One of the fastest-growing trends among organizations today, community-led growth is an approach in which members help plan a strategic initiative for an organization. That can look different depending on the association, from embarking on critical research to advance the profession or co-creating tools and resources to help peers in the field.

Community-led growth occurs organically and authentically because members feel like they have a say, hold key roles, and belong. This can significantly contribute to an association’s success by boosting engagement, member acquisition, and retention.

This trend became central to the Texas Computer Education Association, a member-based organization devoted to advancing technology in education. Five years ago, TCEA had about 30,000 members. Today, the organization serves 80,000 members worldwide, a majority of whom are part of TCEA’s vibrant online community. According to recent member surveys, the online community is one of the main reasons that people join TCEA. The connections that members make in the community help them understand that they are not alone, and that they have resources to help them solve challenges and share successes.

Launching the TCEA Community

Providing professional development and fostering a strong community are at the top of TCEA’s strategic priorities.

“All associations have strategic priorities focused on financial security or advocacy,” said Lori Gracey, TCEA’s executive director. “But TCEA also emphasizes connecting people as one of our strategic goals. Our members tell us the number one benefit of being a member is professional development and the number two benefit is belonging to a community.”

Like many associations, TCEA once used a listserv to facilitate email-based discussions. Members eagerly engaged with the listserv, but it came with drawbacks: it was highly admin intensive, couldn’t be searched, and lacked organization.

In search of a solution, TCEA decided to migrate to a more robust online community platform. It chose Forj for the platform’s user-friendly appeal and the strategic partnership provided by the Forj team.

Following a pilot and extensive testing, TCEA trained moderators, configured groups, seeded content, and unveiled the community to the membership at large. They hosted a virtual grand opening party and “ribbon cutting,” which included door prizes and a scavenger hunt.

Leveraging Distributed Leadership

Community management is only one of many responsibilities TCEA staff juggles. A distributed leadership model—where roles and responsibilities are shared among staff and members—became central to the success of TCEA’s community.

Volunteers became part of the community’s distributed leadership team. Moderators and community "experts," including board members, were provided online training and coaching to ensure that they understood the expectations of their roles and policies regarding the use of the community. They also were given guidance on engaging members in their groups, and tools like suggested prompts to use to facilitate conversations. These volunteers play a pivotal role in engaging members in their groups: sharing their expertise, curating content, organizing virtual events, and ensuring all member questions get answered.

Maintaining Momentum and Measuring Success

The most common reason TCEA members log in to the community is to ask questions.

“Our community members provide each other with a lot of technical, professional, and even emotional support,” Gracey said. “People are posting questions, responding, and sharing ideas, which prompts more discussion.”

The community’s vibrancy comes across clearly through the engagement on the platform. Members have fun with things like “What’s up Wednesday,” a question-of-the-day hosted by TCEA’s membership director. They share ideas, exchange recipes, argue over favorite apps, and build community.

Still, every online community comes with challenges in maintaining the engagement necessary for ongoing growth. TCEA has maintained momentum by implementing automated community onboarding. On the day a new member joins TCEA, they receive their community login information and a drip campaign begins to help them quickly become active participants.

At TCEA, the membership team digs into data to determine how to maintain and boost engagement. They look at top contributors, hot topics, common questions, and downloads of popular content.

“The team is constantly bringing those pieces of data to me to say this is what our members are talking about,” Gracey said. “We then add new webinars or blog posts on those things that are important to our members, keeping them current and meeting their needs.”

Lessons Learned

TCEA has learned a lot about how to build a community that engages and empowers members. Two of their biggest takeaways have been the importance of process and the need for executive engagement.

TCEA discovered it was critical to create a process to determine when new groups should be built. In the beginning, they had groups for every job role and interest area, such as robotics or AI, leading to 80-90 groups. Over time, they sunset some and combined others. Now, they take a deliberate approach to evaluating new group creation to maintain ease and drive value in the community.

TCEA found that the best way to ignite member engagement in the community was to lead by example. Lori said, “Your executive director or CEO needs to be in the community. They need to hear what members are saying.”