AITP Chapters: Who are we?

By Russ Finney
1999 Austin Chapter President

February 1999

Do you remember the first time you visited an AITP meeting? It may have been on your own initiative, or it may have been as the guest of someone else. At that first meeting you made many judgments about the chapter. You may have asked yourself: Is the meeting professionally run? Is the speaker interesting? Is the event well attended? Is the cost reasonable?

Probably, the most important question you asked yourself was:

Who really are these people?

I believe that we are not answering these questions clearly for many of our chapter's visitors. Worst of all, the answer can be different depending on which city's chapter you are visiting. To me, this is a huge problem for our chapters locally, as well our image nationally.

I have concluded that as an Association, we seem to have lost sight of the real power a consistent image can bring to our local chapters. We must work to better articulate who we really are.

In some cities, our smaller chapters feel they must compete with the other technology associations within their city. So the chapter leaders look for a technology "hole" and try to fill it. No DBA group? Let's have AITP be the DBA group. No AS-400 group? Let's have AITP be the AS-400 group. No Networking Group? We can be the Networking group.

Sadly, in each case, the chapter size stays small, and the chapter resembles a special interest "computer club". This is a huge opportunity being wasted by the local chapters of our Association.

Just take a moment to review our current AITP Vision Statement:

AITP will be recognized as the professional organization of choice among Information Technology professionals by providing industry leadership and opportunities for professional development and personal growth.

I strongly agree with this statement. But where the confusion seems to arise is in the definition of: Who really are IT professionals?

Are they employees of corporate IT departments? Are they IS folks working in small to medium businesses? Are they consultants? Are they hardware and software vendor representatives? Are they educators? Are they IS service providers? Are they the people who work with mainframes, or are they the people who work with PCs?

Some of our chapters try to "categorize" their target membership into just a few of these groupings. Once again - this is a huge mistake.

AITP is very lucky, our membership has survived a technology association "shake out" over the last ten years which has left only a few key associations remaining. But is our Association still really relevant?

This is another key question our chapter visitors are asking. We can be, but we have to change some fundamental ways in which we view ourselves.

Creating a "Technology Community"

I believe that for AITP chapters to once again become important and relevant organizations within their respective cities, today's current chapter leaders must redefine "who we are", and they must do this quickly. Then they must communicate this clear image at every opportunity.

Who we are:

We are the central meeting point for our city's technology community.

We don't compete with the other specialized technology organizations, we form an umbrella over them. We are the total collection of IT professionals within a geographic area. This includes IT departmental employees, key vendor representatives, top educators, and local consulting firms. If you are involved in technology, your city's AITP chapter is the place "to see and to be seen".

We showcase the very best technology speakers, executives, and innovators in our area - and we do it consistently every month. We provide a "neutral setting" for executives, professionals, and vendors to see each other and to benefit from these informal relationships. We support the educational endeavors of our local universities and technology institutions. We recognize excellence through awards programs. We organize or associate ourselves with local IT seminars and conferences.

We reach out and bring together our city's local technology community like no other association can.

Who are we?

We ARE the Technology Community for our respective cities.

Make sure that your membership understands this. Make sure that your guest sense it. Make sure that your chapter leaders believe it.

Without this simple fundamental in place - the many ideas I plan to share with you over the next year will never really get the traction they need. I'm going to challenge you to go out and pull together your local technology community - and I'm going to give you the tools you need to do it. But first, you have to actually see your chapter fulfilling this "Technology Community" role for your city.

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Please share your thoughts and comments regarding this feature. You can do so by posting to our AITP Members Forum or by writing me at webadmin@itmweb.com.

Copyright © 1999, Russ Finney, All Rights Reserved. Originally written for The Information Executive.