Member ROI Valuation for Recruitment at Associations and Societies (1279 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

The Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process

Learn the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process for non-profit membership growth.

The Problem:

For trade associations and professional societies, identifying the value your members want without the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process can be a bit like threading a needle in the back of a Jeep, while crossing granite boulders, at 40 miles per hour—but it doesn’t have to be. Associations and societies exist to serve the interests of the participants or stake holders in their industry or profession—it is that simple.

Yet, extenuating factors, erroneous or not, frequently muddy up the waters of association or society focus. A very good argument could be made for the idea that too many association or society activities serve merely the vocal few in leadership. A convincing argument could be made for the idea that associations and societies focus too keenly on self-perpetuation. I am not going to make arguments in this article for these ideas but rather share my observation from two decades working with trade associations and professional societies.

Large associations tend to have a turnstile of employees. Young wide-eyed graduates with diploma in hand, go to work for associations or professional societies with dreams of making a difference. Then, they either become disillusioned or move somewhere else for career advancement. Frequently these young staffers start in member services department. Hence the problem—by the time they learn their job, they have moved on. The Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process can solve this problem by having stable and usable member value numbers for all staff and volunteer leaders.

Conversely, in the small associations, run by the executive director and perhaps a couple part-time staffers, there just is never enough time to follow up on those inquiries of potential members. Either the interested party must join on their own accord by filling out the membership application found at the Web Site by clicking the “Join” button or move on. This two decade old observation was painfully reinforced recently. The example I’m about to share, believing it or not, did occur.

One of my avocations is being the CEO of an IRS recognized non-profit public charity https://cigarpeg.com/. I recently decided that it would be good for me to join a related association so I called two California State Associations, one for association executives and one specifically for non-profits. As of the writing of this article, I have joined neither.

One of the two, I called and left a message with the membership person; she returned my call and left a voice message. That was the last time I heard from that association and it has now been a while. The second, I chatted with their membership person and am still waiting for an information package she promised to “get right out” to me.

In the situation with the first association, would it not make sense to you that the director of membership make a second attempt to contact a prospective member that called for information about membership? I just got busy and didn’t call her back. Had she called me back a second time, I believe I would have joined instantly.

As for the second association, I was amazed that when I asked the membership person about the value I would receive from being a member, she asked if I was joking. I was not, and was less than impressed with her lack on knowledge as to the benefits of membership. I have been even more unimpressed with her lack of follow through. I really did want the prospective member package to help me decide which association to join.

The issue is twofold, first how association and society membership departments track their prospective members. Many folks just need a little nudge, and they will join. However, when ignored they will put membership on the back burner, frequently forever. The second issue is knowledge. If a staffer has no idea as to the value that the members derive from their membership, how in the world can they influence industry participants to join?

Today, the model for business and professional persons is that they are looking for a return on their investment (ROI) rather than participating in their industry simply because they should. Yes, times have changed.

The Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process is the Answer:

Conduct the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process for determining the yearly sustainable real dollar value of membership at your next meeting? The American Society for Quality did so, three years in a row, at their annual meetings and discovered that their members receive over $50 in benefit and value for every one-dollar invested in membership. For anybody, that’s huge ROI! The National Air Duct Cleaners Association learned that their members benefited to the tune of $17 received for every dollar invested. For the National Frame Builders Association we revealed that their members received $10 in value for every dollar invested in their membership. It’s all about return on investment, that’s something no association or society executive, staffer or volunteer leader should ever forget.

The most significant reason for my belief in the need for urgency—urgency for every association and society, globally, to conduct the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process at their next meeting is recruitment. Why wait to plug up the leaking dike of member loss when you can do something about it now?

The Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process is, or should be, the cornerstone for your next member recruitment or member retention campaign. The single most important activity, resulting from the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process, is for your association or society to develop a marketing brochure for your members to handout. This brochure will easily demonstrate why it is a good business decision to join the association or society based on intelligent ROI.

The number one reason, in my experience, why marketing and recruitment collateral materials and campaigns are not successful is because real benefits are left out. Too frequently, when I review the marketing materials of associations that are intended for use in gaining new members, all I can identify is features, rather than the bottom line benefit to the prospective member. As I stated earlier, most people that join an association or society in today’s business environment are looking for ROI, and not the warm and cozy feeling of serving their industry. However, too many paid association staff and volunteer leadership are still stuck in the old warm and cozy paradigm. Read my lips, it is ROI!

Follow the below listed steps and I assure you that you will not be sorry you did.

  1. Conduct the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process at your next meeting. For more information on how to conduct this process, there are several articles at https://rigsbee.com/articles/association-growth/
  2. Association or society board of directors and paid staff review the specific value line items resulting from the process. Determine if more service and value can be offered to members under the most valued categories.
  3. Board then approves the changes and allows paid staff to implement. (Important note here, volunteer leaders need to “keep out of others’ rice bowls” and tend to their own, or nothing will ever get done.)
  4. Member recruitment brochure is to be developed based on the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process results. These brochures should be held for the next membership meeting, like the annual convention.
  5. Keynote presentation on industry collaboration should be scheduled for the meeting where the brochures are distributed. The job of your keynoter is to get your members excited about what is possible for their business through accelerated collaborations resulting from increased association or society membership.
  6. Keynoter announces the new membership recruitment campaign and asks for a commitment from each member to personally give out 10 brochures to colleagues and industry participants.
  7. The question of prizes for membership recruitment is frequently posed by association leadership. I am neutral on the subject; however I would recommend that you consider this: Do you want your members recruiting for tangible prizes or for the benefits they will receive through increased industry collaboration?

Association Executive Focus—Core Membership or Financial Results (659 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

The ROI of Membership

I’m distressed. I receive about a dozen meetings industry and association related magazines each month. With interest, I read about “meeting ROI” and “strategic meetings management” but…what I DO NOT read about is “member ROI” and that distresses me. While there are scores of fabulous trade associations and professional societies serving both North Americans and the international community, I cannot help but sometimes wonder what has gone wrong with so many USA based trade associations?

