District Council Members and the Importance of Member Involvement in Organization Renewal Processes in Swedish Forest Owners’ Associations

The objective of this paper is to examine the organization renewal process in forest owners’ associations and the role of members in this process. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with district council members in a forest owners’ association, we describe the characteristics of today’s elected member representatives in terms of their motives for volunteering, their relationship with the organization, and the organizational practices and routines of the renewal process. It is shown that most district council members are traditional forest owners with a family history within the association and that the district councils are therefore not representative of all member groups. We thus argue that it will be important for the renewal process that the associations carefully consider how they want to be perceived by both current and potential members in order to encourage the involvement of different owner groups. The election committees, which prepare the elections to the councils and board, play an important role in the associations’ renewal processes and must become more active in their search for suitable candidates.