StarChapter of December: AILA DC

If you struggle to get new members engaged with chapter activities such as attending meetings and volunteering for committees, you might want to learn from our Nation’s Capital City chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). We spoke with Joung Eun Lee who currently serves as a board chair and learned about programs organized by their New Members Division to improve new member engagement and other initiatives led by the board volunteers to raise awareness for the profession through local and national programs. The chapter’s plans for the next year are ambitious, including expansion into new geographies in the larger DC Metropolitan area as well as offering more online resources. Click to read their story.

1. What was AILA DC’s strategy for engaging new members in the past year?

AILA DC has a dedicated committee that is tasked with not only recruiting new members at law schools but also, more importantly, helping new members get the most out of their membership with our chapter. Towards that end, we have certain programming that is geared entirely to the New Members Division such as Happy Hour events where new members get to meet a well-established member of AILA DC to get tips, advice, etc. Also, we make sure that our other regular programming includes New Members, e.g. beginner level discussions on various legal topics, such as the Asylum 101 webinar we recently held. Our chapter also takes part in a special program whereby AILA National allows us to purchase some of their educational recordings, which come with accompanying written resources for the chapter and we then sell to our members at a low price. For instance, we offer our members the full 2016 Annual Conference recordings for just $30, representing hundreds of dollars in savings per member! AILA DC is committed to helping its members become the best-prepared legal practitioners in the field and, therefore, we make sure to provide our new members with the resources designed to facilitate education.

2.Tell us about a successful event/meeting you organized last year.

The yearly Annual Conference is the main event for AILA members throughout the U.S. It is held at different locations throughout the year with the local AILA chapters becoming integrally involved with production of the event. AILA members from all over the world as well as throughout the U.S. come to hear the latest news and get the most comprehensive immigration training around. It is a huge endeavor and last year, our chapter had the distinct honor of hosting the Annual Conference at the National Harbor. Countless numbers of our members volunteered their busy time to scout local hot spots to recommend to our visiting colleagues, to organize fun events to get away from the long day of CLE's, and generally assist in any way we were needed.

3. The AILA network is extensive. Does the board get ideas on how to improve membership value from other chapters?

Generally, there is sharing of info between different AILA chapters via a teleconference that Chapter Chairs have every month. I actually recommended that AILA National work on creating a location in their website where Chapter Chairs may share information so that we may all access the shared info easily, which should be preferred to how info is shared currently via the group email. Beyond the Chapter Chairs teleconferences and emails, chapter members are good about sharing helpful or interesting info that they come across -- which includes info about what other chapters are doing.

4. What is in store for the members of AILA DC next year?

This year, one of my goals as Chair is to figure out a way to ensure that members in outlying areas of our chapter district feel included in our programming and resources. For example, we are looking into more web-based resources that members may access from wherever and whenever and getting away from in-person meetings where close proximity to the metropolitan DC area is a huge advantage to those members. Along similar lines, one of my stated goals for the year is to update and revamp our chapter website to make sure that helpful information is easy to access for our members. By making our website more of a resource, I hope to get away from relying on frequent email blasts to notify members. StarChapter/AMC will play a significant role in this.

5. How did StarChapter help you run AILA DC and reach its goals?  

Without StarChapter's support in providing the framework and technical capabilities for our chapter to set up events on our website for members to peruse and register for, to prepare and send out regular newsletters to our members to keep everyone informed, or even to facilitate sending out mass emails so that we can keep members in the loop, our chapter could not have functioned well. StarChapter's role has become even more crucial as our chapter membership expands beyond the geographic metropolitan DC area to reach more and more members farther afield in outlying areas of Maryland and Virginia. Thus, as our chapter seeks to maintain relevance for all of our members regardless of their geographic locations, the ability to offer resources and benefits through non-localized/e-world, so to speak, has made StarChapter's services to our chapter all the more vital. As we search to come up with new benefits to offer all of our members, regardless of where they are located physically, we look forward to working with StarChapter to provide us with the technological framework to achieve our goals.

