MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT
The most vital function of chapters is to ensure the ongoing development and momentum of their organization. The active recruitment of new members into your regional chapters is often the most challenging and rewarding experience you will have as a volunteer.
There are several strategies chapters can adopt to attract potential members. The best promotion and marketing asset you can utilize is a "peer-to-peer" approach. Whether it is a testimonial from a current member in a direct mail campaign, or a board member making some informal remarks at a meeting or seminar, the best "truth-in advertising" will come anecdotally from your present membership.
This chapter brief outlines membership strategies for your chapter to consider when formulating your recruitment "game plan". It might be useful to hold a brainstorming session with you board to tailor a membership campaign that showcases your chapter's strengths, and demonstrates the added value that an ACC brings to their professional lives.
Profile the Membership
An important first step in any recruitment program is to profile your membership. It is necessary to understand who your potential members are and why they joined in order to attract future members.
A member profile should be developed based on age, gender, length of membership, and membership in competing organizations. The ACC Headquarters membership database contains much of this information and should be able to assist compiling the Chapter profiles.
Possible barriers to joining should be also identified, so they can be addressed from the outset. Consider why you joined ACC and what are the most beneficial and rewarding aspects of your membership. Poll colleagues who are non-members to help you understand what the nonmember sees and feels about ACC.
Based on the profile, you will have a clearer picture of the Chapter's members, their expectations, and their needs. This will enable you to present the Chapter's services and products in ways that are most appealing to prospects.
Be sure to take advantage of chapter membership resources in order to better engage your members.
Develop a Prospect List
The first and most valuable resource for prospect development is ACC's prospect list. Other potential sources include:
- former members
- registration lists of Chapter meetings and program attendees
- lists of ACC product purchasers
- leads from current members
- directories, lists from related associations
- purchased mailing lists
- other bar membership lists
- listings of new corporate counsel promotions in local bar publications
It is imperative that Chapters share their prospect names with ACC Headquarters. Please be sure to put your prospect list into the appropriate format before sending to ACC Headquarters in order to ensure a timely uploading. This information will be added to the prospect database and will be available to your Chapter in the future. And, when ACC does a membership campaign, prospects will be included. The Chapter prospect lists should be periodically updated to be sure the names are still qualified.
