FIDIC MEMBERSHIP
Module 2: Operationalising your member association September 2025
MODULE 2
Operationalising your member association
MODULE 2: OPERATIONALISING YOUR MEMBER ASSOCIATION
Introduction
Once you’ve done the hard work to establish your association you need to think about how you can most effectively operationalise it. This module covers some key areas that are relevant to the successful oeprations of most of FIDIC’s member associations, whether that is in relation to their business operations (like their fee models) or their service to members (like advocacy).
The module covers:
Establishing a member fee basis
Recruiting members
Financial planning and budgeting
Leveraging and managing volunteers/committees
Effective advocacy
Setting up and running an in-person event / seminar
Setting up and running an online event / webinar / seminar
Member engagement and communicating with members
Legal risk of claims and mitigations
If you have any questions about this module and how to implement it in your region, please get in touch with FIDIC at: memberservices@fidic.org
Leveraging and Managing Volunteers & Committees
This guidance note serves as a best-practice guide on leveraging and managing volunteers and committees. It should help new, developing and mature FIDIC Member Associations (MAs). It is focused on volunteers and committees from the MA’s membership (as distinct from volunteers for business operations of the MA) and is intended primarily for volunteer Board members, Chief Executives and staff who support the advocacy work of the MA.
Most of FIDIC’s MAs are small with limited resources. Leaning on members to support the work of the MA through their volunteer time is critical to the MA’s success. Volunteers bring diverse perspectives and expertise, which can help identify and address specific challenges your MA is facing, such as to develop advocacy positions or inform the development of different programmes that are aimed at helping support the wider membership. Volunteers also help foster collaboration among your members and member buy-in to your MA’s work, which can enhance the overall effectiveness of your MA, the value members get from your MA and create greater impact from your initiatives.
Have a strategy or reason for any volunteer groups or committees
Your members can make a significant contribution to your MA through volunteer committees (and similar groups). Your members’ time is precious, and it is best practice to have a strategy/reason for bringing a group of members together to ensure the best use of your and their time. For example:
• Business size – large businesses and small businesses can have differing needs. Therefore, you might find it useful to have different groups based on business size to discuss business challenges and strategic advocacy. For example, some MAs will have a large firm forum, a small business forum, a sole trader forum, allowing your members of similar sizes to come together to share issues relevant to them.
• Geography – where sub-national regions (including states and provinces) are governed differently or separately from the national government, geography-based committees could assist your MA in tackling geographically specific issues.
• Sectors – consulting engineers work across a wide range of sectors (e.g. defence, transport, buildings, energy, water etc) and where those sectors are not managed by one central agency, your MA could find sectoral committees useful in developing advocacy positions relevant to those sectors – these may be ad hoc committees to respond to specific issues or to develop specific programmes (such as an ad hoc working group to prepare a submission in response to a particular policy proposal) or they may be standing committees to continually input into the association’s work in a particular sector (for example, a standing transport committee or forum that addresses consulting issues relevant to transport and works to build strong relationships between members and transport client organisations).
• Business operations – within the larger consulting engineering businesses, several business operational areas are relevant to the advocacy work of MAs. For example, legal, human resources and information security. These committees can look at issues from a whole-of-nation perspective, in addition to informing your MA’s advocacy, these committees can provide valuable knowledge-sharing between businesses (where appropriate). For example, some MAs have a legal roundtable that brings together the inhouse lawyers from their member firms to escalate emerging legal and commercial issues and look at whole of sector responses to them, other such forums might include business continuity forums, diversity, equity and inclusion forums etc.
Have a clear Terms of Reference for committees
MAs that bring members together in committees should ensure there is a Terms of Reference for those committees, to provide transparency and certainty on the role of the committee as well as the role and behaviours expected of individual representatives participating.
Terms of Reference can include the following elements:
• The committee’s purpose and objective – the MA should be clear whether the committee has an executive function in the MA, or if the committee is a mechanism for member engagement.
• The committee structure – the MA should be clear on how nominations can be made to the committee, the term of participants and the expected commitment to meetings (e.g. 70% of meetings).
• Committee roles – the MA should be clear on the role of the Chair, any Vice Chair, the Secretariat etc.
• Timeframes – the MA should be clear on the frequency of meetings and timeframes for the development and sending of agendas and minutes.
The MAs Terms of Reference should be provided to all new volunteers on a committee, as well as regularly reminded.
Consider a Code of Conduct for all member volunteers
MA members are businesses that provide services in the same industry, and therefore, any member volunteer involved in any engagement of the MA must understand the role of the MA and the behaviour expected, including the need to avoid anti-competitive behaviour. A Code of Conduct is a useful document that helps individual representatives of member businesses understand their obligations concerning their behaviour and participation at MA engagements (including with stakeholders).
