⏰ Always On, Always Connected: Rethinking Membership Across Time Zones

Last month, I took a cruise through the Bay of Biscay. On the surface, it was a holiday moment: coffee on deck, horizon stretching endlessly. But in practice, it was also a working day. By lunchtime, I had:

• caught up with clients in Australia 🇦🇺 , the UK 🇬🇧 and Canada 🇨🇦;

• had email and WhatsApp chats with collaborators in the US 🇺🇸 and Israel 🇮🇱 ;

• handled queries from suppliers in the UK 🇬🇧 and the Philippines 🇵🇭; and

• saw some dolphins 🐬 playing in our wake!

All from a boat, somewhere between France 🇫🇷 and Spain 🇪🇸.

It struck me how seamless it all was. Geography didn’t matter. Borders didn’t matter. Even time zones felt less like obstacles and more like opportunities. In that moment, I realised this was not just about my work. It was also about membership. Associations and professional bodies increasingly face the same dynamics. Membership today is borderless, always on, and profoundly portable. The Bay of Biscay offered five lessons worth sharing.

1. Time Zones as Rolling Waves of Opportunity

That morning alone, I had touched multiple continents before some people around me had finished breakfast! But the flow didn’t stop when I paused. While I slept, others were working; while they wound down, others were starting up.

For membership organisations, this matters. Engagement no longer fits into a neat 9–5 schedule. Communities don’t live in a single timezone. Members expect connection on their own terms, in their own hours. The answer is not to “staff up” around the clock but to design systems and experiences that work asynchronously. Digital platforms, on-demand learning, and well-managed communities mean members can connect whenever they need, and still feel part of something alive.

2. Membership Without Borders

Crossing the line between France and Spain should have felt like a shift. Yet my most important connections that morning were with North America and Asia. The border was irrelevant. That’s what modern membership feels like. It is no longer anchored to an address, a postcode, or even a country. Members expect their association to travel with them, as portable as the device in their pocket.

For associations, this demands a global-first mindset. That includes cultural sensitivity, diverse representation, and ensuring systems don’t assume a single geographic base. The communities that flourish will be those that dissolve borders into opportunities.

3. The Fluidity of Belonging

At sea, I wasn’t tied to one place, but neither did I feel disconnected. My sense of belonging came from conversations, not coordinates. This is the heart of membership today. Belonging is fluid. Members want continuity across devices, events, and experiences. They expect communications that arrive at the right point in their journey. They seek an identity that is not bound to a physical location but which travels with them. Associations that design for this portability (enabling members to carry their community with them) will create a deeper, stickier sense of connection.

4. Resilience and Adaptability

Conditions at sea change quickly. Calm waters can turn unsettled within minutes. The trick is not to control the ocean, but to adjust your sails and steady your course. Membership works the same way. Markets shift. Expectations evolve. Technology races ahead. The organisations that thrive are not those who resist change, but those who adapt with clarity and confidence. Resilient associations are the ones that anticipate shifts, adjust, and keep sight of their purpose. Members take confidence from knowing their community will hold steady even when the environment does not.

5. Membership as a Journey

The Bay of Biscay reminded me that membership is not a building, a time slot, or a set of physical boundaries. It is a journey. It is something members carry with them, alive in the connections, opportunities, and conversations they encounter along the way. The question for associations is not “where do our members belong?” but “how do we make belonging travel with them?”

Even mid-ocean, the work flowed. Community flowed. And belonging flowed. That’s the lesson for all of us in membership: the future is borderless, always-on, and portable. For associations and professional bodies, the challenge is to build systems and cultures that reflect this reality, so that no matter where your members are, they feel their community is right there with them.