Being an Association Executive is Not Easy

Let’s face it, to be a successful association executive, one has to be quite an adept politician—not that it’s a bad thing—it’s just that not every leader is also a great politician. In leading a trade association or professional society, business skills are not enough. Dealing with the various personalities that span an organization’s membership is quite another thing. Oh yes, did I mention the egos? Perhaps that focus is what draws too much attention form the most important task at hand? No, it is not the executive keeping his or her job; it is delivering honest sustainable value to the organization’s membership. That is what sustains an organization.

Association Membership Abandonment

It has been quite a while, and a few name changes, since the American Society of Association Executives published an exit survey on why members do not rejoin their association or society. My interpretation of the survey is that 73% said that they did not rejoin because of the lack of receiving (perceived) reasonable return on their investment—the ROI just wasn’t good enough.

Member ROI Group at LinkedIn

I administer a special interest group at www.LinkedIn.com for association executives and staff. The group is so named, “Member ROI for Associations & Societies.” I frequently ask questions to bring forth responses from the group members. A question I posted about staff commissions and member incentives for member recruitment has received quite a bit of banter. Below is a comment from one of the group members that is very revealing:

“In my 20 years working for a dozen associations have I[‘ve] seen incentives for membership recruitment in practice…at least until recently. An association that I am familiar with pays a bonus to its CEO based on financial results. As far as I know, there are no other performance indicators factored into the mix to determine rewards (i.e. member satisfaction, member engagement, program results), just the bottom line. As a result, a great deal of energy has gone into recruiting non-industry members because their membership fees are the highest, and securing as many sponsorship dollars for the annual conference (which is suffering from dwindling attendance). But no additional effort has gone into retaining the core membership categories (industry practitioners) and their numbers are dropping by 5 – 10% each year. So, while the bottom line may look like it’s holding its own, membership attrition is on the rise. The point is, the CEO is more focused on getting as many dollars in the door to the detriment of the members and association programs and services.”

What Do You Think?

Do you think this person’s comments are sour grapes, or might the comments be too on-target for many to swallow? Sometimes truth can be quite a bitter pill. I believe the exceedingly difficult question that not enough of today’s association executives are asking is this: Are we delivering true and reasonable ROI to our members or are we simply perpetuating a broken association?

Here is the question that every member is asking of their association or society: And I get what for my membership dollars besides this monthly magazine, newsletter, or ezine?

Remember this. If you charge your members extra for something, it is not a value added item, only the price differential compared to what non-members pay would apply to the member’s ROI. This might be worth considering before you charge your loyal dues-paying members for the next webinar or white paper—just a thought.

The key to safeguarding your organization’s future…is to research, embrace, and maximize…your member ROI.

Member Engagement — Does Your Association Do It? (1153 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

The ROI of Membership

They are called the disenfranchised! Within a trade association or professional society’s membership; the disenfranchised are also referred to as the grumblers, the fringe, the disconnected, the malcontent, and the contrarians.

Warning: this article is bullet-hole riddled with clichés; however that was my disposition the day of writing. Nonetheless, this article is absolutely worth the read for all association and society paid staff and volunteer leaders.

In my professional association, many have classified me as one of the above. However about 10 years ago I did something about it and formed a community within the association that draws about 20% of the attendees to my annual event which is held in conjunction with the association’s convention. Now many of the association’s members also considered to be in my same disenfranchised category receive heightened value in their convention experience through my event. However, most associations do not have an “Ed” doing something for the outcast members. This is now the time for me to break my arm patting myself on the back.

Let’s talk about your association or society. How do you reel in the self-exiled members before they quit your organization? Below I have listed a few of the questions that I ask of boards of directors when facilitating strategic board planning retreats. Regardless of your position; paid staff or volunteer leader, asking the questions below at your next board meeting will cause an honest discussion around the topic of member engagement.

1. Do you know what really matters to the disconnected and have you attempted to deliver what they want?

Let’s face it, how can you deliver value, at any level, to a person if you have no idea as to what they consider to be valuable? I can’t tell you how many “happy sheet” surveys I’ve completed that asked the wrong questions; I believe for fear of hearing what people really think. What’s a happy sheet? A questionnaire that is written in such a way to elicit only one answer—yep, everything’s wonderful. As you know, when the ostrich’s head is in a hole, its rear is quite exposed—not the intended result. You can only improve the right things at the right time when you know what urgently needs to be fixed.

2. Are the disenfranchised members really grumbling contrarians or do they simply want different kinds of value—value that is not as easily delivered?

What do you do when you’ve picked all the low laying fruit—go away, or get a ladder? For many in association or society leadership, going the course is always the safe direction. However, to grow your organization, you must consider the needs of those that fall to the wake of the mainstream.

You are either green and growing or ripe and rotting. Many mature associations have had to merge with others that are involved in their industry. First, perhaps there shouldn’t have been multiple associations. But, I’m quite sure the genesis of the newer organization was out of discontentment from particular segments of the original organization’s membership. A new organization was formed and some time later dissolved, or the original organization met its demise. At the end of the day, to keep members engaged in an organization, they must receive value. The value might be that of, being valued or that of other more tangible issues—regardless, the value must be received.

3. Do you allow your organization’s Past President Good Ol’ Boys’ Club to be the organization’s puppet master?

Let me count the ways I’ve seen this, and let’s be clear on what really is, a puppet master. For this article, I define the puppet master as the person or persons behind the scene that pull the strings controlling the puppets. Am I calling your elected board members and paid staff puppets? I’ll just say this, if the shoe fits…

I realize this discussion will anger the good ol’ boys, but shouldn’t the elected board, in concert with the paid staff, run the organization? The insidiousness of this puppet master dynamic is that for many who want to make a difference, they would just as soon not make waves. And, for the single blade of grass, or member, that does try to rise above, the puppet master acts as a lawn mower and chops that blade, or member, down to the level of the rest. So why go through the trouble? Let the puppet masters pull the strings.

4. Are your board members continually seeking to deliver more perceived value to the organization’s members?

Wow, you mean improve? Sorry for being so cynical, it is just that I have worked with so many associations that are riddled with volunteer leaders that want the privileges and stature of a board member position but are unwilling to accept the same responsibility and perform their duties in a timely manner. Also I have seen plenty of paid staffers that are on cruise control, enjoying the comfortable ride. To continually deliver more member value means to get off cruise control and take some risks.

