Taking care of the needs of the members at a local level, whether within a city, or a country, will pay dividends at a larger level. Anyone interested in learning more about Toronto's AIP group should visit http://toronto.iabc.com/membership/aip/

Tip O'Neill, a US politician, used to say "all politics is local". I'm inclined to say "all organizations are 'local'" if they want to be at their best.

Going the local route is a tough choice to make, and a difficult path, but what are the alternatives?

1) Remain a chapter in "name" but a "European sub region of members-at-large" in practice. That's the status quo, and I can tolerate it as long as the "chapter" doesn't try to levy dues. I'd say at least half our members can now put "IABC chapter leader" on their resumés, and that's important for some folks.

2) Admit the mistake: IABC Scandinavia is entirely the product of an international chairman who needed new non-NA chapters and an overly-enthusiastic, brand-new local IABC member who thought it would be fun and easy to start a chapter. Disband the thing.

Neither option is particularly palatable. The first is a sham, and the second ignores the fact that Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish communicators are doing some pretty interesting communication work. They SHOULD have a chapter — but not a subregional orphan.

Option 3 is to recognize the impossibility of the present situation and move, over a couple of years, to correct it — if possible. Encourage local members to devise their own events, ad hoc works for me, and invite all regional members to attend. Bring in local or external speakers. But make it local, and make it relevant.

Damn near impossible? You bet. But the worst case outcome? We are back to Option 1 or Option 2, which is where we are now. Best case? Relevant local chapters spawn.

As a former chapter president, I'm going to say to you what I said to everyone who started a conversation with, "What this chapter needs to do is…". My universal response was, "that's a great idea, why don't you take the lead and make it happen?" Enough arm-chair quarterbacking! Allen, you have great ideas plus the know-how and experience. Quit preaching and DO something!

Just two comments:

1) IABC Scandinavia was set up to include three countries not because of any person's individual choice, but following a survey of members-at-large in the area who said that was their first choice.

If at some point in the future there are enough members to drive city-based chapters and that's what the members choose, then by all means, let's do that.

2) Your suggestion about maintaining the administration at the Scandinavia level and trying to make local clusters the hubs of activity is exactly what the current leadership is trying to do. But that still takes local champions to make the thing live and breathe. I think you underestimate the number of "infrastructure" issues that have to be tackled when starting a chapter and the amount of time and other resources that are necessary to put those in place. In a young chapter, it's not the ideas that are lacking, but the many hands to make the work light.

Furthermore, I seem to recall that when the chapter has organized events in other cities, rather than congratulating them for making something happen locally, you made caustic comments about how you weren't getting on the plane to go (your post of 5 April for example). That seems inconsistent with your comments here. Just how can a chapter attract new members unless it organizes these events, and where do think an army of volunteers to build the organization comes from when you only have 25 members to start? Snowball effects begin slow and then gain momentum.

2) I have never underestimated the work involved, which is why I have always said this was a bad idea. Why does no one pick up the task? Easy: IABC provides a great service on the international level, fairly good service on the European level but — on the local level — simply replicates national communication networks that are already in place. IABC simply provides zero value locally… and it would be hard pressed to do so.

3) Am I caustic about our "chapter" events? You're damned right I am. The last event "invitation" didn't even mention IABC as an international organization, made no link to http://www.iabc.com, and explained nothing — nothing — of why the event was worth attending. And the event was no more than a 30-minute talk by a communicator — not one of our members, by the way — who has told her story in the press so many times that there was nothing new to hear. So why should anyone get on a plane and spend six hours on the road for that?