MEMBERSHIP RETENTION
Now that you have them, how do you keep them on board? The need for continued success in membership retention is vital in the maintenance of an active chapter. Keeping members informed, interested, and involved in ACC activities in your region provides a strong foundation of support for chapter activities, as well as a qualified pool of future chapter leaders.
Reality: It is cheaper to retain a member than to recruit a new member.
Fact: When a member is lost, two must be recruited to grow. When a member is retained, new growth occurs with every new recruit.
Retention programs should start on the first day a member joins, because the largest majority of non-renewals come from first-year members-as high as 50 percent.
To keep members beyond the first year, their expectations must be met. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including:
- responding and welcoming promptly
- demonstrating interest in the individual
- delivering uninterrupted service
- offering high-quality continuing education
- providing up-to-date resources
Because member needs and expectations are subject to change, it is important that ongoing research be done to evaluate where the Chapter is in identifying and responding to members' needs and where it still needs to go.
Membership Audit
There are a number of ways to "audit" or identify the needs of the membership. These include:
- conducting focus groups
- using telephone, fax, and mail surveys
- monitoring and tracking incoming calls and correspondence
The audit can be as simple or as detailed as time, staffing, and budget allow. What is important is that once the audit has been completed, there will be an understanding of the trends impacting member needs and how well the Chapter is doing in identifying these needs, establishing contact, informing, responding, and involving members in the association.
A membership audit should answer these types of questions:
- Why do members join?
- What do members like about ACC and your chapter? What benefits do they value most? What don't they value?
- Why do they drop out? (The real reason, not a "public" or "convenient" excuse.)
- Do different segments of membership have different retention rates? Why?
- Which segments represent the highest and lowest retention risks?
- What trends in the profession are likely to impact membership?
- What seem to be the best months for renewal?
- In which months do most members resign?
- How does your Chapter identify member expectations?
- How do you deal with dissatisfied members?
- Is member feedback shared with staff and volunteers?
- How have member needs changed during the past year?
- What products and services do members value most?
- What voluntary and/or state bars are direct competition? What services and resources are they offering?
- Which of the Chapter's retention activities are yielding results and which aren't?
From time to time, ACC conducts surveys that answer these and other questions. Although Chapter-specific information may not be available, ACC's surveys can be a useful tool. If you are seeking specific information, call to see if that data is available from ACC Headquarters before investing your time and money.
Reasons for Nonrenewal
Most members do not leave because of some disastrous experience with the association. With the exception of those who have left corporate practice, members leave because they don't see value in their membership.
The biggest mistake an association can make is to assume a member will renew his/her membership. Both ACC Headquarters and Chapter membership committees must work together and reinforce the value of membership to encourage renewal.
While most sound renewal efforts apply to both new and old members, there are a number of new-member activities that start a membership off on the right foot and help ensure that the Chapter is recruiting for keeps, rather than for only one year.
