Chapter Insights

Before you start your website project, review your plan and make sure you include activities that will help the new site serve your audiences better than your existing one.

Choosing the wrong speaker can have a negative impact on your chapter. Here are some ideas to help you find the right speaker.

Adding video to your sponsorship marketing program can help you build motivation and credibility in the eyes of potential sponsors.

What would you do if you found out that someone inside your chapter was stealing from it? A few well-planned internal theft structures can decrease that risk.

You may think people join because of the value they get from being a member. Or maybe it’s for the benefits you provide? Or is it because of the reputation of your chapter or the national association? Think again.

We often hear about the struggle chapter leaders have when recruiting volunteers. A lot of times it’s the simple things that have the most impact. Check out our 5 ideas to help revamp your program.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization and critical to your chapter’s success. Show volunteers and your entire membership that you value all they do for your chapter, with a few perks that keep them feeling engaged and ready to help again.

Down a board position? A vacancy can disrupt the balance of your board and lead to backlogs and frustrations as you try to get everything done. There are things you can do, to make things run smoothly while you’re recruiting.

To improve engagement with your millennial members and prospects, you must first understand what’s important to them, what interests them, and how they want to get involved.

If you don’t know much about your members, how do you know you’re giving them what they want? Member personas provide clarity around your different member groups and allow you to better segment your offerings.

A website checklist provides your volunteers with a structure and a process. Work on your website gets completed at the same level of quality, no matter who does it.

Decrease your members’ email fatigue by better segmenting your email campaigns so they reach just their intended audiences. And, member personas can help you do that.

People are inundated with information. You need interesting and relevant ways to get and keep them engaged. Stories are a strong way to demonstrate your chapter’s impact to members, prospects, and your industry.

An open board position doesn’t mean you hire the first person that raises their hand. Taking the time to interview the candidate(s) will help ensure you get the best person for the job.

A few strategic changes to your conference planning process can deliver a more engaging, successful event for your members. And take some of the stress off your planning committee.

What’s your plan for keeping your chapter successful? Here are some ideas to add to your planning that can make your chapter stronger and more effective than it is currently.

Stan Phelps discusses the four steps organizations should complete to determine the “weirdness” that can grow their organization.

The dollar value of a member is much more than the amount they pay to join or renew. Knowing this number should drive you to find ways to bring in new members and better engage the ones you have.

Are your board meetings productive in reaching objectives, or are they frustrating? Having more effective board meetings doesn’t have to be a tough process.

Stan Phelps discusses how to use all those things that make your organization different from others, good and bad, to stand out from those who do the same.

What’s your plan for reengaging members who left your chapter? Do you let them go and forget they were ever members, or do you have a plan for bringing them back?

Stan Phelps discuses five factors that determine the potential growth of an organization, and he compares that trajectory to the growth of goldfish.

Without board job descriptions, members can’t easily decide if they want a board role. Chapters may also have stressed board members ill-prepared for their jobs. Or both. Written board job descriptions deliver tangible benefits.

Making your registration experience as positive and as easy it can be helps keep members happy and turns more guests into members driving growth.

Selling a change to your board, isn’t as hard as it sounds. By incorporating techniques used by effective sales people, you can get your point(s) across.

Structure your event to increase the comfort level of your introverts and your extroverts and encourage everyone to participate, both at the event and with your chapter.

If membership isn’t growing, meeting numbers are stagnating, and sponsors are leaving, is your admin the problem? They might just need tools that make their job easier, transparent, and effective.

Just because your chapter is a non-profit doesn’t mean you have to be limited in your programming or scholarship funding. Time to work on your non-dues revenue streams.

Change can be challenging. Following a clear change structure can help you and those you’re asking to change better prepare for, implement, and accept that change.

Advocacy by your members is vital to long-term success. Members need to communicate the chapter's value to their peers and within the industry.

When you set goals for events and have a process in place, your events become effective chapter engagement tools going beyond networking and CE.

If your members keep saying they’re too busy to attend events or volunteer, there’s a good chance they’re not getting what they need from the chapter. The Almquist Value Pyramid can help you figure out what’s really important to them.

On-board new board members correctly and they’re engaged and excited. Do it wrong and you could lose them before they start. Here are some tips for ensuring new board members start off on the right foot.

Are you having trouble finding people to execute your chapter projects? Perhaps micro-volunteering could help you get it all done and get more of your members involved.

For a membership renewal process to be successful, it needs to be supported by an organized, defined communications program that makes it as easy as possible for members to renew.

It’s great to have chapter goals, but if they’re not the right goals, you could be missing out on members and revenue.

Consider a site review and implementing some of the 2019 web design trends to re-engage your members.

Do you know the real reasons people attend your events? If you’re not giving them what they want, they may go somewhere else to get it.

Relying on dues for revenue can be short-sighted. Adding the right sponsorship program can help your chapter remain solvent for the long-term.

To ensure your chapter’s continued survival, you need to know your SPoFs. You also need a plan to avoid single points of failure and to decrease the stress brought on by the departure of an individual critical team member.

How many systems do you use to manage your chapter? If it’s more than one, how well do they function together? A change in technology could help you better serve your chapter and your members.

It’s time for a last look at this year’s membership numbers. Before you start thinking about changes for the upcoming year, focus on the now; you still have time to bring in new members this year.

When messaging and context are appropriate, email can improve open rates while moving the reader to act. However, the wrong email can cause the reader to look elsewhere. Organizations need to be aware of the distinction.

Dues alone won’t keep your chapter financially sound. How long could your chapter survive if you had no dues revenue? Learn how to increase your chapter’s financial stability.

Take steps to protect your chapter from email spoofing and develop a plan for dealing with a spoofing attack, to secure your email program and the integrity of your communications.

Are you satisfied with the size of your membership? Focusing on the members you have isn’t enough. Learn proven strategies to increase the number of individuals who join your chapter.

A successful meeting requires preparation and planning – before, during and after – to fully engage attendees and deliver its intended message. Keep these 10 steps in mind when you plan your next meeting.

Right after new members join your chapter, you’ll find many asking themselves some of the same questions they asked before they joined. Organizations with engagement plans answer these questions early on and better engaging these members.

An Association Management System (AMS) allows you to update and streamline your chapter’s processes while decreasing the amount of manual work involved, the number of people required, and the time you spend.

These relaxed, open forums allow for easy interactions between your volunteers and your general member base while giving you the chance to talk easily about the different chapter volunteer opportunities and drum up more interest in your programs.