Young Professional Groups

Why do we divide up our membership and is it the right thing to do?

If your chamber is like most chambers you’ve started, thought about starting or you’ve already disbanded your young professional group.

The concept sounds good, start a young professional group to bring in fresh faces and grow your membership.

The challenge is why commit to a program that is separate and many times has a different focus than your mission.

At least early indications show that many young professional groups were just another networking event at the local watering hole amongst them-selves and did nothing to help the bottom line of the chamber or its mission.

Shouldn’t they be networking with your seasoned members? Creating new contacts across generations? That’s how I was taught to get ahead, network with people who have more experience than you and more contacts than you.

To me we’re just creating a new silo within our organizations. Speaking of silos, haven’t we spent the last ten years trying to dismantle them?

Our chambers should be promoting programs that benefit all our members not just certain segments, right?

In the financial world we’re very aware of the transfer of wealth for the aging baby boomers to their kids.

Shouldn’t the same concept hold true for the next generation of business leaders? Where else will they go?

They should network with your current members. We need to be in the business of raising the tide for all our boats (members).

Just a thought!

Engaging New Members

We all know that first year members don’t renew at the same level as our base members.

 

Why is that? Engagement.

 

In some chambers, that can be a difference of up to 40% (i.e., base member’s retention rate of 85% and first year member’s retention rate of 45%).

 

What are you doing to engage that first year member?

 

If you don’t have a formal plan, now is the time to create one. At a minimum, the following should be considered in any first year member engagement plan:

 

• Welcome letter and membership kit;
• Follow-up phone call 90 days into the membership;
• Sign-up for something on your website; and
• Get them to a chamber event.

 

It’s a fact - an engaged member is a retained member.

 

Create that first year member engagement plan today!

Membership Equations

I thought I’d share a list of equations that membership professionals have been using over the years to track their membership and marketing results.

It’s important to know your numbers so you can chart your success.

Membership is a numbers game -- make sure you’re tracking your results with these simple equations.

Renewal Rate

(Current members minus Number of new members) divided by Number of members in the past year

Attrition

1 minus Renewal Rate

Market Penetration

Number of current members divided by Number of potential members

Average Dues Revenue

Total Dues Revenue divided by Number of Members

Average Non-Dues Revenue

Total Non-Dues Revenue divided by Number of Members

Average Cost to Service a Member

Total Membership Expenses divided by Number of Members

Lifetime Value of a Member

(Average Dues + Average Non-Dues) x Average Number of Years of Membership

Keep these formulas handy. Know your numbers!

Just Say No!

Easier said than done!

Agreed, but you need to find a way to say no or your chamber will try and be all things to all people.

We can’t be all things to all people. Let me repeat that, we can’t be all things to all people.

Successful chambers figured that out a long time ago. Decide what kind of chamber you want to be and live it every day.

Read previous post HERE on the Hedgehog Theory from Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great. Through your strategic planning process you should have the road map to success.

Are you an advocacy chamber, economic development chamber or a networking chamber?

I’d suggest you should be known for one and live that brand. I’m not suggesting which you should be, just the fact that you should focus on one of them as your brand.

Your brand on the street should be:

• The chamber that advocates;
• The chamber that brings jobs to the community; or
• The chamber where you can network for business opportunities.

I’ll grant you that you may be doing all three, but pick one to plant your stake in the ground.

That’s your marker. That’s your brand!

What is Your Core Competency?

As a competent chamber executive, we are constantly responding to member requests, trends in the industry, etc.

But do we spend enough time figuring out what are our core competencies?

A starting point is to survey your members (for a blog post on survey tools click HERE).

Identify what they want and prioritize. Put the appropriate resources in place to deliver on these core competencies once they’ve been identified.

As you are aware they may be different depending on your local situation and make-up of the community (i.e., political, networking, education, etc.).

The Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.), in 2010, released its latest study on the subject. Based on respondents from 15 western states, the top five core competencies members want from their chamber are as follows:

1. Creating a strong local economy
2. Promoting the community
3. Providing networking opportunities
4. Representing the interest of business with government
5. Political action

If you have not led your board through a recent strategic planning session to identify your core competencies, their toolkit is a good starting point. Or, this previous blog post on a board retreat might be helpful.

And, once you’ve identified these core competencies, don’t forget to measure your results on how you’re delivering on their importance to your membership.

Good luck!

Nonprofit Governance

On a recent plane trip across the country I had the opportunity to read a lengthy article by John Carver and Miriam Carver, titled Carver’s Policy Governance Model in Nonprofit Organizations.

I wanted to share my take of the article and encourage you to read the original HERE.

A few key concepts that hit home for me and I'd like to share with you were:

• Trade associations are owned by their members - chamber’s that means your small business owners own the chamber, not you, not the community.
• The Board as a body speaks for the ownership, not individual board members.
• The Board has one employee, the CEO. The board only speaks to the CEO, not staff.
• Boards should not just approve committee reports but use these documents as a basis for the board to make decisions (i.e. policy) on behalf of the organization.
• Board meetings are not about going over the past. Board meetings should be about large decisions and the future of the organization.

Do yourself and your chamber a favor and take the time to read this article and make your own notes and observations for further discussion with your board.

Read the entire article HERE.

It’s a great read!

What Are You Going to Stop Doing?

We need to ask this question more often.

It doesn’t have to be at the end of each year. It could be at your next board meeting.

Remember, we can't be all things to all people.

Do your chamber a favor, go back five years and right write down all the new programs or initiatives you’ve started on the left side of a sheet of paper.

Now write down all the things you’ve stop doing on the right side of that same sheet of paper.

I’ll bet that the left side has a lot more items than the left. Why? Like our peers across the country they’ve had five new chairmen each with their own special project that they support.

In fact, we’re doing more with less. We’re on that conveyer belt of life. Doing the same thing over and over because that’s the way we’ve always done it.

I challenge you to add more items to the right side of the sheet. It may allow your chamber to appropriate the proper resources to the programs you decide to keep and they may become more successful.

Not only should you review what the chamber should stop doing but what are you personally going to stop doing to free up your time and burnout?

I fall in the same trap you do. I feel I must read every email, article or book for work. Well, you don’t need to read them all, just the important ones.

Your homework assignment, identify which important thing you need to focus on and put the rest in the circular file.

It’s liberating!