Professional Associations Educate Current, Future Members to Strengthen Arkansas

Professional associations provide their members with a long list of benefits and services, including advocacy both at a state and federal level and opportunities to rub elbows with other professionals in the same industry. However, one pillar of associations that not only benefits current members but future ones is education. It is through education, as well, that these associations help shape and strengthen Arkansas’ future.

One organization building a large part of its programming around education is the Arkansas chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. ABC is a national construction industry trade association that represents more than 23,000 members, its website states. That translates to 305 member companies in the Arkansas chapter, which includes contractors, specialty contracts, suppliers, and industry professionals such as insurance, banking and accounting firms.

“One thing I realized early on was that if we were going to attract new members to ABC or if we’re going to retain current ones, it’s by offering them education and training for their employees,” said Bill Rochelle, chapter president.

Bill Rochelle

The chapter offers training programs for professionals at the association’s office multiple nights a week, Rochelle said. ABC has programs to help upskill the current workforce, as well as an apprenticeship program for various fields, including plumbing, electrical, ironworking, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and more.

“It’s really neat to work with these young men and women on helping them find a career in the construction industry,” he said.

Not only does ABC Arkansas help with attraction and retention, but it also helps build the workforce of tomorrow and help with construction workforce labor shortages.

“A lot of our members are needing employees, so we try to help them find folks that can fill their workforce shortages,” Rochelle said.

A recent news release from ABC said the construction industry must attract an estimated 349,000 new workers in 2026 to “meet demand for construction services.” That number is expected to grow to 456,000 in 2027.

ABC has programs for students as young as high school and middle school to attract them and teach them about jobs in the construction industry. An event Arkansas ABC does every year is called Build My Future. At the event, ABC member companies bring demonstrations and hands-on activities for students so they can learn more about trade professions. ABC hosts two versions of this event annually, one in northwest Arkansas and one in central Arkansas. Students travel several hours to attend them, Rochelle said.

“[The kids] are in their community, and they may not see that there is a world outside,” he said. “It’s important that we’re able to connect the kids with the employers and the employers with the kids. We’ve had a couple kids on our preapprenticeship program that we’ve helped get jobs with some of our local employers, and that’s just a good feeling.”

In addition to that program, ABC Arkansas offers one to homeschooled children.

“These young men and women are really eager to learn, and a lot of those kids are looking at going into the trades, so it’s neat to see them be able to get in and do some hands-on stuff,” he said.

Another heavy-hitting Arkansas-based association working to educate both current and future members is The Poultry Federation. This trade organization represents the poultry and egg industry in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

“The federation has always been a very impactful organization, and the impact, in large part, is driven by the impact of the Arkansas poultry industry, which is foundational to our state’s success,” said Blake Rollins, federation president.

Blake Rollins

While advocacy work is often the federation’s main focus, education is one of its main three pillars, Rollins said.

For current members, the federation offers a food safety conference, a nutrition conference, a poultry symposium for live production and the annual Poultry Festival.

All the events are set up to teach the members the latest information about the given topic and give them opportunities to network and celebrate the poultry industry’s successes, Rollins said.

While the federation has many offerings for current members, it also focuses on connecting with people who will work in the industry in the future by supporting FFA and 4-H programs across Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

“The industry recognizes we need to continue to build the workforce of the future to feed the future,” he said.

The federation also supports scholarship programs and has a partnership with Be Pro Be Proud, an organization that helps students explore skilled professions pathways and works to inspire them to join the workforce.

“We need every profession in our industry,” Rollins said. “They can go to law school. They can be an engineer. They can be in computer science. Direct and indirect, more than 175,000 jobs in Arkansas are connected to the poultry industry, so there are all manner of opportunities.”

Leaders at the Arkansas Hospital Association help the workers at their membership hospitals stay up to date on continuing education hours, which are necessary for keeping their licenses.

“We try not to just educate the C-suite — the CEOs, the [chief operating officers] — we also want to educate the people who work in hospitals, such as the nurses, the human resource department, the engineers,” said Bo Ryall, AHA president. “There’s a lot of educational products we offer to our members.”

Bo Ryall

Those include multiple virtual events and webinar offerings every month covering a wide range of topics such as acute care, cybersecurity, documentation and infection control. AHA also hosts an annual meeting every year where health care professionals gather to advance their skills and network. AHA also sends out educational newsletters and a magazine.

The AHA helps to connect its 105 member hospitals with staff because “there is just a lot of need for health care workers,” he said.

One way to get more medical workforce in Arkansas is to get them to remain in-state after they have completed their residency in Arkansas. That could mean placing them at rural hospitals, but those hospitals need the money for that.

Ryall said the AHA is working to ensure money recently allocated to the state from the new Rural Health Transformation Fund is used to help rural hospitals, allowing them to hire and retain more talent, therefore giving Arkansans better medical care.

The Arkansas Bankers Association also focuses heavily on educating its members, which is important because regulations shift and change often in the banking field.

“We have first-class education, and it covers the entire bank, anywhere from the frontline teller all the way up to the bank’s CEO,” said Lorrie Trogden, ABA president. “If it is a job within the bank, then we have education for them. It’s our job to stay on top of those hot topics and then make sure our members are educated when they’re making decisions on how to best assist their customers.”

Lorrie Trogden

The association has four major conferences every year, as well as many smaller ones and webinars.

“If there is a job in banking, we have training on it,” she said.

The main events are the Women in Banking Conference, the group’s annual convention, a bank management seminar and the Ascending Bankers Leadership Conference.

“Ascending Bankers is for our new leaders or up-and-coming leaders in banking, and it’s a chance for them to get together and network,” Trogden said.

Making sure the banks are strong, in turn, makes Arkansas communities strong because it means banks are able to offer farm loans, business loans and mortgages, which all build the economy, she added.

“That’s what keeps our Arkansas economy thriving and makes this a really great place to live,” Trogden said. “Arkansas is doing well, and people want to be here.”