ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the role that professionalism and public official associations have played in governance since 1939, with particular emphasis on American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). It discusses the support of the University of Chicago for the Public Administration Clearing House (PACH), a grouping of public official associations re-presenting a variety of state and local officials. ASPA has focused on individualized benefits of membership and up-to-date ways of communicating with members. ASPA provides job listings, webinars, an electronic newsletter, email alerts, and credit card and insurance programs. ASPA leadership has also embraced the need for collaboration with other associations, both in the United States and internationally. Both elected leaders and executive directors have developed links to groups with shared interests, even if such organizations are in other respects competitors in the association marketplace. Ethics and broader concerns for normative aspects of administrative life were seen by a growing number of public administrationists as fundamental to professional stature.
