Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Member Engagement: Foster Communities of Reciprocity (776 words)

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When your members are actively engaged in your association or society, there are two important benefits to the organization. First is what usually comes to mind—member retention. Second, might not be so top of mind and that is member recruitment. When a member is enthusiastically engaged, he or she will aggressively talk about the organization to colleagues, suppliers and customers. There is no better source for member recruitment, which will have the follow-up member assimilation factor included, then member evangelists.

Fostering communities of reciprocity within your organization is the number one most important activity of association and society leaders and paid staff for encouraging high-level member engagement. However, there are frequently self-generated internal control issues that can easily squelch this kind of valuable participation. If a particular community is not, an association officially sanctioned and developed community, the leadership can all too easily consider the community a threat, menace, or danger to the organization’s traditional power structure. This is truly a disappointment to mature organizational value seekers.

Member Generated

There are no better organizational communities of reciprocity than the ones that are member founded. While these communities are all too frequently feared by the ensconced organizational leadership, they are nevertheless conduits of high member value. Dynamic individuals drive the creation of communities that they want, need, and desire.

If a contingent of your members want a particular community and develop it, they will value it and remain engaged as long as the community delivers value to them. It would only be a low-esteem, paranoid personality that would want to squelch this kind of community participation. Association leadership must embrace these emerging communities or chance the repercussion of member anger and drop-off.

Since these members generated communities deliver additional organizational value to members, association and society leaders really should be looking to put in place strategy and tactics that foster these communities rather than try to limit them. Frequently, geographical communities can evolve into formal “chapter” structure far quicker and more successfully than can or does organization developed structure.

Organization Generated

As I mentioned earlier, control is one of the primary reasons that organizational leadership will squelch member generated communities in favor of official organization created communities. Organizational created communities are fine and can deliver high levels of value if created for the correct reasons; primarily to deliver additional value to members. If revenue generation is the primary organizational driver, the communities have a higher propensity for failure.

Organizational created communities must serve the needs of members rather than the needs of the organization.  There also is the important challenge of relevance. Since member created communities are relevant to member needs, organizational created communities must do the same. The challenge with surveying members using an online system like Survey Monkey to determine wanted communities is that all to often members will state, give me this—and when created by the organization, the members never participate. This is because they have no skin in the game. Then association leaders surmise that members really do not want the communities.

Better, is for association leaders and staff to listen intently to off-handed remarks made by members during a variety of events and when enough members make a similar remark about a needed community—build that. This method is much more effective than the traditional leadership structure saying, “We need X, Y or Z” and then going out and building those communities without a champion.

Organization Assisted

Regarding a community that I personally built, even though the entrenched leadership of a particular association continually tried to kill the community; my good friend, W. Mitchell, frequently said to me, “The market decides.” With this in mind, the leadership could have and should have embraced a community being developed that gave scores of members an additional reason to attend the annual convention but fear of absolute control paralyzed any thoughts of collaboration, much less cooperation. Is this what you want?

A valuable hybrid approach will generally serve most organizations and their members well. This is where member generated communities are encouraged and assisted through a flexible support system put in place by the board of directors and administrated by the organization’s staff.

My urging to all association and society leaders, volunteer or paid, is to embrace communities of reciprocity that sprout within and around your organization. These communities should not be feared but rather embraced, nourished, and encouraged. The natural byproduct is additional perceived value your members will experience from membership in your organization, additional reasons to be engaged, and the organic development of member evangelists, singing the praises of your organization. Gosh, isn’t that so much better than animosity, distrust, and ambivalence?
Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Successful Partnering with Contrarian Members (918 words)

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If you are an organizational leader, and have been for any length of time, when the word contrarian comes up you see a particular person(s) in your mind’s eye. The words mal-content, disruptive, and pain-in-the-neck come to mind. But stop, I’d like to take a shot at changing your perception.

Admittedly, I am a Contrarian, with a capital “C” and quite frankly, am proud of it. Does that mean I embody all the above negative words associated with contrarians? Perhaps this is true to a few, but hopefully not to the masses. Contrarians simply see things differently and generally have the courage to buck the system—but rarely the patience to work within the (egregiously slow) system to make change.

