal convenience?
• Do you build real connection, or just host events?

The associations winning right now aren’t necessarily bigger. They’re clearer. And they deliver that clarity through action.

What This Looks Like in Practice 

Whether you’re shaping strategy, leading a team, or influencing how value is created day to day, there are a few high-leverage moves that don’t require a 12-month reinvention project.

1. Decide what you want to be famous for - Not “we do lots of things”. More like: “We are the authority on X.” “We raise the standard for Y.” “We protect the sector by doing Z.” If your leadership team can’t say this in one sentence, relevance will always be fragile.
2. Make value feel obvious within 30 days - New members shouldn’t need six months to figure out why they joined. A strong onboarding sequence does more for retention than most marketing campaigns.
   
3. Stop measuring activity - measure outcomes - “Number of webinars” is not a member outcome. “Members report improved confidence in…” is. Pick 3-5 outcomes you want members to experience, and build everything around them.
4. Audit your benefits like a ruthless minimalist - Keep what is distinctive. Improve what is essential. Retire what is nostalgic. Every “nice to have” creates noise that hides what truly matters. What you take away can have as much impact as what you keep.
5. Build belonging on something real - Belonging isn’t created by “networking opportunities”. It’s created by shared identity, shared standards, shared language, and shared progress. Give members something solid to gather around.

Effective Communication Matters

Even with all these strategies, relevance still has to be seen. Many associations do genuinely valuable work - but members don’t experience it because it’s poorly translated, inconsistently communicated, or buried in channels people don’t use.

If members don’t understand what you do, why it matters, or how it helps them, relevance can’t land - no matter how real it is. But communication isn’t the fix for irrelevance. It’s the multiplier for relevance that already exists.

To maximise relevance to members you need to both do work that matters, and communicate it in ways that make that work obvious, timely, and human.

A Question to Consider

If your association disappeared tomorrow, would members feel inconvenienced … or genuinely disadvantaged? That gap is the relevance gap. 

And closing it is the real membership strategy.

About the Author

Belinda Moore works with associations to help them navigate change, strengthen member value, and build sustainable futures. With decades of experience advising boards and executives, she blends strategic insight with practical action. If this article sparked a question or an idea, join the conversation in the comments, connect with her on LinkedIn, or email [email protected]. And if you found it valuable, please share it with someone who might benefit.