In this episode of Associations NOW Presents, guest host Lori Zoss Kraska, founder and CEO of Growth Owl, sits down with Brian Miller, vice president of strategic partnership at Multiview, Kimberly Tuttle, executive director of the American Institute of Architecture Students, and Gilberto Lozada Baez, AIAS board vice president, to explore new research on how students perceive associations. The conversation highlights key opportunities for associations to build stronger connections with young professionals—through targeted social media, mentorship, and small-scale in-person events. They also discuss the importance of digital fluency, university partnerships, and creating meaningful volunteer roles to foster long-term engagement and a true sense of belonging.

Check out the video podcast here:

https://youtu.be/HLTuvHAxkd4

This episode is sponsored by Multiview.

Associations NOW Presents is produced by Association Briefings.

Transcript

[00:00:00 ] Lori Zoss Kraska: Welcome to episode 12 of Associations NOW Presents, an original podcast series from the American Society of Association Executives. I'm Lori Zoss Kraska, founder and CEO of GrowthOwl, LLC, a consultancy that empowers associations with the best practices they need to connect with Fortune 1000 companies and other large organizations for corporate sponsorship, partnership and philanthropic funding.

You also might know me as the author of The Boardroom Playbook, a Not So Ordinary Guide to Corporate Funding for Your Purpose-Driven Organization and host of my own monthly LinkedIn Live that features both association and non-endemic thought leaders who provide insight in new ways of thinking in the area of sponsorship and non-dues revenue.

You can find out more at thegrowthowl.com. But hey, enough about me. Let's take a moment to thank our episode sponsor Multiview today. We're excited to welcome Brian Miller, vice president of strategic partnerships with Multiview. [00:01:00 ] Also joining us today is Kimberly Tuttle, executive director of the American Institute of Architecture Students, also known as AIAS.

And Gilberto Lozada Baez, AIAS Board Vice President. They're all here to discuss key findings from new research on student perceptions of associations and how we can better engage the next generation of members. Welcome everybody to the podcast. Let's start with you, Brian. 

What influenced your team to look into this topic? 

[00:01:31 ] Brian Miller: Great question. Well, we always look for ways to help our associations improve their competitive advantage within their organization and any insights that we can provide along the way. It's very interesting for us 'cause we have roughly 850 association partners that span. 30 different industry verticals. Obviously it's a mixture between trade associations and professional societies and professional associations. So when we look at the professional societies, that's really what [00:02:00 ] we're talking about today with this topic. We conducted some research and we looking at years old problem of how do you. Engage the next generation of members, particularly in professional societies. So that's really why we commissioned this report in the first place. The other thing that was really interesting that when you look at the landscape is this is the first time we've got five generations working in the workforce, right?

You've got the traditionalists, you've got the baby boomers, you've got of course Gen X, and then you have millennials and Gen Z, and. From what we understand is this is the largest graduating class as well in, in foreseeable history that we look back at. So it's really important when you look at the.

Really important message of how do the associations look for that next generational member? How do they find them? How do they keep them throughout their professional career and their journey as members of the association? So that's really the main reason we wanted to, to talk about this topic today and really understand the importance of content and [00:03:00 ] education when it comes to looking at those different member segments.

And as we continue to talk. In this discussion, we're gonna find that young professionals, students, recent grads, and particularly early in their career, they have different needs, right? From a membership perspective, it's really important to understand this segment and how as an association you engage with those younger members and be able to offer them what they need and what they're looking for in an association.

So that's really the main reason why we did all of this. 

[00:03:29 ] Lori Zoss Kraska: That's great, and I want to delve in a bit more, Brian, into the research. A sizable amount of this next generation, based on what you found knows about associations, but only about a quarter, really understand the benefits. What do you think causes this gap and how do associations go about closing that?

[00:03:47 ] Brian Miller: I think the biggest thing is the networking aspect. You look at the younger generation, young professionals, they've grown up in this digital environment and they've really made a lot of their connections and their networking through all of their other [00:04:00 ] social engagements. They are familiar with associations.

We found that through that research, 85% of them are familiar with associations and what they do in respective industries and professions. But really it's looking at the value of that association for them when you're looking at what their needs are. Specifically, they're looking at career placement. They're looking at jobs. How do you help me create resumes? How do you help me create strategies for looking for jobs and all of that, how to interview, things like that. So they're really looking for those kind of things. And so that was really one of the drivers that we found in terms of that gap between.

Being aware of the association, but understanding the value that associations provide. I think they understand that. Obviously associations represent those key things that they do, right? They're out there to promote their industry or their profession. They're out there to educate that industry or profession, and then they're out there to advocate on behalf of that industry, or that profession. They learn that through job fairs, through what they learn for in their coursework and their [00:05:00 ] universities. But it's really about the associations taking the understanding that what their young professionals are looking for is career assistance, job placement. Skills training. Those are the key things that we found that they're really the hot buttons for them.

So from an association perspective, to increase that value gap, that's really the areas that we need to make sure that they're focused on, is looking for ways that they can really engage those young professionals through those skills training, through helping them with their. Careers and through helping them with interviews and job placements and things like that.

So that's really where the gap that we saw. But the good news is though, this is a great opportunity for the associations to really become the driver of this. This gap is very fixable and it's very. Easily done by the associations to look at their member segments and understand that they each have different values along the way and what the value is for them by being an association member.

And then long term, obviously that's gonna create a membership journey. [00:06:00 ] So if you can engage those young professionals, meet them where they are, be able to fulfill their needs, and that's gonna make for a better member as they progress in their careers, and then obviously things are gonna become more important to them going forward.

And it's the things that we talked about, the advocacy that the association does, the education that they provide, and well as being able to engage the different generations. When we talked about those five generations as well, and I'll just leave it with this. This is a perfect example of why associations need to look at not just a one fits all membership strategy, right?

You really need to understand those different segments that are represented within your membership and then create different value propositions along the way. So hopefully this will help engage them where they are, and then as they progress in their journey, the association's gonna provide additional value and more long-term value going forward.

[00:06:51 ] Lori Zoss Kraska: I love that you said that it's really the association's responsibility to empower themselves to realize that they need to meet [00:07:00 ] students and younger folks where they are. I think that's so important because maybe a different mentality in the past would've been, it's really up to the student or up to the young professional to research us.

For them to figure out what the value is and no, we have to turn this around. I love that really, that you've not only talked about that, but your research coincides with that. So I think that's excellent. Excellent. You know, Gilberto, I wanna throw it over to you. You're a former student at the University of Monterey and now a young professional and board member, so congratulations on all your achievements thus far.

What was your impression of associations before joining AIAS? And what prompted you to want to get involved and become a member? 

[00:07:45 ] Gilberto Lozada Baez: Thank you for saying that. And let me start with the second part of your question because I think you're gonna be a lot more insightful into what I was thinking about organizations.

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