How Long Do You Keep Lapsed Members On The Books?

If you don’t know, I bet it’s spelled out in your Bylaws.

While not scientific, I’d suggest most organizations are either 90 or 120 days, which means your real membership numbers are inflated by 25% to 33%.

I’m not a fan of counting non dues paying members as members!

Have you ever thought about dropping members on their due date?

Why not?

Don’t let your members play the membership game with your organization.  I’ve been there!  They wait one day past their 90 or 120 grace period, go off the books and then rejoin with a new due date.

They just got 15 or 16 months of membership for the price of 12.  That's no way to run a chamber.

And by the way, how many of you offer a 25% discount in connection with an upcoming program that they can save even more money?  It's happening all the time all across the country.  

In addition, you’re spending money on these (essentially) non-members who are not contributing to your bottom line.

Something to think about!

For more resources on lapsed member campaigns go HERE and HERE.

Board Meeting Tech Tools

As we delve deeper and deeper into the technology needs of meeting tools, I recently came across an article with many tips.

As chamber executives, we’re always looking for ways to do things more efficiently and saving money at the same time is always a nice bonus!


We’ve all heard of Google docs, Dropbox, Skype and conferencecall.com, but what about some of the lesser known tech gadgets?


I researched minutes.io and was fascinated at the ease of use this program delivers.


With up to 12 board meetings a year, why not have a tech tool that can help us deliver "the minutes" in real time vs. going back to the office and trying to remember the conversation from your handwritten or typed notes.


You may have found a better tool, but if this is something you’ve been struggling with, writing timely minutes, check out this tool at www.minutes.io.


Finishing your minutes in minutes!  Now that’s something to write about.


For a comprehensive list of neat board tech tools go to www.askbethz.com/tools.