It's clear that the perfect solution for associations to facilitate ongoing communication with and among its members is the creation of an online community. The Internet facilitates efficient, collaborative discussions between business leaders in the same industry with similar interests and concerns.

And online communities are also convenient - they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To find out why and how the integration of an online community will fill out your association's membership services, listen to the instant replay of the recent Strategic Conversation with senior leaders of Golightly,Inc., a leader in the delivery of effective and easy-to-use online community solutions for membership organizations.

In the interview Dale McGrew, president and chief technology officer as well as cofounder of Golightly.com said, "So many professional careers are benefited by the networks to which we belong so if you can extend your network through an online community and have access to all members of your professional association year-round, you can reach out to people that [in the past] you have only seen once a year at association meetings."

During the Strategic Conversation, you will hear Sarah Golightly, CEO and founder of Golightly, talk about the ways that technology and online communities can make everyday tasks more efficient for business owners.

Chris Dworin, vice president of Business Development, Sales and Marketing, discusses how associations can add to their membership value, offering group email, blogs and messages boards to their membership as well as the ability to share documents and images by uploading and downloading them from the online community web site.

Dworin stresses an important point. For associations that are trying to reach out to younger professionals and younger family members of a privately owned company, adding an online community component is imperative. "Younger [association] members are already using tools like this - myspace and facebook, but not in a manner that puts them in touch with other association members - it's hit or miss." Golightly can fill this void.

Other topics covered in this Strategic Conversation include using online communities to search for jobs, source job applicants for difficult-to-fill-jobs, find quick responses to work-related challenges from peers and seasoned professionals and more.

Strategic Conversations and Henry Barbey, co-creator, sponsored this discussion about the value of online communities.

Click the audio button and listen to how business leaders can reach out to other business leaders through their associations to build on their business success.

Barbey explains that Strategic Conversations allow business leaders to tap into the collective wisdom of trusted colleagues through regular, facilitated telephone discussions with your peers. He says, "The ability to communicate ideas and discuss assumptions with other capable minds allows you to make clearer assumptions in your own businesses that result in greater profits, increased efficiencies, better morale, etc."

The use of a service such as Golightly's online community solutions and Strategic Conversations facilitated telephone discussion peer groups helps associations offer a comprehensive communication package for association members.