Preet Bassi, CAE, CEO of the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE), jokingly says she has a precise technical term for association members’ current environment: “nutso.” “The political tenor of discussion, the rejection of expertise, has trickled down from federal government to local government,” she says. “There’s so much more scrutiny on our members. Many members, their departments are seeing leadership transitions that are entirely political.” Like a lot of associatio

Associations have long played a distinct role in professional life: bringing people together to share knowledge, set standards, and advance their fields. That role remains essential, but the way members discover, evaluate, and engage with associations is evolving rapidly As digital-first, on-demand, and AI-influenced experiences shape professional behavior everywhere else, associations are being measured against a broader set of experiences—not just other associations. Resear

Around the world, CEOs are skeptical about what the next year will bring. Associations have an opportunity to support them. The bears are stirring. That seems to be the main takeaway from the latest edition of PwC’s latest Global CEO Survey. The release of the survey is usually timed to the Davos Global Economic Forum, which most years is a staid gathering of world leaders. This year, though, the mood was more, er, fraught, and that geopolitical anxiety is reflected in the su

U.S. trade policy has fundamentally and perhaps permanently reordered Africa's export landscape. The Liberation Day tariffs of April 2025, the effective collapse of AGOA preferences, and the subsequent Section 122 global surcharge have combined to cut African exports to the United States by 32%, threaten an estimated 1.3 million jobs, and drain foreign direct investment by 42% in the first half of 2025 alone. For Africa's most export-dependent industries — textiles in Lesotho