Return to Old School

Seriously reconsider membership development in 2010. A few years ago, you may have had a bright junior person that manages the association's membership program. Back then you lost about 3 to 4% of your members because of business failure or mergers. Possibly a few drop off because they've never really engaged with the association. Another 2 or 3 percent were one time members who joined because of a specific discount.

On the bright side, this up and coming membership person brought in 30 to 40 members a year through direct mail, meeting discounts and other programs. At the end of the year your membership was flat or a 1 percent increase. That's OK.Until the recession of 2009 hit us. And, looking ahead with a number of my association friends, 2010 looks to be another tough year.

My thinking is associations must pursue membership and business growth with unprecedented vigor. If you are not working diligently to increase market share or top line dues revenue get ready for rocky road ahead.

Competition is coming and it will be smarter, faster and with a better business model than before the recession. Social networking sites will continue to grow, web-sites will offer better excellent content in real time and training firms will will provide distance learning and networking opportunities. I know, I know you have seen this before. But this time the competition will be lean and mean. You, as an association leader need to be ready to leverage the strength of membership to grow.

Now is the time to get back to basics. Hire someone to really drill down on membership development. Provide them the title and responsibility that will allow them access to the industry's top leaders. Develop personal relationships within member companies and find a way to scale that type of member engagement. Use the membership director to identify trends and potential problems within the membership ranks.

Finally, think about offering non-members access to a number of benefits to try on the association and offer incentives for new meeting participants. The "genie is out of the bottle," so do everything which makes business sense to bring engagement to your association.

Happy New Year....let's get back to work. Old school membership style.