An Old-School Method for New Member Engagement: Associations Now - 0 views
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Doris Reeves-Lipscomb on 13 Jun 14Blog post by Joe Rominiecki, June 11, 2014, on how staid organization--American Neurological Association--changed admission requirements and found new-"old ways" to engage with younger, newer members in the course of the first year of membership. 300 out of 1,880 at end of 2013 were new, often younger members. ""We have quite a few committees, and the committee work is a lot. The annual meeting programming is extremely scientific, so their participation in our interactive lunch workshop committee or our faculty development committee or our scientific programming committee is critical to the success of the meeting," Smith says." Excerpt: I'm a strong believer that the type of volunteering offered to young members is crucial, too. It has to be meaningful work. If I'm offered a choice between joining a group for young professionals or joining a planning committee for a particular association function (event, publication, education, etc.), I'll take the latter. I'd rather not just be lumped in with other young pros, fenced off in a separate little play area. I want to be doing some real work for the association. And DTV says I'm not alone: In that study, "I can do something for a profession or cause that is important to me" ranked as the most important reason for volunteering in associations, and that was true for all generations.""