You've said that the information age will render the education and skills of many obsolete. They could find themselves being disintermediated-where the constituency no longer needs a central office. Associations need to take advantage of changes in education and educational delivery systems. They need to reform themselves with the introduction of distance learning. A few universities are doing it successfully and associations can look to them for model programs.
Associations have to know their markets.
They need to be very aware about their competitors and what they are doing. Today organizations can create virtual associations and have continual access to their members. Alumni associations are becoming quite successful at doing this. But more importantly, there has to be a change in the mind set of the organization. Top leadership has to be willing to change, because change occurs both from top down and bottom up.