Behaviours that should be encouraged in a Code of Conduct:
• Promote a culture of fair and ethical behaviour.
• Promote an industry view over a self-interested view for the benefit of the individual or company.
• Respect others and the professional culture of the MA by attending meetings prepared.
MODULE 2: OPERATIONALISING YOUR MEMBER ASSOCIATION
• Be transparent by declaring any relevant interests.
• Comply with applicable laws and standards (including relevant competition laws).
It is recommended that the Code of Conduct also require participants to not only adhere to the behaviours in the Code of Conduct but also support other participants by actively encouraging compliance with the Code of Conduct and by taking rapid action to address poor, unacceptable, or inappropriate behaviours and breaches of the Code of Conduct.
The MAs Code of Conduct should be made publicly available, provided to volunteers before participation in an engagement as well as be regularly reaffirmed.
Have good meeting procedures
Having clear agendas and minutes for volunteer committees also assists in ensuring members understand the reason for the meetings. Agendas and any relevant papers should be circulates ahead of meetings – usually a week before. Decisions should be recorded and high-level minutes of discussions should be kept.
Attracting volunteers
Your members are busy and sometimes it is hard for them to find the time to volunteer. But volunteering through your association is a great way that your members can extend themselves professionally – through working to solve complex industry issues, connecting with and working with peers, and getting exposure through their work with your association.
Volunteers participate for many reasons – for example, some are drawn to networking, others to building leadership skills or gaining industry visibility. By understanding these motivations, you can assign roles more effectively and keep volunteers engaged over time and match them to committee roles and with tasks that suit their skills and desired growth areas to advance their careers. Create space for growth, learning and recognition, making sure your volunteers are receiving professional learning experiences through their volunteering with you.
Also, promote the benefits that members can experience by volunteering with you, and make sure their employers know too so that they can support their staff to volunteer with your MA. Promoting your volunteers through blogs or other exposure opportunities can also help build respect for the role of volunteering and inspire others to participate.
Succession planning for committees
Succession planning protects continuity and avoids burnout while creating space for emerging leaders. Strong leadership is sustained through thoughtful transitions—develop clear succession plans for key roles like Chair and Vice-Chair. Plan ahead, mentor early.
Thank your volunteers
Make sure you thank your volunteers. Keeping track of hours worked and a heartfelt note of thanks goes a long way to inspiring your members to support you more. You could send them a small thank you card, acknowledge their efforts at your annual general meeting, showcase their volunteering through your newsletter, LinkedIn, annual report or other communication channel, or give them a small gift where appropriate, such as a free ticket to one of your conferences or events, a donation on their behalf to an aligned foundation (for example, Engineers Without Borders), or another appropriate small gift. opposed to individual companies trying to address these same issues as individual companies.
Effective Advocacy
This guidance note serves as a best-practice guide on effective advocacy and should help new, developing and mature FIDIC Member Associations (MAs). It is intended primarily for volunteer Board members, Chief Executives and staff who support the advocacy work of the MA.
Effective advocacy needs to be focused, strategic and aligned to your purpose or objectives. Without an advocacy focus and clear priorities, MAs can find themselves chasing every minor member issue that is raised which dilutes overall impact of an MAs advocacy. Developing an advocacy strategy will help you refine your key issues and get traction with the right stakeholders, at the right time.
Having a strong advocacy strategy will also help you achieve the right balance between reactive advocacy (for example, responding to policy proposals already in motion) and proactive advocacy (for example, using thought leadership to influence decision-makers before decisions are made by proactively bringing solutions to them).
Identify your advocacy focus and priorities
To shape your advocacy focus, you should consider the following questions:
• What are the top priority issues of importance to your members?
◦ Do these issues change if I think about size of business?
◦ Which ones of these issues are aligned to our purpose and objective? Are we best placed to advocate on these issues, or are there other bodies more relevant/ more appropriate to lead the advocacy response to any of these priority issues?
◦ Are these issues aligned to our current strategy?
• Of those priority issues, where can we have the most impact? Choose the few things you can do well and that are aligned to your purpose or objective and your strategy, rather than trying to spread your voice thin over a larger range of issues.
• Considering your priority issues, who are the stakeholders you need to influence for change? Is it your members, the public, decision-makers, other stakeholders? Are your key messages different for the different stakeholder groups? What are the best communication channels or relationships you need to leverage for reaching the stakeholders you need to influence?
• Considering your priority issues, who are the stakeholders that could help your influence for change, for example, other associations with a similar advocacy focus?
Communicate your advocacy focus and priorities to members
While an MA may not want to share its complete advocacy strategy with the membership, it is worth developing a summary document for members that explains your core advocacy focus and priorities, your key messages for these focus and priority areas, and how you are seeking to influence for change. This will help temper the risk of members bringing all manner of issues to the MA for advocacy. Explaining what you are not doing is often as important as explaining your advocacy priorities.
