Professional Associations are great places to source candidates. You can source from both national as well as local chapters, and working with them can help build your pipeline of local talent. There are many different ways you can engage with them:

1. Piggyback. Get a colleague who is a member to help out. If your CMO is a member of the American Marketing Association (and they should be), you can use their membership to post jobs and search the resume database on their website.
2. Sponsor a Meeting. Contact the local chapter and offer to sponsor a monthly meeting or special event. Treat it like a trade show and give away some free stuff. It gives you the chance to meet local talent in person.
3. Give a Presentation. Have one of your staff give a presentation on some interesting work your company has done in their field (Marketing, Finance, etc), or go yourself and speak about career planning or resume writing.
4. Involve them in your charity work. Do you have a company Habitat for Humanity team? Do you participate in an annual walkathon to cure cancer? Coordinate with the local chapter and get them to form a team too.
5. Partner for a Membership Drive. Offer to sign up new members from your booth at the  big trade show for your industry. Negotiate a 50% discount for any new memberships you generate and then get people to sign up by offering to pay their dues for the first year. Then donate the 50% savings to charity.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. More than anything else, these activities will keep your organization front of mind for association members, and help you form relationships.

Can you think of any other ways to engage with professional associations? Post them in the comments section below. (Come on, do it! We both know I didn't even scratch the surface on this topic. There are lots of other creative ways to engage. Bring out your best!)