Organizational Leaders’ Protectionism

Non-profit governance is generally a hybrid of paid and volunteer leaders. The paid leaders generally have a more bureaucratic mindset while the volunteer leaders frequently tend to be entrepreneurial. While this is an over simplification, I generally find it to be true. The two mindsets create healthy tension and generally guide the organization well.

The problem is when the volunteers and the paid leaders both have bureaucratic mindsets; they tend to fear growth, improvement, or change—preferring the status quo. Also, when leaders are not confident in their ability to lead due to newness of tenure, knowledge, or skills—saying no to everything is much safer that saying maybe, let alone yes.

Contrarianism Drivers

In order to successfully work with contrarians, one must first understand their mindset. These people sometimes disrupt simply for the sake of disruption but more often than not, it is to drive positive change and growth. This modality sees very different patterns, holes in your organization’s member value proposition, and is in a hurry for improvement. People that see the world contrary to the conventional are generally burning to make a difference and rarely are included in governing bodies because they are seen as too difficult.

When you as a leader take the time to get into the heads of contrarian members and see their perspective without the protectionism filters, you will discover an amazing world of new value propositions for your organization. Will it be easy—not on your life? This is because leaders that are in protectionism mode only see threats, bullying, and coercion as opposed to opportunity, innovation, and improvement.

Convergence through Communication

I recently had an amazing experience, the opportunity to present as the voice of contrarianism at the annual convention of ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership. I did this along with an association CEO (executive director) as the voice for organizational principle. What made it special is that we lectured on our actual partnership failures and successes spanning a decade and a half—and positively looking toward the future.

Feeling somewhat disenfranchised as a 10+ year member, I started a party group (Cigar PEG) years ago at the annual convention of the National Speakers Association (NSA)—which apparently was against the rules. At the time our executive director was very new in his job, and admittedly not overly confident. And to make things worse, the past, present, and future volunteer leadership was steeped in ultra-conservative protectionism—all except that particular year’s volunteer president. However, only one open-minded person was not enough to affect the tidal wave of fear.

While there was a modicum of mutual respect between myself and the association’s executive director throughout the years, in hind sight, communication was the determiner or good or poor relations. While both of us were quite culpable for the poor communication, as communication improved, so did the relationship. Sure, there was growth and confidence on the part of the executive director and age driven tolerance on my part, however communication was nevertheless the key.

Listen, Engage, and Utilize

Over the years the NSA executive director (later re-titled CEO) started realizing that my party group, that oddly enough became an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, was truly delivering high-level value to the organization by giving members one more reason to retain their membership and attend the annual convention. Consistently drawing 20% of the annual convention attendees to my party seemed to become more important over time. Eventually the leadership, paid and volunteer, realized that putting fewer roadblocks in front of the Cigar PEG paid off.

I believe the relationship turning point was when the leaders started truly listening to what the organization’s members were saying—we like the party and other activities around the Cigar PEG. Then the association started engaging; we developed and executed a partnership agreement that formalized relationship parameters. The utilization happened in many ways including the party and other events being listed along with other community groups in convention materials. Also the Cigar PEG became a default beta tester for the association—several activities tested and proven successful at the Cigar PEG became official NSA activities later. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the nearly $200,000 that, at the time of writing, the Cigar PEG had donated to the NSA Foundation’s Professional Speaker Benefit Fund—that helped also.

Never Say Never

Had someone a decade ago foretold that the NSA CEO and the Cigar PEG co-founder would be co-presenting at the ASAE annual convention—everyone in NSA would have laughed hysterically, or found themselves in mortal fear.  However spokespersons for the establishment and contrarians came together to share with association executives—that there is hope, that they too could build relationship bridges with their contrarian, dissident, disenfranchised, and mal-content members. So can you!

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

The Reluctant Board of Directors (1037 words)

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Membership organizations absolutely deliver ROI (return on investment) to their members. What are you afraid of, is the question I frequently find myself asking non-profit organization governing board members. I have observed, over the years, an alarming propensity of board members being remiss in their fiduciary responsibility to their organizations. Fiduciary encompasses more than simply financial good sense; also trust, loyalty, and prudence are crucial elements. I’ll get into this in a bit.

Do you really believe that your member value proposition is so low that you are afraid to measure it, is frequently my follow up query. I am truly amazed at the levels of fear board members exhibit in the area of articulating the value their organization delivers to its members. Many have such a deep-seated fear of revealing the ROI truth—that the number would be so low, thereby giving current membership justification to abandon ship. In my experience, reality is almost always the exact opposite. Organizations do deliver great ROI; they just have no clue as to how to measure it.

