The American Copy Editors Society meets this month, and like many journalism organizations, it expects to struggle to fill the seats in the face of layoffs and parsimonious newsroom budgets.

But in the past year, ACES has done two things I think are important. First, it has broadened its membership to include those from beyond its newspaper base. This was not easy for a group born and nurtured in newsrooms across the country. Yet it was critical, not only for ACES’ survival, but also for the organization to show that its loyalty was with its members and not necessarily with any one industry or branch of the business.

ACES, which already had an educational fund for scholarships, also indicated it would consider funding research into industry issues affecting copy editors. In an industry that has operated more by instinct, there are plenty of research opportunities, starting with an extension of the work by Phil Meyer, Stephen Lacy and others into what role quality plays in a publication’s (or digital site’s) economic viability.

Even some “mundane” things, such as whether “bad” splits really matter in headlines or whether varied style in the same publication really puts readers off (in other words, asking even the basic question of whether much of our stylebooks really is needed) could stand a disciplined look.

In other words, it’s time we do more to help ourselves, and this is where press associations also take on increasingly vital roles.

Like ACES, some associations already have found themselves dealing with membership questions as the industry has changed. Do we let in free papers? What about online only news operations, or, perish the thought, individual bloggers who have established themselves as niche experts in things like legislative or campaign coverage?

These are going to be tough decisions, and, like ACES, they may mean breaking away from tradition. Failing to confront them, however, may consign us to eventual irrelevance.

Just as important, press associations have an important role in helping the industry adjust to and keep up with the breakneck technological changes. This role is especially important for the hundreds of smaller newsrooms that lack the resources to fully or effectively harness their digital opportunities.

The news business, just by its fractured nature, has always been vulnerable to massive technological change. While chain-owned papers can call on the resources of their corporate parent, many smaller papers don’t have that opportunity.

We have just begun to scratch the depth of the technological changes in the digital age. The next wave will be mobile. And after that, who knows? But smaller newsrooms should be able to turn to their press associations for help.

That help might take the form of several Web developers under the press association’s auspices whose costs can be shared. It might be the association serving as a bulk buyer of Internet hosting – or even providing it through its own servers – so that those newsrooms can afford a robust Web presence.

The industry needs a clearinghouse to evaluate the steady stream of online applications, many free, that can be adapted for newsrooms’ use. And, no disrespect to the many vendor solutions out there, but your nimble competitors are using these open-source solutions, many of them Web based, to connect with your audience. It wasn’t a vendor, after all, that came up with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Shouldn’t you at least know what’s available so you can decide whether it can help you?

I can’t think of a better group to do this than the nation’s press associations. They know their members and what their special needs are.

Maybe it means the press association works closely with the state’s universities to keep tabs on the “latest and greatest.”

Or maybe it means banding together to fund a clearinghouse. Some associations, such as Tennessee’s, already have extensive technology experience. Why not build on that? After all, the nation’s electric cooperatives already have shown the value of having a cooperatives’ cooperative.

Press associations already have shown themselves to be adept at ventures like shared ad networks and legal advertising cooperatives. Some are leading news-sharing efforts in their states.

Don’t stop there, however. You know the old saying about those who help themselves. It’s never been truer.

(We can all learn from each other, so send me examples of how your press association is helping newsrooms deal with the massive technology shift and I’ll include them in a future column.)

Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at fisherdj@mailbox.sc.edu or 803-777-3315.