This seems to have implications in content development, marketing, member/customer satisfaction, etc. Like Google Answers, it’s a matter of setting up the “engine” in which these types of things can take place – making it easier to connect people and build upon their collective wisdom and ideas.

Key findings:

• A desire to help people was their major motivation for pursuing a health care career.
• Employer fit, followed by loan forgiveness and employer size are the key considerations in job selection.
• The Internet was the most frequent means of learning about jobs, cited by 70 percent of respondents.
• Over half (58%) of respondents said they planned to return to school for an advanced degree within five years of graduation. Two fifths (42%) anticipated working at a local facility in a staff capacity, and one fifth each planned to get into education/training (22%).

One of the main creators for the site, Nancy White, has shared the story or “case study” of how the site was built and launched.

It seems like this might be a way of creating communities by providing members the tools without actually forcing it upon them or taking a top down approach. Maybe this could be a member-driven way of deciding what gets talked about and how the community evolves?

For example, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) recently held a conference in Florida. Here are all of the photos submitted by individual attendees that have been tagged with “womma.”

Would there be a benefit to coming up with tags for our events and conferences? Lots of attendees bring their own cameras. This would allow everyone the opportunity to share their pictures in one place. Might it help build the community?

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Personnel shortages, primarily registered nurses, ranked as the second most pressing concern behind financial challenges. The percentage of CEOs citing this issue (36%) has declined, however, from 2003 when 58% did so. Of the 36% that cited personnel shortages, 85% rated registered nurses as their number one area of shortage.

The report focuses on how generations affect association membership, studying how different population groups participate (or do not) and suggests appropriate messages for reaching these groups. Additionally, the purpose of this research is to evaluate whether Generation X and Y workers truly present a serious danger for the future membership ranks of trade associations.

Among the key findings:

• There are fewer Generation Xers in the workforce than Baby Boomers, but the differences are not large when accounting for the fact the Baby Boom (1946-1964) was nearly twice as long as Generation X (1965-1975). Correcting for generation length, the working age population proportions are Baby Boomer 28% and Generation X 27%.

• The supposed behavioral difference between generations (Gen X are not joiners, etc.) is a function of age and not generation, per se. As Gen Xers move into their peak professional years, they show every indication of joinging associations at even higher rates than Baby Boomers. (This could indicate an important need to follow up with lapsed members as they move into their peak years.)

• By combining the effects of population projections and behavioral trends, the number of association members can reasonably be expected to rise over the next 10 years, from about 51 million members to about 55 million by the year 2015.

Even with positive data projections, the report recommends strategies to combat unexpected membership declines among younger and older workers. Among them:

• Younger: The question to ask for younger workers is this: What kinds of returns do younger people seek and demand in return for emmbership? Possibilities include – tangible member services, high levels of accountability to members, identifiable career advantages from membership, a sense of professional community, and opportunities to serve within associations.

• Older: The key dimensions are the retirement age and the relationship between retirement and association membership. Strategies to maintain membership include enhancing work and career satisfaction among older workers, finding semi-retirement employment options, and keeping retired workers involved in association communities.

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Among the highlights:

• More than men, women are enthusiastic online communicators, and they use email in a more robust way. Women are more likely to feel satisfied with the role email plays in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing their relationships. And women include a wider range of topics and activities in their personal emails. Men use email more than women to communicate with various kinds of organizations.

• Women are more likely to see the vast array of online information as a “glut” and to penetrate deeper into areas where they have the greatest interest, including health and religion. Women tend to treat information gathering online as a more textured and interactive process – one that includes gathering and exchanging information through support groups and personal email exchanges.

• In emailers’ working life, women are more likely than men to value the positive effects of email for improving relationships, from expanding their circle of colleagues to encouraging teamwork. Women also value email for a kind of positive, water-cooler effect, which lightens the atmosphere of office life.

• Sixty-nine percent (69%) of women have a high speed internet connection at work compared to 48% who have it at home.