Do you have a relationship with your professional organization?

What is your professional organization?  is it in technology?  Something like Ineta, PASS, ISUG, IDUG, IOUG or one of the other various technology groups that exist.  Or maybe your preferred group is more in the business side of things like ASPA,  LOMA or AICPA.  If you dont know your desired professional organization, take a second and plug in your favorite search terms + professional organization into “binoogle” and see if the results lead you to a new beginning.

Expectations

If you already know your professional organization, what do you expect of your relationship with your organization?  Is it a two way street?  Do you give as well as receive?  Would you like the relationship between you and that organization to be stronger or weaker?  Do they do enough to help you succeed, do they provide value?  Do you do what you can to enable their success?  A little overly rhetorical probably, but you get the point.

Relationships

Every professional organization (that I know of) requires many dedicated volunteers to succeed.  The more help they have the more work they can get done and thus the more value that can be provided to the members (thats you and me!!)  The relationship between members and the professional organization is certainly a two way street and both sides need to be at their best in order for either to succeed but, normally the relationship is onesided where the members gain more from the organization than the organization gains from the members, thats why there are thousands of members and hundreds of volunteers.   If your involved in an organization, do they get the help they need and use it appropriately?  Do you appreciate them?  Do they appreciate you?  is it worth it?

How can you add value to the relationship?

No matter what you do, or what your interests are I bet there exists an organization that could use your help.  Why not step up today and offer your services?  No matter what level your skills are, beginner, or Grand Jedi Master, you too can help your chosen org bring more value to its members.

This post is part of the Tsql Tuesday series