5. Why are you being so resistant to change?

What is it about this particular sacred cow that makes it so untouchable? This is the touchy question that gets many “doers and risk takers” chopped down to size and most aggravates the good ol’ boy puppet masters. Want an example? Try discontinuing your golf tournament—never you, mind that it has lost money the last five years in a row! Damn it! We’re not giving up the event! Now that’s settled!

The hard question for many trade associations or professional societies is this, are we trying to serve the members or are we trying to perpetuate the association’s legacy (the past president’s good ol’ boy club)? As a writer and professional speaker, I live in a glass house and will admit to being part of the good ol’ boys’ club in organizations of which I have once been a member. Fortunately, I realized when it was time for me to leave—I was just too stubborn to change.

An analogy I’ll draw; back in the days when I taught mostly sales training. I would tell a sales manager that they would have to fire that star sales person that left a wake of excrement behind and demoralized the rest of the sales force with his or her behavior. While they were the top sales person, they greatly damaged the sales department and the organization by their unacceptable behavior—that was being accepted. As such, this greatly flawed top performer became a heavily weighted ball and chain to the department and organization rather than a stabilizing anchor. At some point the sales manager was going to have to let go—in my opinion—the sooner the better. This opens a door for the rest of the organization to improve. It’s just hard to let go of what is comfortable—no matter the damage that’s being done.

Yes, the larger your membership, the better your organization can serve your industry. Might it make good sense to give up one member if you get ten in return?

The key to safeguarding your organization’s future…is to research, embrace, and maximize…your member ROI.

Association Members Must Become Evangelists (874 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Members recruiting new members

If you expect your trade association or professional society to serve you well; you must become an actively engaged evangelist for your association. You must bellow it from the rooftops; the value you receive from your membership. You must tell all your colleagues, competitors, and suppliers why they too should become members. It is your job to drive a continual membership recruitment campaign. More members, among other things, mean a louder voice in legislative matters, more programs to help you improve your business, and better affinity programs.

A trade association or professional society should be a wonderful, industry wide strategic alliance enabling all stakeholders to harness the collective strength and thereby receiving the value they need. The members that are actively involved as functionaries in their industry should be the ones driving an association, not the paid staff and not the suppliers. Your paid staff members already get their benefit—a paycheck. Not to diminish the roll of paid staff however, there is a different dynamic between the persons that ”pay-to-play,” members and associate members verses the ones that are “paid-to-play,” the staff. The times when the paid staff experience this “pay-to-play” dynamic is mostly if they participate at ASAE, MPI, PCMA, etc. where they too are a paying member.

The suppliers always get a huge amount of value from participation—networking with their customers. However, it is you, the functionary member that stands to gain the most through participation. At this point I must stop and be clear to you on the idea that I firmly believe suppliers, or affiliate members, should be able to participate in your association and should hold board positions. But, too many associations are currently addicted to the opiate of having their suppliers do all the work of driving their industry’s association. It is not their job—it’s yours! Your suppliers will happily do all the work, but by relinquishing your responsibility, you will only weaken your association.

What about the paid association staff? Sure, their job is to enable, support, and encourage the membership. If a prospective member calls or emails an inquiry, they are to instantly jump on it, get out some membership marketing materials, and then forward the inquiry to the volunteer membership committee to close the deal. If staff does their job and does not function as a stumbling block or impediment, then there is no excuse—every inquiry should be converted to membership.

However, if the paid staff is too busy doing the work that the volunteer leaders and their committees should be doing, then they will not instantly jump on membership inquiries, and another potential member is lost. Remember, more members mean a louder voice in legislative matters, more programs to help you improve your business, and better affinity programs.

Association board members always receive a higher level of value from their association membership by virtue of their increased engagement. This is the reason that I refuse to conduct my member value process for determining the yearly sustainable real-dollar value at board meetings in contrast to conducting the process at member meetings. Board member numbers will always be higher. To become an evangelist for your association, you must truly understand your return on investment (ROI). When you are clear on the yearly ROI you receive from your membership investment of time and financial resources, you will want to shout from the rooftops.

For over a decade I have been traveling North America conducting my proprietary member value process at association and society meetings. I have NEVER found an organization to deliver less than a 2X ROI—many deliver 10X. One, the American Society for Quality, delivers 50X. While there may be an exception, my belief is that the collaborative efforts of association members will always deliver value—the challenge is that most associations really cannot quantitatively document the actual value they deliver. Unfortunately, that can leave the perception in the minds of some members that their trade association or professional society is falling down on the job. While some organizations might, in fact, be falling down on the job—most deliver value quite well.

I have always advocated that business is about results, not excuses; and as such so should associations and its members. To get results, become an evangelist for your association. For squeezing even more value from your association or professional society membership, my recommendation to you:

    1. Learn more about the services your association offers and pledge to take advantage of the value for which you are already paying. Admit it; you’ve been throwing money away.
    2. Attend your association’s annual convention this year—no excuses.
    3. Volunteer at the convention to do something for the following year.
    4. Get to know your association’s paid staff as they can be a stellar resource in times of need.
    5. Commit to yourself that two days a week you’ll take only a 45 minute lunch rather than your usual hour and a half. With that extra time, you’ll call non-association members that are involved in your industry and ask for the order—invite them to participate through membership.
    6. Do more year-round networking with the members of your association. They truly are an invaluable resource in both good and bad times.

FAQs for Association Executives

1) How does turning members into evangelists improve membership growth more effectively than staff-driven marketing?

Member evangelism is peer-to-peer credibility. Prospects trust colleagues far more than brochures or email campaigns. When members can clearly articulate their personal Member ROI, recruitment becomes relational rather than promotional—leading to higher conversion and retention.

2) What role should staff play if members are expected to lead recruitment?

Staff should enable, equip, and rapidly respond to inquiries—but not replace volunteer leadership. Their job is to remove friction, provide materials, and route prospects to engaged member leaders who can “close the deal” through lived experience.

3) Why do highly engaged members (especially board members) report higher ROI?

Engagement exposes members to more resources, relationships, and opportunities. Board members aren’t receiving “special value”—they are accessing more of the value already available. This demonstrates that ROI is directly proportional to involvement.

