Membership Recruitment & Retention Toolkit

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Your chapter plays a crucial role in both membership recruitment and retention. For many ACC members, their chapter serves as their local in-house community, representing one of the most significant benefits of membership. To support you and your chapter leaders in comprehending the membership lifecycle and your role within it, ACC has assembled the toolkit below.

MEMBERSHIP BASICS:

Eligibility Criteria

You and your board members should have a thorough understanding of ACC’s membership eligibility criteria, as outlined in detail here.

For questions on membership eligibility, please contact membership@acc.com.

Membership Packages

Find detailed descriptions of ACC’s membership packages and types here. We offer:

Membership Benefits

The chapter’s team has produced a comprehensive video detailing the array of membership benefits, available for viewing here. This resource is ideal for sharing with both your board members and prospective individuals interested in joining. Find the video here.

Chapter Roster Portal

Chapter President, Membership Committee Chair, and chapter administrator have access to the Chapter Roster Portal, which allows you to pull reports on members and prospects within your chapter’s service region.

Access the chapter roster portal
Some frequently used reports are:
- All Active Members: Pulls a list of all current chapter members.
- Lapsed Members: Pulls a list of lapsed members based on the date range you select. View sample outreach emails to lapsed members.
- Joined Between: Pulls a list of members that joined between a specific date range. We encourage chapters to welcome new members at the beginning of each month. Ideally, members should receive an email, attend an event and make a friend within their first 90 days. View sample outreach emails.
- Large Law companies with members in this chapter: Pulls a list of Corporate Memberships based in your Chapter.

Monthly Membership Reports

ACC publishes monthly membership reports, accessible here. Moreover, we can provide benchmarking results that offer insights into how your chapter compares with others of similar size over the span of the past 6 years. To request this information, please contact us at chapters@acc.com

Resources from other chapters

You can find sample email messages, templates, and surveys from other chapters here.

PROMOTE:

Open your events to non-members.

If you haven't already, consider opening your events to non-members. This can attract potential prospects and increase the visibility of your chapter. Additionally, contemplate allowing current members to bring colleagues as guests.

Update and promote your events via your chapter’s website.

First impressions matter! Your chapter's ACC homepage will likely be one of the initial search results when someone seeks information about your chapter online. It's crucial to ensure that your chapter's homepage is current and engaging. Here are some tips and suggestions to consider:

Ensure your events are prominently displayed.
Consider recording a welcome video featuring your President or Membership Chair. Check out an example here from ACC MENA.
Ensure that the information and resources posted are up-to-date and relevant.

Promote your events via social media.

If your chapter maintains a social media presence, we strongly encourage you to utilize it for event promotion. If your events welcome non-members, this presents a fantastic opportunity to invite prospects and enhance your chapter's visibility. Explore ACC’s social media toolkit here.

RECRUIT:

Tips for Recruiting New Members

Open events to non-members: Extend invitations to non-members to participate in chapter events to increase engagement and expand your pool of prospects.
Encourage members to bring a friend: Encourage existing members to invite in-house colleagues who might be interested in joining the chapter, leveraging personal networks for recruitment.
Send Thank You notes with trial offers: Express gratitude to event attendees through personalized thank you notes, including promotional offers such as a 30-day trial membership or discount code CHP50 for $50.00 off the first year of membership, to incentivize membership sign-ups. To learn more about ACC’s promotional offers, please email chapters@acc.com.
Assign a board member as an ambassador: Designate a board member to engage with non-members at events, offering information about the chapter, membership benefits, and answering any queries potential members may have.
Promote events on social media: Utilize your current social media platforms to advertise upcoming events, reaching a wider audience and attracting prospective members.

Room to Grow.

ACC Corporate Memberships use a tiered approach to membership allowing legal departments to purchase a set of membership slots for their legal department. Room to Grow is an effort which seeks to maximize legal department’s use of their Corporate Membership by filling open membership slots with eligible in-house counsel.

Your chapter administrators receive a monthly report called “Room to Grow” which lists all ACC corporate memberships that have open availability. You should familiarize yourself with this list and keep it in mind for when meeting prospective members that could join existing corporate memberships.

To add prospects to existing corporate memberships, please contact corporate@acc.com and provide their full name, company, working address, title, and email address.