StarChapter of November: AAHAM Massachusetts

Providing what members need and want is at most important to the board of Massachusetts Association of Patient Account Management, and that has allowed their board to form a strategy and activities that support its membership. “Great things happen for the organization when you focus on your membership” says Patrick McDonough, the Treasurer of MAPAM.

Becoming affiliated with the national AAHAM and collaborating with local chapters within and outside of the national association have both made a huge impact on delivering membership value. And with a member friendly software like StarChapter, they have been able to quickly respond to changing member needs. Read their story.

1. What was MAPAM’s strategy for engaging new members in the past year?

MAPAM’s strategy for engaging new members is relatively consistent: we strive to provide practical education to our members in a timely and relevant manner while also fostering a great networking environment that encourages members to tap into our collective expertise. This includes monthly seminars, an annual two-day conference, and our popular Member Appreciation Day.

The biggest new change we have made over the past couple of years has been our affiliation with AAHAM, a national organization with an outstanding certification program. We found the industry has been changing so rapidly that it was nearly impossible for our chapter to keep up with our previous certification program. An affiliation with AAHAM offered access to a national organization with a fantastic certification program and a similarly collaborative tone among its membership, while allowing us the freedom to operate MAPAM according to the wishes of our local membership and Board of Directors. It was a natural fit from both sides.

2. Tell us about a successful event/meeting you organized last year.

Our Fall Conference was incredibly successful. We had over 80 attendees who were given a day and a half of great education, a fun night of dinner and dancing at our annual President’s Dinner, and a lot of easy networking opportunities. We even managed to raise over $1,000 for ALS research in our inaugural Polar Plunge, which turned out to not be all that “polar,” as we experienced 80-degree weather in the middle of October.

3. Does the board get ideas on how to improve membership value from other associations?

MAPAM is very fortunate in that we have several strong organizations locally which we can use as complements to our educational and networking events. The Massachusetts-Rhode Island Chapter of HFMA does a fantastic job offering well-organized and presented educational opportunities to C-suite professionals and Directors throughout healthcare finance, so MAPAM fits in well offering most of our educational focus to staff level through directors focusing on Revenue Cycle, Patient Access, and Compliance. We also consult with the Maine and Twin States (New Hampshire and Vermont) chapters of AAHAM to keep a pulse on the needs of our membership and the direction of our industry. In fact, we first got the idea to use StarChapter to design our new web site and for our chapter management software from the Maine Chapter.

4. Do you have any tips/advice to share with other board volunteers?

The biggest piece of advice we would offer to board members of other organizations is to remember that everything you are doing is for the good of the membership. This gets mentioned at least once at every one of our board meetings and has led us to improve the education at our annual conference; to implement a discounted Member Appreciation Day, which allows managers to reward their staff with a fun and educational day; and to affiliate with AAHAM, which has allowed us to bolster our certification opportunities. Great things happen for the organization when you focus on your membership.

5. What is in store for the members of MAPAM next year?

One of our big points of emphasis this year is going to be our certification program. While we don’t expect every one of our members to get certified, we do want to make sure every member is aware of the diverse offerings and understands the benefits of the various certifications offered. We will also be focusing on directing our monthly educational seminars toward the specific needs of our membership; whether our membership wants more specific training, more industry overviews, or more discussions of the next regulatory changes coming at us, MAPAM wants to make sure we are providing what our members need.

6. How did StarChapter help you run MAPAM and reach its goals?  

StarChapter has given us several tools in easing the transition from our old website and in operating post-implementation. First, the transition was very easy. We simply provided our member lists for import and told StarChapter what pages we wanted. They set everything up quickly, we made a few minor tweaks, and we were up and running. It has proven very easy to create new meetings with multiple registration types, easy for new members to register, and easy to approve memberships and meeting registrations. The system also works seamlessly with PayPal, which makes it easier for our members to pay for their memberships and meeting registrations. Finally, StarChapter works well with us on any changes we may need implemented. That allows us to respond quickly to the changing needs of our membership.

Want to implement a successful strategy that generates membership value like MAPAM? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to get tips and ideas on how to improve your association chapter.