4) How can we help members understand and quantify their Member ROI so they want to evangelize?

Facilitate structured Member ROI exercises at meetings and conferences. When members calculate real-dollar value derived from networking, education, advocacy, and affinity programs, enthusiasm to promote membership becomes natural.

5) What happens when suppliers or associate members end up doing most of the association’s work?

The association becomes vendor-driven rather than member-driven. While suppliers add value, overreliance weakens ownership among functionary members, reducing engagement, leadership development, and long-term sustainability.

6) Why is member-led recruitment critical to legislative strength and industry influence?

A larger, more engaged membership amplifies the association’s voice in advocacy. Legislators listen to organizations that represent a broad, active constituency, not passive dues payers.

7) How should we redesign our membership inquiry process to align with this philosophy?

Every inquiry should trigger an immediate staff response followed by personal outreach from a membership committee volunteer. Speed plus peer connection dramatically increases conversion.

8) What practical behaviors should associations encourage if we want members to become evangelists?

Encourage convention attendance, volunteering, year-round networking, and intentional outreach to non-members. Evangelism grows from involvement, not obligation.

9) How does this philosophy impact retention as much as recruitment?

Members who actively share value are continually reminded of their own ROI. Evangelists rarely lapse because they are emotionally and professionally invested.

10) What is the executive takeaway from this article for boards and CEOs?

Membership growth is not a marketing function—it is a culture. Associations that intentionally build a culture of Member ROI awareness and evangelism experience stronger growth, retention, and industry influence.

Membership Recruitment Evangelism Needs a Little Push (942 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Member Recruitment Evangelism

Membership Recruitment Evangelism…while the term evangelism is generally used in conjunction with religion, past evangelicals have proven to be exceedingly effective marketers. Case in point; Apostle Paul is considered by many to be the world’s most effective marketer.

Evangelism, simply put is the selling of an idea. In this article I’m going to focus on how paid association staff and executives can help their volunteer members to spread the association membership word to colleagues, competitors, and suppliers. And, why it is in the members’ best interest to make the effort. Yes, evangelism needs a little push in these uncertain economic times.

Be an Enabler.

Association staff members are in a unique position to be either an enabler or an encumbrance. The issues at stake might be of control—whose association is it? An issue might be of sharing the workload or areas of accountability? When your staff says, the members are not doing their job; you need to explore why and repair the situation.

When a potential member contacts the association office, is there a sense of urgency among the association staff to respond quickly and to also forward the inquiry to the volunteer membership director? If not, why not?

What about recognition? Something as simple as acknowledgement, perhaps in your newsletter, can go a long way to encourage your members to become membership evangelists. I want to be clear in the idea; I’m suggesting recognition, not incentive!

Give ‘em the Tools.

If one has only a hammer in their toolbox, then one will naturally see every problem as a nail. What do I mean by this? Believe it or not, legislative issues are not a member-only value. I have worked with too many associations that focus on legislative issues to their chagrin when it comes to delivering value to their members. Since a non-member also receives the same value from an association’s legislative efforts, the association has to offer quite a number of other services, products, access and assistance that holds a monetary value in the minds of members and prospective members.

Knowing the yearly sustainable real dollar value (line item by line item) that your members receive from their investment, and non-members are denied, is a fabulous tool for your membership recruitment evangelists. This helps both in the area of member retention and recruitment. Besides bringing them in, you’ve got to keep them engaged or you’ll lose them quick.

Build the Brand.

Your association is a brand, both in the minds of members and non-members. To members the brand has a particular meaning—most likely very positive. To the non-member what meaning does the brand hold? The brand must not have much of a meaning in the mind of the non-member or they would have joined in and already become a member. When a non-member states that membership is too expensive, what they are really saying is that they really no not see the value.

For your members to be effective evangelists, they must have a crystal clear meaning of the brand in their own minds before they can eloquently articulate the virtues of membership to the non-believers.

Brand means more than a logo, the look of your web site or the beauty of your headquarter office. Your association brand is the total collection of all that you are, do, and represent—including the current members that actively participate. What can you, the association executive, do to make your association a better and stronger brand in the minds of your industry participants and functionaries?

Show ‘em the Money.

I’ll never forget this particular Sunday afternoon when my older son and I visited our local Circuit City big box store to purchase a television for his bedroom. After we made our selection and paid the bill, the salesperson locked the sale indelibly in my mind. He spent a few minutes congratulating my son and I on our choice of television, and repeatedly assured us that we would enjoy that purchase for years to come. He cut buyer’s remorse off at the pass! If there was any chance that we might return our purchase—it disappeared instantly.

Show your evangelists the money. No, I don’t mean pay them for bringing colleagues, competitors or suppliers into your association—I am against membership recruitment incentive programs. Show them the money they save, or make, as a result of their membership.

Many years ago, in my days of outside sales, I learned a powerful lesson—if you don’t tell them, they don’t know you did it. In my seminars and consulting I call this documented value added. Simply put, when you do something for another— something that they consider being valuable to them—you had better tell them that you did it or in their mind, you never did.

Mr. or Ms. Executive Director, this statement is for you…every time you or one of your staff members helps an association member, take a moment to write and mail that member a note thanking them for the opportunity to serve. And, mention what you did for them.

As an example, “Dear Member, thank you for the opportunity to help you overcome your code challenge (or anything you did for them). It was heart warming to know that we at the National XYZ Association were able to overcome the $5,000 fine that the local municipality wanted to impose.”

Do this, and you are showing them the money, locking in their desire to remain a member, and will increase the likelihood that they will share the story with someone in your industry that is not yet a member of your association. Yes, membership evangelists do sometimes need a little push.

Industry Supporters and Value Seekers; a CSE’s Dilemma (984 words)

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Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

What’s In It For Me is what every association or society member ponders…yearly.

Exploring the Chief Staff Executive’s (CSE) dilemma…I have one important question to ask you. How much more could your organization do for its members if the yearly sustainable real-dollar value of membership was known?

My work with associations and societies has revealed that today, there are less and less “industry supporters” and more and more “value seekers” in the market place. Value seekers need more than the good feeling that they have supported their industry on order to join and retain membership in an association or society.

