If your organization is struggling with membership development, you are not alone.
Whether you define membership by the total number of members, the number of new
members, the retained members or the engaged members, there are simply not enough
of them.
Why is that? Different people have different theories, but the more likely answer is —
lots of reasons. Here are a few.
- Time Poverty
Associations must compete for time with work, families, fitness, social life,
travel and more. - Cost of Dues
The modern Association is complex. The days of a solo executive secretary
who typed up minutes, kept the checkbook and attended board meetings are
long gone. Maintaining the technology and staffing to support a modern
multifaceted organization is expensive. Operating costs impact the cost of
dues. - Generational Issues
Boomers are joiners, and this generation loves control. Gen Xers are rare in
associations, although the good news is that some are becoming involved a bit
later in life. Handing off power is very difficult, particularly when those who are
handing it off want to do things in completely different ways. It is reasonable to
think that younger members need more autonomy than they are given in most
associations. - Fewer Ways to Engage
Because organizations are more complex today, more work has been done by
paid staff. The quality bar is much higher today. This limits the actual volume of
work that can be done by volunteers. - Information Accessibility
There was a time when associations had a wealth of information and education
in their fields. With the advent of the Internet, this is simply no longer the case.
Survey after survey has shown that members join associations for networking and
education. The same survey shows that the members stay for friendships. We also
know that today’s world has many people feeling isolated. Are associations the key to
meaningful social connections?
We need to think about how everything that associations do can offer opportunities for
members to build friendships. That is the glue for engagement. And engagement builds
retention and recruitment of new members.
Often organizations make the mistake of setting unrealistic goals for membership
growth. I have heard goals of as much as 20%. If an organization is losing 10% a year,
that means a growth in one year of 30%. Before an organization can grow, it needs to
first stop losing members. The stage 1 goal might be to stop losing members. Then the
next step might be gaining, say 2% or maybe 5%. Whether an organization is losing
members or gaining members, this is happening exponentially. Member loss can
become alarming very quickly. It is also amazing how quickly an organization can
recover if it can just start growing by a small number each year.