Communicating your key messages to your members also means that your members can get to know your key messages and become your champions reinforcing your strategy within their spheres of influence. The most powerful advocacy is where decision-makers or other relevant stakeholders are hearing the same messages – regularly and consistently – from many different people or groups.
Some of FIDIC’s MAs have pages on their websites dedicated to sharing their key advocacy messages and activities – this is a good way for your members to engage with your work.
EXAMPLES
• Consult Australia’s advocacy page on its website, summarising their member led, solutions focussed advocacy campaigns and wins.
• ACE New Zealand’s advocacy page on its website, summarising their priority advocacy areas, key messages and key activities.
• ACEC Canada’s dedicated website supporting their advocacy into the 2025 snap federal elections, outlining their campaign for elected officials to invest in growth.
• ACEC US’s advocacy page on its website and, as an example of a specific initiative, ACEC US’s Qualifications-Based Section (QBS) Resource Center for members and state organizations to use when talking with government leaders.
Develop an advocacy strategy
Once you have identified your advocacy focus, priorities, audience and key messages, you are ready to develop your strategy. Your strategy is about identifying your goal and key messages for your priority areas, setting out what action you will take and when, and identifying who you will work with to drive impact and change in those priority areas.
An effective advocacy strategy is a critical tool for a MA seeking to shape the policy environment in which its members operate. It should be built on an understanding of the political and policy landscape, reflect your broader strategic goals, and deploy the right mix of tactics to influence change.
The following considerations can support you in designing a strong advocacy strategy whether for a single issue, or across a raft of issues.
Understand the policy environment and stakeholders
An advocacy strategy should map the relevant policy landscape and identify the full range of stakeholders:
• Who are the key decision-makers (Ministers, advisors, agencies)?
• Who are potential partners or allies (industry associations, thought leaders)?
• What are the political, regulatory, and economic trends influencing policy?
This mapping helps position the association to proactively influence change, rather than simply react to it. Influencing government is much easier if you can align your key messages as solutions to their problems – understand what you want from the people you are trying to influence and find the common ground.
Articulate a clear and focused advocacy goal
A strong advocacy strategy starts with clarity of purpose:
• What policy change or outcome are we seeking?
• Is the goal achievable within the current political and budgetary context?
• Are we best placed to lead this advocacy, or should we collaborate?
This focus helps align activity with impact and avoids dissipating effort across too many fronts.
Try to be solutions-focussed. For example, for influencing your government, many politicians would say that the worst part of their day as a politician is when they must meet with people who want to complain. Politicians want solutions. So, your key messages to the government need to be solutions-focussed, and they need to focus on the outcomes the government is seeking.
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Develop a compelling message
Once you know what your goal is, you should develop your key messages for each of your priority advocacy issues. Keep these concise and clear. Messaging must be:
• Evidence-based, but also emotionally resonant.
• Framed in terms of benefits to the broader public or government priorities (e.g. economic growth, productivity, or equity).
• Tailored to different audiences and able to counter competing arguments.
Associations should anticipate and plan for the political, economic and policy barriers that could impede adoption of their recommendations.
Emotionally resonant messaging can be particularly powerful for influencing the public. Evidence-based advocacy, on the other hand, can be the most effective for influencing decision-makers.. If you don’t have evidence, think about how you can get it:
• Will surveying your members help you get data to support your position?
• Should you partner with someone to get data, for example, an economist or a research institution to get either the quantitative or qualitative data you need?
• What stories can your members share?
Another thing to keep in mind when you are developing your key messages is that you want to have a voice that stands out from the crowd. You need a unique perspective. For example, many associations advocating or other commentators will take a negative approach to their messaging. If you do the same, you’ll get lost in the noise. Think about how you can tell a different story, using messaging that aligns with the professional acumen of your members. Can you use your key messages to make a clear statement about the issue your advocating on while also using it as an opportunity to shine a light on the valuable work our members do and the opportunities for government and the private sector to work together to tackle big challenges together ?
Select the right tactics
Effective advocacy often requires a combination of approaches:
• Proactive policy development: thought leadership that establishes the association’s expertise and generates new ideas. Use evidence to back up your position.
• Responsive submissions: participating in public consultations to maintain credibility and open dialogue.
• Direct engagement: meetings with government and opposition politicians, departmental officials, and regulators.
• Public campaigning: where appropriate, using media to build public pressure or reinforce the message. The strategy should match tactics to goals, recognising that not every issue needs all tools deployed.
Think about where you can have more impact by partnering with other associations. If we communicate as one with other associations in the construction and infrastructure sector, and provide consistent and clear messaging to government, we’ll be more memorable and impactful.