The Dilemma

In attempting to deal with the dilemma that has caused the above question to be so crucially important for the survival of today’s associations and societies, we must first digress. Especially evident in mature industries are the number of Baby Boomer aged supporters. Many joined at the urging of their fathers who were also in the business. Your Baby Boomer supporters grew up in a world where Dad took care of revenue generation and Mom took care of everything else. Dads then had much more leisure time away from the family available to them than the Dads of today.

Sacred Cows

The sacred cow activities, services, and products that your organization offers to its members are relics of the past world order. Older members surly recognize that these are losing propositions for the organization but are also their connection to the past. This connection creates value for some, yet rarely for enough to justify the loss to your organization. Resources are squandered to serve just a very few. Those same resources could be, and should be, invested in other programs that deliver a high return on investment (ROI) for a greater number of members.

The Value Seekers

Many of your prospective members are currently in their 20s and 30s, married, and have a spouse that also works. These folks have less, away from the family leisure time, and want to make the most of the time they have. Frequently, association and society meetings and activities have recreation or leisure elements built into the event—a draw for the Baby Boomers but not so much for their younger counterparts. These younger folks are much more computer and electronic communication savvy than their seniors and can find the industry specific training they need (which has been the decades old stalwart of associations) elsewhere.

The Advocacy Trap

While nobody will argue that traditionally associations and societies have done phenomenal work in the area of affecting legislation. This is one of the great benefits of large numbers collaborating for a common good. Additionally, nobody will argue that almost every player in a particular industry reaps the benefit of an organization’s advocacy efforts—regardless of their membership, or lack there of. The problem that has emerged for associations and societies is that the industry supporters, many of the Baby Boomers, are retiring. The “supporters” belonged to their trade association or society for a very different reason; to support their industry. The younger “value seekers” want something different, they want a return on their time and dollar investment. Since advocacy creates value for all, there is no actual return on investment because everyone gets the value regardless of membership.

Today’s Challenge

Associations and societies of today must show ROI in order to retain and recruit members. Organizations that have traditionally relied on their advocacy work to show value are finding themselves coming up short in today’s ROI column. Currently, your challenge is to create programs, activities, trainings, services, and anything else that deliver actual ROI for the dues their members pay. While many associations already do a pretty darn good job in this area, they also tend to do an awful job in measuring and communicating that ROI value to their current members and prospective members.

The Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process

Valuating the ROI on your various programs, services, and activities requires both art and science. There are a number of formulas (the science) for determining ROI and they are all based on having real-dollar numbers. What I believe to be the most honest way of determining the real-dollar value of any program, service or activity is to ask your members. This needs to be done in a live session facilitated by a non-partial third party (the art). Association staff and volunteer leaders have high-value determination agendas that generally hamstring the truth. Using audience feedback technology takes away risk by allowing anonymity. I want members to support, fight for, and stand by their valuation numbers, not to just offer random amounts.

When You Need Help

I have made a number of articles and other resources on this subject available to you at no charge; just visit http://www.rigsbee.com/association.htm and help yourself. I am now going to make a statement that to many, will likely sound quite self serving on my part. Conducting an honest member valuation process takes a skilled facilitator—you just cannot grab someone off the street to do the job. Please, please, please do not blow it with a lousy facilitator. And yes, the next potentially self-serving statement is this. I created the process, have been conducting the process for over a decade, and am darn good at it. If you do not hire me, at least hire someone as good as me. It is worth the expense to do this right.

Now You’ve Got an ROI Number

What now? Once you can honestly tell current members and prospective members how much they will get back for each dollar they invest in membership, you need to shout if from the roof tops. This information should be included in renewal notices, articles in your magazine or newsletter, on your web site, and everywhere possible. This is what the younger people in your industry need to hear. They need to hear why it is a good business decision to join your organization and pay their dues—year after year. They need to know what’s in it for them. Watch the video below for an effective tool for sharing member ROI.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Member Recruitment: Grass Root Volunteers Vs Paid Staff Driven (1170 words)

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It’s an association or society executives’ perpetual question, “Which group is best suited to lead the charge in new member recruitment?” What is your answer; the professionals, the amateurs, or both? Today, this question may be more crucial then ever before.  Let’s explore what each side brings to the member recruitment, assimilation, and retention table.

Paid Staff (Professionals) Driven Benefits:

  • Stuff gets done; since member recruitment can be part of their job description there is a strong motivation to get the job done. One will rarely hear the excuse for non-performance; I have been busy running my own business.
  • Consistency; when member recruitment is one’s job, or part of it, there will generally be more of a consistent outreach effort and a decreased likelihood that things will fall through the cracks.
  • Dedicated resources; the professional staff will always have access to all the latest and greatest brochures and other member recruitment tools that your organization produces. They will also have a predetermined amount of time that they will dedicate daily to make recruitment sales calls.
  • Clear message; the professional staff will regularly communicate a clear, and hopefully scripted, recruitment benefit message. Making multiple calls daily will allow the professional to hone their sales message taking it to the simplest common denominator.
  • Knowledge; generally a staff person, working with member recruitment daily, will have a greater depth of the organization’s membership features (even beyond board members) and how the prospective member can utilize those features to become benefits of membership.
  • Outsider looking in; this offers a different perspective from the functioning industry member that holds membership in any given association or society. This different perspective, clear of industry jading and erroneous perceptions can be of substantial benefit in member recruitment activities.

Volunteer Leaders (Amateurs) Driven Benefits:

  • More authentic; because the volunteer member’s recruitment effort will come primarily from the heart rather than the brain, the emotional connection to an industry colleague will be dramatically more powerful than an office staff person with their highly scripted message that might come off too slick.
  • Peer-to-peer value; members will have better access to colleagues within the industry and also command a high-level of credibility.
  • Word-of-mouth; members in an industry can create a buzz through their suppliers and customers. The active functionaries in any industry, geographically dispersed, interact more frequently and intensively than can a bureaucrat.
  • More people available; if you look at it from a numbers game perspective, hundreds of volunteers geographically dispersed and talking to colleagues will deliver more industry in-person touches than would be possible of staff.
  • Personalized examples; there is unequaled persuasively power in the personal success story. Members can explain from doing, rather than observing, how their trade association or professional society helped them to solve a problem, access a business opportunity, or delivered membership features that created high level ROI (return on investment) to them personally or to their business.
  • Industry jargon; naturally someone that is actively participating in his or her industry will have a deeper understanding of insider industry speak. The exception is a long-term association employee. However, they will generally by that time, be in a top executive position and most likely not involved in daily member recruitment efforts.
  • More passion; for the member that truly understands and appreciates the value delivered by his or her association, they will have the propensity to become a true member recruitment evangelist.