Recruit New Corporate Members

If you have leads for potential new corporate members, who would like to schedule a demo for a prospective corporate member, or if you would like to find ways to engage your current corporate members, you can contact our corporate team at corporate@acc.com for more information.

Learn more about ACC Corporate Membership.

Articles on Recruiting New Members

99 Ways to Get New Members

ENGAGE:

Create a membership committee and appoint a board member to lead your chapters’ membership engagement initiatives

Your board can play an active role in helping your chapter grow. If you do not have one already, consider forming a membership committee.

Additional Reading:

Engage new members within the first 90 days.

Membership research shows that new members decide within their first 90 days whether to renew. Engaging them in meaningful ways during their first few weeks of joining your chapter increases the likelihood they will renew. Implement some of these activities:

Send a personalized welcome email. View sample welcome messages.
Give new members a shout-out via your newsletter, or social media channel.
Assign board members to greet new members at in-person events, and facilitate introductions to longstanding members. Some chapters will have “New Member” ribbon or sticker at their events that members can use to identify themselves.
Host member orientation webinars featuring members talking about their chapter journey.
Have board members host informal monthly or quarterly coffee or lunch meet-ups to welcome new members.
Read: Three Keys to Solving the Member Retention Puzzle - ASAE

Engage your corporate members

Engage with corporate members headquartered in your chapter’s service region, especially new ones. Members of corporate memberships may be unaware of local chapter offerings, or the benefits of a local chapter community.

Be on the lookout! When a new corporate member joins ACC, our team will notify your chapters president and chapter administrator. Try to engage these new members within the first 30 days of them joining. Find sample email messages for new corporate members here.
Assign board members to connect with the GCs of Corporate Members. If applicable, invite them to roundtable discussions for law department leaders or to speak at your events.
Encourage your corporate members to host small chapter events at their premises to showcase the best practices in their legal departments.
Consider using a template such as this one from ACC New Jersey to welcome new members and encourage them to join one of your events.
If applicable, try to recruit senior corporate members to your chapter board.

Survey Your Members!

It's important to get to know your members, and you don’t have to do it alone! ACC can help you create a survey for your members.

Chapters can request the development and deployment of chapter membership surveys. Results will include tabulation of results complete with charts and graphs.
In addition to an annual survey, your chapter should also consider doing post-event surveys. Find sample post-even surveys here.
Find sample surveys from other chapters here.
Read: Create Surveys That Generate High-Quality Results - ASAE

Increase event accessibility

Many of our chapters find that events that provide an opportunity for members to bring their families are highly successful. By allowing families to attend, your chapter can lower one of the barriers that prevent their members from joining for an event.
Community Service is another great way to get your members involved and allows them to connect with their families as well. Find inspiration on the ACC Global Community Service Month website.
ACC Tampa Bay’s annual symposium is a weekend event that offers childcare services for attendees. This allows attendees to participate in the event with their families and attend receptions without the worries of finding childcare.

Ensure that your events are inclusive and reflective of your membership base.

It is important to ensure your chapter’s events are inclusive to ensure that your full membership can remain engaged.

Below you will find some resources and read regarding inclusivity:

RENEW:

The ACC Membership Department starts sending renewal notices to members 90 days before their memberships are set to expire. Additionally, our dedicated membership team conducts follow-ups after the renewal date has passed. Members are granted a 60-day grace period and will lose access to their benefits, including membership in your chapter, if they do not renew in time.

As a local ACC Chapter, your involvement is pivotal in the ACC renewal process through active engagement. A study conducted in 2021 showed that 50% of associations reported higher non-renewal rates due to insufficient engagement with their organization. By fostering local member engagement, you contribute significantly to the establishment of local connections, which help lead to higher renewal rates.

Below, you'll find articles highlighting the crucial relationship between member engagement and renewal.

REINSTATE:

Recently lapsed members can be easy to win back. Oftentimes, members simply forget to renew. We highly recommend sending a reminder to renew to your members who have lapsed within the past 90 days.

Pull a list of lapsed members in the Chapter Roster Portal, and send a personalized renewal reminder email. Find sample templates that you can use for outreach here.
When possible, include an upcoming event in your messaging to create FOMO. See an example email here.

Connect your members with membership@acc.com, should they experience issues during the renewal process.

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Membership Recruitment & Retention Toolkit

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