YES - There IS a Membership Gene!

I read Tony Rosell's post Membership Marketing Blog: Is There a Membership Gene? and he shares several great quotes about membership.  I just wanted to provide a couple more and to provide a bit more information about associations and nonprofits.

Another quote from Alexis deToqueville in Democracy in America, 1835:

"Americans of all ages, conditions, and dispositions constantly form associations....not only commercial and manufacturing companies, but associations for 1000 others kinds...religious, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive...they use them to found seminaries, build inns, construct churches..."

President Herbert Hoover, considered the father of the modern trade association movement, said this in a 1927 report to the Department of Commerce:

"In the field of scientific and economic research, in statistics, in simplification and standardization of commodities, in the promotion of arbitration in commercial disputes, in development of foreign trade, and in scores of other directions, trade associations have made a valuable contribution to our economic process."

President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908:

"Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged.  No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere."

A bit more information worth considering:

• At the turn of the 20th century, there were only 100 national and regional associations in the US*;
• By 1920 the Commerce Department identified about 2,000 associations*;
• According to ASAE's website, in 2004, there were an estimated 86,054 trade and professional associations. These organizations include local, state, regional, national and international associations. A number of these are independently incorporated chapters or allied organizations of larger associations. Add to that an estimated 1,010,365 philanthropic or charitable organizations and you begin to get an idea of the scope of the non-profit community nationwide.
•  A study by Johns Hopkins University found that nonprofit organizations are a $1.1 trillion industry worldwide, employing more than 19 million full-time personnel.*

In America, 9 out of 10 belong to at least 1 association, with 4 out of 10 belonging to 4 or more associations.*  YES, I definitely believe the membership gene is in us!

*Information from Robert C. Harris, CAE, Tallahassee, Florida.

Change, Change, Change…Does Anything Ever Stay the Same?

As association professionals, we are accustomed to change – the change in the board, committees, and even members.  Then of course, there is the change in staff, change in meeting locations, change in education programming formats, change in vendors – you get the idea.  On top of that, there is the change outside of the association that affects how we do business – Google adds a bunch of new tools that are free, Facebook changes its design and how it works, Microsoft updates its operating system again, and then there is the newest version of Word and Excel and Powerpoint which our association may or may not have! Our “tried and true” ways of doing things won’t work as well any more. The question then becomes, how do we keep moving forward with all of these changes while still accomplishing the mission and vision of the association?

As we are doing our association work, we often think of how things should be done differently – or we hear of a new tool that might streamline an operation or task. How do we keep track of these while trying to decide if, how, and when we implement them?

Most of us have checklists or some sort of document that outlines the major steps of a task or program.  As we are living or working through the event or process, we think of steps that would improve the process.  The question has now become – where do we keep these steps so we can find them when we need them?

Here are a few suggestions of ways that might help you:

• Evernote is a suite of software and services that helps you: “Capture anything. Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see.”  The note can be text, a picture, voice, or a webpage.
• Outlook has tasks that you can enter – and add reminders that you should do it.
• Checklist Wrangler allows you to easily manage templates and auto create checklists weekly, monthly, or yearly. Available on the App Store.
• Most smartphones have a way to track notes, take photos, or even record voice memos. Learn how to use them!
• Dropbox is a web-based hosting service that lets you store and share files and folders.
• Screenshots of webpages can be helpful – of something that needs to be changed or updated, or of a suggestion for something that your association should do.

NOTE: Some of these are free, some have a cost.

I know there are a lot more ways to track and keep information, but the bigger issue is the discipline that is now needed to implement these changes! 

SUGGESTION 1:

Immediately after your conference, board meeting, or committee meeting , UPDATE your checklist and timelines to incorporate what you noted from the experience. Don’t put it off or think you will remember when it is time to go through the process next time – you won’t!

SUGGESTION 2:

Make an appointment on your calendar to review the new Board material at least THREE MONTHS before you will need it.  By scheduling this time, you will be able to change and/or update anything that needs to be made more current.

SUGGESTION 3:

Ask for help in reviewing your website – whether it is another staff person, a member, or someone totally outside of the association.  Come to think of it, you should use all of them for review!  If the material is not current, it will not be helpful.

SUGGESTION 4:

On a regularly scheduled basis, review the notes, screen shots, files, etc, that you stored in the locations I suggested above – and delete the ones that are no longer relevant or useful.  We need to be diligent in this process or the amount of “helpful” information will overwhelm us.

What do you use to address changes, new ideas, and new tools? If you share them, I will include them in an upcoming post.

Thanks for reading my blog – I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions.  Please feel free to forward or share this message.

Back In California - Time Zone Readjustment in Progress

In my new position with Marketing General, Inc., I am going to be traveling more as well as trying to connect with colleagues in different time zones.  I totally understand the reason for time zones, but with the advent of all this social media and 24/7 availability, I have to determine the best way to handle time zones.  I scheduled several meetings while I was in DC last week, and my "calendar" did not always adjust to the time changes. This, of course, created a few hiccups in my meetings.  But everyone was understanding. So now, when I place a meeting on my calendar - I place in the title what time and time zone for the meeting.  And if I use my calendar program to invite someone, hopefully this will help them as well.


I began thinking about how this affects associations and their members.  Do we consider where the committee members are when we schedule a meeting? How about the staff - especially if there are remote staff members as part of the meeting. This can also be impacted by their travel since members also travel.  Using doodle.com or another scheduling program can help determine the best time for the meeting.


Beyond just the scheduling of the meetings, when we send materials to the attendees, do we consider when they will receive it? Does that matter?  If I am on a committee and there is something that I need to review for the meeting, and it comes into my inbox at 8 pm at night in my time zone  for a meeting at 9 am the next morning, I doubt that I will be able to review it. Do we give our meeting attendees sufficient time for review? I realize that there are issues that come up and that, sometimes, late delivery of material is inevitable - but if it becomes routine, aren't we sending a message to the volunteers that we don't care about them? Volunteers are a precious commodity for any association or nonprofit - we need to consider their needs and best interests as we engage them in the work of the association.


PS If you need a copy of the 2011 MGI Benchmarking Report, click here.  And let me know if you have any questions - or if you have questions you want included in future surveys! Just send them to me at Linda (lchreno@marketinggeneral.com)