The challenge for many organizations is that very few paid staffers will ever become member recruitment evangelists for their employer the way volunteer leaders and members might.

Member Retention

You want engaged members rather than simply numbers. When an organization relies on commissioned staff to recruit members the motivation is simply getting numbers. What comes with those numbers is high-quantity drop-off. This is because there has been a minimal effort to assimilate new members. Conversely, when an active member recruits a new member, the likelihood of that member helping the new member to assimilate into the organization is very high. My personal recommendation is for active members to only recruit one member a year. It is very manageable and very likely that the member that did the recruiting will help their new colleague to assimilate into the organization by inviting them to the coming annual meeting, take them around, and introduce them to other members.

Membership Evangelism; What’s It Take?

  • When an individual member understands how a larger membership organization might serve them better, they become passionate about spreading the word. They do this for two reasons. First, they want to share the wealth with all the members in their industry and second, they desire growth so they might enjoy additional benefits.
  • Effective recruitment tools are an absolute must for members to become evangelists for their organization. These tools are not used as a crutch but for credibility builders and roadmaps to tell others their story.
  • Recognition at any level, and for any task, delivers reinforcement that their actions and results are appreciated. And for some, recognition is a bit like a life’s scorecard. It never hurts and always helps; so why not do it?
  • Emotional ownership in organization is developed through an unwavering belief that the organization serves their industry, their company, and themselves in a way that no other could do. When a member believes in their organization’s delivery of highly valuable member benefits, the organization effectively “owns them.” The member can’t wait to shout from the rooftops how their association serves them. After all, they made the fabulous decision to join, didn’t they?
  • Association staff and volunteer leaders should pay attention to the members that are highly-engaged in your organization, even though they may not select to be part of the leadership. These highly engaged members should be encouraged, asked about their opinions, and in all manner appreciated and recognized for their passionate effort to spread the word about your organization; even if they are contrarians!
  • Membership evangelists, above all else, desire to help others. Get out of their way—even if they do not follow all of the rules to the level you desire. You are not looking for well mannered church mice to spread the word. Rather, you are looking for risk-takers that truly desire to make a difference, to do your membership recruitment bidding.

My Preference

If you are truly looking to recruit new members that will be engaged in your association or society, and if the choice was mine—I’d have the volunteer leaders in charge of the member recruitment effort with the support staff highly engaged in the process. I’d have the volunteers sell the idea of membership to their colleagues and have the professional staff do the follow up paperwork, answer additional questions, and collect the dues. I believe this to be the best utilization of members and staff. However, if you are just looking for revenue through numbers, go ahead and have the commissioned office staff lead the effort.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Member Recruitment in a Down Economy (1226 words)

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The trade associations and professional societies, especially ones that serve mature industries have been hit particularly hard the last couple years with their membership rosters. Unfortunately, the old member value delivery and recruitment formulas seem not to be working like they once did.

First Explore Belonging

While there are numerous reasons to belong to an association or society, most fall into one of two categories: career/business improvement and industry/profession affiliation.

Credentials & Certification

Organizations that offer valuable credentialing tend to lock members in on both of the above reasons. The idea of value in certification and credentialing is important to explore. As an example, the American Society for Quality offers a credential to its members that actually translate into an additional yearly income of approximately $5,000 for the member that hold the credential.

Conversely, many other organizations offer credentials but invest no money in the promotion of the credentials to the marketplace thereby rendering the credential of value only to the person that holds said credential. Value is the key. Just developing credentialing and certification programs without investing in the market promotion rarely offers actual real-dollar value to members. This old formula no longer works.

Membership for Business Improvement

Generally most persons that join their trade association or professional society do so with the hope of securing ideas and help in business and career improvement. Or put another way, “Show me the money!”

Members need and want to learn but unfortunately, in the name of “industry specific,” much of the education that is offered to members during recessionary times is more incestuous than innovative. The reason for this is that organizations can get “free” programming form suppliers and consultants. And, the organizations actually, truly, and erroneously believe that the industry consultants and suppliers will not “sell” during their education sessions.

Doing what you have always done and expecting different results is the age old definition for insanity. Looking within an industry in difficult economic times is just that—insanity. The innovation and new answers will come from outside. This is where organizations must look to offer true value to their members rather than be tightfisted with their financial resources.

Membership for Affiliation

As mentioned earlier, credential availability is an important reason for association or society membership.  Another “soft” reason is simply the desire to participate and assist one’s industry or profession. This was a primary motivator for the Baby Boomers and those that came before. However, today’s emerging leaders are focusing more on some sort of a return on their time and money investment. No longer is affiliation in itself enough of a reason.

Political Advocacy

Traditionally one of the important reasons for membership that encompasses both business improvement and affiliation has been to demonstrate strong political voice. Associations and societies are effectively the most important collective that business and professional persons can and should join. These groups, when demonstrating great numbers can truly affect legislation at the federal, state, and local levels.

The current problem is that so much of the advocacy work done by membership organizations delivers value to an industry or profession regardless of membership. Many have discovered that they get the same value as members without holding membership. This phenomenon greatly diminishes the return on investment of membership. The double edged sword that many organizations are currently facing is that they need more members to do more advocacy but larger numbers of industry players are sitting on the side-lines enjoying the value without investment or participation.

Are there answers? Sure there are. One answer that many organizations have employed is through their credentialing and certification programs, where those that hold the credentials or certifications enjoy increased business while those that do not, do not! In this area, a restructuring might be in order.

Members through Members Verses Incentive

This is an age old dilemma, one that is currently getting plenty of play in board meetings across the landscape. The easy approach is to offer incentives or commissions to members and paid staff to recruit new members. Regrettably, more frequently than not, is the fact that this method simply delivers a turnstile of members as opposed to long-term member retention. Anybody in sales that has been successful over the long-term will attest to the fact that it is less expensive to keep customers than to find new ones. So goes membership organizations.

