Member Directory, Job Board and Events for Your Association Website

Most associations run on a spreadsheet of members, a newsletter and one conference a year. This film follows Amina, a researcher, through a week in an association that works as a living network on its own website.

Transcript

This is Amina. She is a researcher, and a member of her professional association. For years, that meant a newsletter and one conference a year. Now it is somewhere she goes every week. The member list lives in a spreadsheet. News goes out in a newsletter nobody replies to. The jobs page is always a month out of date. And the members meet once a year, if they can travel. People pay their dues and barely hear from each other. Here is the same association as a living network. It starts with the directory. Every member has a profile: what they do, where they are, and how to reach them. She can filter by type, sort by who joined last, or see who is online right now. Amina looks for people who work with data, and asks to connect with one click. The other member gets a notification, and accepts when it suits them. Conversations that used to wait for the conference happen in her inbox. Her own profile carries her work, her badges, and everything she has contributed. Members hire each other. The job board belongs to the association, so every role comes from someone in the network. Filters for type, level and location make a long list short. Each listing says who is hiring, what it pays, and when it closes. Each company has its own page, so she knows who she would be working for. Amina saves a role that fits. Applying takes the profile she already has, not another form. The yearly conference is now one date among many. Breakfasts, workshops and meetups, each with its own registration. Amina takes a seat at the Founders Breakfast, Her ticket is saved to her account, with a code for the door. and she can see who else from the network will be in the room. Questions that used to land on one overworked secretary now go to the whole membership. Each space has a purpose: questions in one, ideas in another, announcements where they will not be buried. Answers are marked, so the next member finds them without asking again. And the business directory lists member firms, with photos, details and reviews. A member can claim the page for their own firm and keep it up to date. Dues are handled here too. Members pick a level and pay on the association's own site. A free level to start, and a paid level with more. Behind it, the association decides what each level includes. The member list is always current, because it is the same list people log in with. Welcome emails and announcements go out from the same place. And the board can see, in numbers, whether the network is alive. Amina still goes to the conference. This week she found a collaborator in the directory, a seat at the breakfast, and a role worth applying for. But she no longer waits a year to hear from her peers. The association is somewhere she belongs every week. The directory, the job board, the events and the forums, built by one team to work as one network. On WordPress. On your site. See it live. The demo is one click away. BuddyNext. Your community, finally your own.