This booklet, which is intended for practitioners in continuing higher education, examines the rationale for forming partnerships with professional associations and examines considerations in developing and maintaining partnerships. The booklet begins with a few examples of the types and scope of partnerships possible between continuing education and professional associations. Outlined next are reasons for forming partnerships, their potential benefits, and preliminary steps in establishing them. Some perceptions commonly held by professional associations about continuing education are mentioned along with ways of overcoming them. Considerations in identifying potential partners are presented along with eight essential/desirable criteria for selecting partners (for example, the university and association must have common but not competing goals, relationships must be mutually beneficial, key decision makers must support the relationship, and stable organizational environments and/or broad-based supports are needed). The remaining sections are devoted to the following topics: identifying preconditions and bases of interaction; structuring partnerships (building strong foundations based on cooperation, coordination, and collaboration); approaching potential partners (strengthening the institutions' positions in partnerships by obtaining internal support and initiating the first meeting); making the partnership work (establishing partnership agreements, interacting with associations, ending partnerships); and using partnerships to open doors to new audiences. (MN)