The best approach for long-term member retention is the grassroots approach where members invite colleagues. This method gets a better class of member and had the built in member retention system; one-on-one mentoring. To successfully adopt any grassroots member recruitment campaign, the current membership has to be armed with the proper tools. The most important tool with which an organization can arm their membership is the yearly sustainable, or reoccurring, real-dollar value of membership return on investment (ROI) number. This is where most organizations fail miserably.

Member Benefits Verses Features of Membership

Through extensively researching the web sites of membership organizations I have discovered that few understand member benefits. Benefits are the things that make the members’ lives better. The features of membership are the items available to members to utilize or ignore. As example, access to an affinity program is a feature of membership. The member benefit that the affinity program is that it delivers more business, more money, cost savings, etc. to the member.

So many organizations that I have worked with offer affinity programs similar to those that are offered from outside the organization. If the price benefit ratio is not substantially greater with membership, for this membership feature, there is no value. This is the case in so many situations because the organization is enjoying a revenue commission from the affinity program provider which frequently eliminates the financial benefit to members. When an organization espouses that members should support their organization by participating in a particular “additional value-less” affinity program, that is old paradigm thinking and one of the important reasons for lack of member renewals.

Organizations must find products, services, and programs that deliver real-dollar value to members—far beyond what non-member industry participants may enjoy.

Hidden Gold

Membership organizations’ boards of directors and paid staff should regularly mine for gold. Most organizations have assets that are of value to industry players; access being an important asset.  As an example, if an organization offers member access to non-members, the differential between member and non-member price is the honest member value that can be computed into member ROI. Most likely that differential will be a small number. However, if that same access was available only to members, or the differential was greatly increased, the perceived value of membership would also increase. Take this idea throughout all the silos or departments or your organization and I guarantee that you will find gold; more possible member value.

Getting Them to Join

The documented reason for over 70% of members that do not renew their membership is due to their lack of perceived membership value. The number one reason industry stakeholders do not join your organization, is not because of the answer most offered; lack of time, but rather because of their perceived lack of value in membership.

The way to get industry players to join and retain membership in difficult economic times is to offer unarguable and easily demonstrated high membership ROI. It truly is easier than you think.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Member Recruitment with an Eye on Assimilation (767 words)

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As I read comments on member-get-a-member ideas by association membership directors at a Linkedin Group discussion, I can’t help from wondering if they are even considering member retention. An important thought for association and society executives is; do you want the instant gratification of a membership spike or the satisfaction of sustainable organic growth?

Incentives for Member Recruitment

Giving current members an incentive for recruiting new members can be a great way to temporarily boost membership numbers but is a poor method for true organizational organic growth. This is similar to a sales person that is only interested in making the sale and not interested in developing long-term customers. Instant gratification is rarely the best course of action for sustainable organizational growth.

What’s the true long-term organizational value derived from an aggressively competitive member recruiting new members solely for his or her ego and need for the instant gratification of winning a contest? Can, or will, this aggressively competitive recruiter also aggressively help to assimilate the new recruits? I don’t think so, and without successful assimilation, there will be no retention.

The Recruitment Myth

Turnstile membership recruitment is a waste of valuable resources and ultimately damages an organization’s reputation. Rather than having advocates and evangelists in the marketplace, praising the benefits of membership; turnstile member recruitment fosters disgruntled ex-members that extol the perceived indifference that they experienced while holding membership. In this situation, your organization would have been better off not having them as a member in the first place.

New Member Assimilation

You know this, your new members receive huge value from attending your conventions and conferences—when they have a guide and mentor serving as their pathfinder. The challenge with the above mentioned aggressive recruiter is that said recruiter has no time to be a pathfinder for several freshman members.  Sometimes organizations are sophisticated enough to assign first time conference attendees a mentor, however this is only minimally effective because of no prior relationship.

The absolute best is for a member to get a member—only one per year—urge the new member to attend the organization’s upcoming conference and be their pathfinder and assimilator throughout the meeting. The new member feels included, benefits from educational and networking opportunities, and develops an emotional ownership in their membership of your organization. This is the crucial foundation for any long-term member.

What’s Missing?

The reason that so many member-get-a-member campaigns fail to deliver long-term members is because the foundation upon which the new members were sold their membership is one of sand rather than bedrock. What’s missing is a credible member recruitment tool that explains in real-dollar terms what the member gets in return for their investment into the new organization. Without this critical link, member recruiters can only arm-twist or offer hollow promises of the benefits of membership. Member recruiters must be able to prove in real-dollar terms that membership is a good business decision.

Changing Member Recruiters Motivation

To transform your members from aggressive recruiters that are motivated solely based on the instant gratification of wining a contest or filling their pockets with incentives; to advocates and hopefully, evangelists, does take smart planning and implementation. Your current members must truly understand and believe, to their core, that their association or society delivers an excellent return on their investment of both money and time. They must have a strong emotional ownership in the idea that membership is a good business decision. They must also completely understand how a larger and stronger organization will have the capability to deliver even more measurable value to every stakeholder. There is always the fear that if the organization grows too much the intimacy will disappear. The organization must also demonstrate through its long-term planning strategy that there are future programs being developed to sustain the valued intimacy.

Evangelists or Detractors, the Choice is Yours

How your organization approaches growth will largely determine results. If the instant gratification of an immediate membership spike is important to your organization, you will ultimately develop more detractors than evangelists. However, if your organization is willing to adopt an organic grassroots approach to growth, the benefit received by the organization and its members will be transformational. Take this path and your organization will enjoy in its ranks, legions of member recruitment evangelists. Your organization will also enjoy higher than normal member retention—evangelists stay, while detractors leave.

Do you really need to give your members a $25 Starbucks card to motivate them to tell a colleague or competitor why it is a good business decision to hold membership in your organization?

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

For Whom Is All the Pomp & Circumstance? (1378 words) 

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Let’s deal with another association sacred cow; ego driven meetings. This is a true “elephant in the living room” situation—one where we all look at it but deny its existence. Does your meeting really need all the frills, extras, and perks?