Also think about how the people you are trying to influence like to engage, linking back to the policy and political environment you are working in. For example, some decision-makers will prefer to engage directly with your members rather than through the association – so think about arranging opportunities for your members to meet with those decsiion-makers directly, for example, through events like boardroom lunches.
Build and maintain relationships
Influence is built over time. Associations should ensure their advocacy strategy includes tactics to:
• Develop long-term relationships with key government stakeholders.
• Engage consistently, not just when seeking change.
• Provide credible, evidence-based advice that reinforces the association’s role as a trusted partner.
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Don’t just engage with the government of the day – also keep strong relationships with opposition parties – they might be in government soon and you want them to think of you when they have questions about what to do!
Transparency about the association’s objectives and regular touchpoints (e.g. quarterly updates or policy forums) can deepen trust and improve effectiveness.
Evaluate impact and adapt
Like all strategic work, advocacy should include mechanisms for evaluation:
• Have we achieved influence or impact?
• Do our methods need adjusting?
• Are we continuing to represent a collective member view?
Feedback from stakeholders and members, media coverage, and policy outcomes should all inform ongoing improvements to the advocacy approach.
Build an advocacy team based on communications skills, not technical skills
Advocacy requires a very different skillset from technical engineering skills; therefore, MAs should prioritise communication and engagement skills for advocacy positions.
Advocacy team members typically have the following attributes/skills:
• Be able to build, develop and maintain professional and influential relationships with diverse stakeholders, including elected leaders and government officials.
• Be a clear and accurate communicator, both verbally and in writing, and able to adapt their approach to different audiences. For example, be able to write engaging submissions to public consultations and then to summarise those submissions to members.
• Be able to manage competing priorities and have excellent time management and organisational skills.
• Have analytical and problem-solving skills.
Focus on relationships with stakeholders
Advocacy is all about influence; therefore, MAs should focus on relationships with stakeholders for effective advocacy. It is very hard to influence a stakeholder if the stakeholder is unaware of the MA, or the MAs reputation.
When thinking about building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, you should remember:
• Building a new relationship can take time as the MA builds trust with a stakeholder.
• Not all stakeholders will act/react the same – some stakeholders will be harder to build relationships with, depending on their awareness of and current approach to industry bodies.
• Developing a mutually beneficial relationship is usually a more successful relationship that lasts. For example, the MA should work to provide valuable information to the stakeholder, as well as seek outcomes and information from the stakeholder. Effective advocacy is rarely achieved by an MA being known only as approaching a stakeholder ‘when they want something’.
• It is often helpful for MAs to stress to stakeholders that they are providing/representing industry views, not individual member business views.
• Building consistency on the timing of stakeholder engagement can assist in building relationships. For example, quarterly forums with stakeholders can provide consistency.
• Transparency can build trust. For example, MAs should be transparent with stakeholders about the purpose of engagement and the issues to be tackled. This transparency could be provided through an agreed-upon agenda for engagements.
Encourage member involvement in advocacy
For a MA’s advocacy to be effective, the advocacy should be of value to members. Therefore, encouraging member involvement in advocacy should be encouraged at various stages:
• when setting the advocacy focus, priorities and strategy
• when engaging with stakeholders – use your members as your champions reinforcing your key messages across their spheres of influence
• to inform/develop advocacy positions on specific issues.
See the ‘Leveraging and Managing Volunteers & Committees’ guidance in this module.
When encouraging member involvement in advocacy having a range of contacts within a member business (particularly larger businesses) is helpful, as different people will have different views on the advocacy needed from the MA. For example, important relationships within a member business could include:
• with the CEO/Managing Director – for strategic advocacy discussions
• with sector leads (e.g. transport, buildings, energy, water etc) – to provide insights from a discipline perspective
• business operational leads (e.g. legal, security, human resources) – to provide insights from different departments within the business.
Have processes to verify that member feedback is a collective industry view
To ensure effective advocacy, MAs should ensure they are presenting the collective industry view on issues – rather than individual member feedback. You should have a process to verify that individual member feedback represents the collective industry view. This can be managed in several ways, including conducting member surveys and having member committees – see the ‘Leveraging and Managing Volunteers & Committees’ guidance for more information.
Be patient and persistent
Effective advocacy certainly requires patience and persistence. A lot of the wins are small and not directly or immediately visible to your memebrs. Celebrate the wins and make sure you are letting your members know what you are doing and the results you are achieving.
Disclaimer
This document was produced by FIDIC and is provided for informative purposes only. The contents of this document are general in nature and therefore should not be applied to the specific circumstances of individuals. Whilst we undertake every effort to ensure that the information within this document is complete and up to date, it should not be relied upon as the basis for investment, commercial, professional, or legal decisions.
FIDIC accepts no liability in respect to any direct, implied, statutory and/or consequential loss arising from the use of this document or its contents. No part of this report may be copied either in whole or in part without the express permission of FIDIC in writing.
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