Abstract
Engagement with international, national, regional, and state professional associations provides invaluable experiences for scholars at any level, and many scholars maintain several memberships throughout their careers. Each level of association offers different things to members, though, and not every association should be trying to fill the same role or to meet every need. Those interested in the future for a state association should identify what role that association fills, what it can provide, and for which audiences. State associations are best positioned to offer a high-value and low-barrier means of engagement, targeting students and junior professionals for membership and participation. Here, we consider the high-value and low-barrier version of state associations we envision and which we have worked to develop in our own state association. We relay insight about what motivates or prevents engagement from this and other disciplines. Several actionable steps can reduce barriers and increase value, encouraging engagement and sustaining these organizations into the future.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
58
Issue
1
First Page
343
Last Page
351
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Stuglin, Steve A. and Raptis, Paul R.
(2026)
"Building Value and Maintaining Engagement in State-Level Professional Associations,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 58:
No.
1, Article 20.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol58/iss1/20
Copyright
©2026 Iowa Communication Association
