Members will say that they join associations for the professional development and networking. Professional development and networking are two socially-acceptable corporate words that are actually code for:
- I want to belong
- I want to be worthy
- I want to make friends
- I want to be seen
- I don’t want to be lonely
- I want to matter
- I want to be smart
- I want to appear competent
- I want to be respected
The words themselves: professional development and networking bring to mind very different pictures than how we really mean them. When you hear professional development and networking do you think super-cooled conference rooms and sweaty handshakes? We need to be so careful with program design because the words we (and members) use sanitize the real feelings we feel and the real needs we are trying to fulfill.
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