First let’s ask ourselves, for whom is the meeting really intended? Is it for the active working industry stakeholders? Then why all the frivolous meeting trappings—who are we trying to impress? Or might it be to impress non-members? If we are trying to impress non-members with our meeting “smoke and mirrors,” does that mean that we have no honest ROI (return on investment) to offer in return for one’s annual membership dues of conference registration?

If we want our industry stakeholders to consistently support our meetings, we need to cut out the fat and deliver the meat. Frills are fat—meat is education and effective networking. Control extravagant extras that deliver no real ROI to the attendees. If only a few members golf, but we are keeping a deceased golf tournament on life-support—why? Let’s stop the unnecessary spending and deliver real value for every dollar that is invested in our meeting registration, hotel stay, and travel.

The Real Cost

Every meetings industry magazine features at least one article annually on reducing meeting cost. Even the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association puts on three “Affordable Meetings” conferences a year. It is the same old tired saw, “We’ve got to do more with less.” But, is that true? Line item veto is the necessary tool to employ here.

For years, associations have been able to get “Meeting Partners,” aka, vendor sponsors to pop, in many cases, for the lion’s share of the meeting cost. But wait, today the vendors are expecting ROI—now what do we do? Moving past my caustic cynicism, may I please point out the elephant? Let’s talk about unnecessary frills, elite member benefits, and ego driven decisions.

Unnecessary Frills

While every meeting and industry is different, what remains constant is the discretionary spending of the executive director and volunteer president. This is where there are generally plenty of sacred cows to grind. Does the volunteer president really need a suite? Perhaps it is necessary; but only if he or she hosts nightly events for the membership.

Hauling staff across the country to an annual meeting can be a nice reward for the staff member but first do the cost-benefit analysis. Many times it will be more cost effective to hire local temporary help. But the earned flights and staff rooms are free. No they’re not. I have personally negotiated and signed enough meeting contracts to know that this is erroneous thinking.

“The general session staging was so beautiful and I was really motivated to attend the meeting because Mr. or Ms. National Celebrity was keynoting. “ Really—do you really hear this? I don’t think so. If you have to pay a national celebrity a hundred grand to motivate people to come to your meeting, what does that say about the value of your meeting? Sorry, but not much. Deliver the meat rather than the fat—give the attendees something that will actually make their business and personal life better. Deliver usable skills, knowledge, and perspectives. 

Elite Member Benefits

What about room upgrades for the board members and past presidents? Do you really think the upgrades are free? Not on your life; the rank and file members are paying for those upgrades in their nightly room rate. How about extravagant board dinners? The adage of rewarding board members for their service is questionable. They get more value than do other members through their high-levels of engagement. There is also another reality; some of the board members evade their responsibility and are bankrupt of action and follow through. Why reward them? While I’m not suggesting that board member recognitions are valueless, just that they must be tempered with results. Otherwise, that spending will easily diminish the ROI for the rest of the members.

Elite member benefits manifest in the most unusual ways. As an example; one association in North America gives its president, each year, a travel budget of $25,000 to visit other “sister” organizations around the globe. Does that help the North American members’ ROI? Absolutely not, there is zero benefit to the membership in that presidential perk. It is just a bonus the board voted into policy for itself. Would the money be better spent promoting the association’s accreditation program or possibly offering better food at their convention? Sure it would be more logical, but then it is an ego driven decision.

Associations must be responsible and look close at line items and be aware of the times. Like the challenge of overly lavish salaries and benefits for municipal, state, and federal employees, during a time of budget shortfalls. When public sector employment packages eclipse those of the private sector, the private sector will revolt. Associations must consider the same conundrum as it is easier for association members to vote with their checkbooks than change their government.

Ego Driven Meeting

How wonderful is the yearly “President’s Theme” in the greater scheme of things? Truly, the association’s executive director should be the holder of the long-term vision—providing that the association can keep one. The yearly presidential zigzags in direction serve nobody except the president’s ego. Stop it already! The money spent is squandered, unnecessary, and just another cost escalator.

Then there are the president’s, executive director’s, and the conference chair’s discretionary funds to be used for whatever they want. Might some oversight be in order here? Those funds simply raise the total cost of meetings and thereby minimize the ROI for members.

The hard truth is that while social conscience activities give us warm fuzzes, they are generally ego-driven. These activities deliver no ROI to attendees other than good feelings, and possibly a bit of networking. Do those activities if you must, however be honest about the motivation and the ROI depreciating effect on your event. Yes, a few members will laud the association for its efforts; however most will just tolerate the event. The preponderance of our society members prefer to give in their own way, rather than being forced into the herd mentality.

All of the above might be considered necessary and at miniscule cost. However, on a singular basis each might be acceptable but collectively these line-items can dramatically increase the total cost of your meeting and greatly reduce the ROI that your members receive for their meeting attendance investment.

Don’t Forget the Sponsor Needs

All too frequently, pushed to the back burner of importance, is the ROI that meeting sponsors receive. Today, so many associations call their sponsors, “Partners” but what does that really mean? Partners: what a wonderfully erroneous and politically correct term. Partner is actually a legal term with a very specific meaning and liability for one another is connected. There is little ROI for sponsors in ego driven meetings—labels do not deliver value. Sponsors are there for one reason—to do business—to sell.

Meeting sponsors are an incredibly precious asset that associations must nurture and cherish. Otherwise, those comfortable and expected checks will go somewhere else. Just to get you thinking, how many companies are now channeling a healthy percentage of their marketing budgets away from traditional broadcast and print media toward social (Internet) media? Yearly, the numbers are quickly increasing.

Also to get you thinking, many hospitality companies have rechanneled their marketing budgets away from traditional trade expos in favor of hosted buyer events. Why, because the hosted events deliver better ROI. Vendors have choice. Many associations would be well served by transferring the hotel room upgrades away from board members and toward their valued “Partner” sponsors. This will help them to engage in their primary desired activity—selling.

Meetings, and their sponsoring organizations, must deliver honest real-dollar ROI to all members, in all categories, in order for them to consistently lend their support. Consider grinding up yet another sacred cow—the ego driven meeting. Also consider running all budgetary spending, regardless of new or legacy, through a cost-benefit analysis matrix to find more sacred cows for the grinder. Always error on the side of more ROI for your the members.