What now?
Membership is sagging. Retention is slipping. The Sky is falling.
We get to talk to a good cross section of Associations all over the country, many of whom seem to have adopted this attitude as their mantra.
So how does an association break out of this rut? By asking themselves some hard, serious and honest questions: 1. “When is the last time I looked really hard at my current membership?”
2. “When is the last time I evaluated our mission statement?”
3. “When is the last time we introduced or even evaluated our member benefits?”
4. “When is the last time we looked at or changed our event calendar?”
Believe it or not, many associations have never taken the time to evaluate their Association. They follow the same event schedule and go about each event the same way they always have – in terms of promotion, sponsorship, agenda, etc. They continue to do things the way they’ve always done them without considering:
1) Who started doing things this way?
2) When were these practices put into place?
3) (maybe most important) what was the association or “economy” like at that time.
There is something to be said for the old adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” but the feeling of the moment seems to be “despair” and the cry of the day seems to be a desperate need for change.
If you don’t know what needs to “change”, then it’s pretty hard to make one.
In Renegade Retention Secrets Vol. II, I state that Associations need to have an Honest Awareness. This means they need to make an honest assessment of their plans, purposes and goals, a reality check of sorts.
Maybe it’s time to introduce a new member benefit. First, look at your current benefits and determine if they are really meeting the current needs of the current members. There’s an idea in sales for when times are tough that is applicable to membership: “They’re just not buying what I’m selling.” Associations need to ensure that everything they offer – to current or potential members – is a real and perceived benefit.
In addition to continually evaluating organizational benefits, Associations need to be constantly evaluating and adapting their recruitment and retention programs. They need to determine what is really happening versus what the “staff” says is happening.
Maybe you’ve heard me say “Every day is a money day.” That means that every day, every decision I make is aimed at moving me closer towards achieving my goals of success.
In an Association, before a new program, benefit, system or event is implemented; the staff needs to have a plan of implementation – steps to success. Then they need to evaluate whether or not these steps will move them closer to or further away from their goals. More importantly, they need to consider if this new plan or program will cause them to reach their overall goals even when it is implemented.
Having an honest awareness means an association should look at everything it does and offers and analyze whether or not it is for the betterment of the membership as a whole. Are these events really geared towards the betterment of the members, or are they just recycled from an events calendar from 1983?
Making an Honest Assessment
Ask yourself these questions:
“Who are my members?”
“Why are they Members?”
“What do they want?”
The answers you get should be the first steps towards gaining an Honest Awareness. Associations must never forget why they are here – for the protection and well being of their members. It’s not a Superior/Subordinate, Teacher/Student relationship. The association works for its members and everything it does should be about them. Everything it provides must meet their needs and represent their purpose for being in the Association. Not vice versa.
Following the Leader?
Often times, Association’s get their plans (recruitment, retention, non-dues revenue events, plans of action, etc.) from one another. One association shares its “plan” with another who then adopts it as their own, whether it works for and benefits their specific members or not. Associations are as unique as the members within them and what works for one Association doesn’t necessarily work for another. When they begin copying each other blindly – just because it’s “something” and “we’ve gotta do something” – there is no longer an Honest Awareness and the stage is set for an ineffective, out of touch and sometimes, completely unaware relationships between the advocate (the Association) and its beneficiaries (its members). In order to work towards the betterment of the association, an honest assessment of current practices, plans and direction needs to be made. Look at when and why the current plans were implemented. Was it a “follow the leader” mentality? If so, it may time for a restructure or a new direction.
Your association is a living, breathing entity. You have the power to adapt. What are you going to do?