At the Core of Member Recruitment and Retention

I have been using my proprietary version of the active qualitative research method for over a decade to help associations and societies prove to their members and prospective members that membership is a good decision. I can categorically state that I have never worked with an organization that failed to deliver more real-dollar value than they charged for membership.

Unfortunately, out-dated and erroneous thinking obfuscates board members’ ability to engage in fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to their organizations. What I mean by this is simply that board members of non-profit organizations are just as responsible to the members as they are to the organization. This means that some board members will find it uncomfortable (but it is absolutely necessary) to stretch their awareness and understanding of available organizational growth and management tools—like proving ROI.

At the core of any membership organization is the criticality of proving that membership is a good personal or business decision—based on the organization’s stated mission. Most membership organizations, especially trade associations and professional societies deliver far more real-dollar value than they realize—but unfortunately rely on the fictitious MasterCard commercial phrase, believing that membership is: PRICELESS. FYI; membership is not priceless, unless of course it is free. Priceless sold to the Baby Boomers, but does not sell to the GenY stakeholders in your industry. The GenY crowd only buys ROI.

Let’s Talk Real Measurement

I applaud organizations in which staff members have gone through the soft research process of comparing member benefits value to what might be available in the marketplace or by other organizations. However there is a problem with this process. It is a simple problem. People believe that which they help to create. If staff did it alone, the research numbers are generally a no-sale, or fail to pass the all-important “smell test.” Staff-driven is an excellent first step but it does fall short of being an effective member recruitment tool.

When a reasonable sampling of members are facilitated through the active qualitative research method for determining what they believe to be the yearly sustainable real-dollar ROI of membership, the organization and its members can tout—our members have told us…

As an example, after three years and six qualitative research sessions, the American Society for Quality can confidently state that their members have told them that for every dollar invested in membership, members get over $50 back in real-dollar value. Can your organization make such a claim?

Selling Membership—Whose Job is it?

Membership is everybody’s business, not just the members, not just the staff, but member recruitment must be a partnership among both. Each group inherently has several advantages and disadvantages in their quest to recruit new members. As an example, members can access colleague prospects far easier and faster than can staff, conversely staff generally has more dedicated resources and tends to me more consistent in selling membership. However, when there is a cooperative effort, a partnership, among staff, board of directors, and members, the machine is literally unstoppable. Neither group can successfully go it alone.

Fiduciary Responsibility to Help the Organization Grow

I cannot tell you how many times an executive director has called me after attending one of my member ROI workshops and stated that they could not get their board to agree to doing, or budgeting for, the ROI research project they desired to launch. Was it that the executive director was awful at selling the value of determining the real-dollar ROI that the organization delivers? Or, might it have been that the board members were so petrified that if they measured the member ROI they wouldn’t make the grade?

Either way, the board members individually, have a fiduciary responsibility to the organization they govern to seek out and engage the available cost-effective tools to help and allow their organization to grow and prosper, thereby serving the organization’s stated mission. It saddens me, inadvertently as may be, how many board members shirk this responsibility of loyalty to their organization.

Release the Fear; It Doesn’t Become You

I believe that every membership organization should go through the process of determining the yearly sustainable real-dollar value it delivers to members. The next natural step might be to explore possibilities, strategies, and tactics for increasing the real-dollar value of membership. Do this because it helps in the long-term growth effort, but do not overlook the important immediate step of creating new tools to support the efforts of staff and members in their endeavors to evangelize and recruit new members.

My recommended tool is a simple, single-sheet, tri-fold brochure that lists the real-dollar value and various benefits (not features) of membership to the different membership stakeholder categories (vendors, allied, related professions, customers). The propensity of information gained through an active qualitative research method will be the core of this brochure. You want a tool that will dazzle your prospects with brilliance rather than to baffle them with bulk—the pounds of paper you mail out that they will never read. I believe in this tool at such a high-level that I will give you my brochure template at no charge, just email your request to ed@rigsbee.com.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Smart Member Recruitment; Use Evangelists (679 words)

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For effective member recruitment, highly engaged and long-term retained members are your first, best hope. Who more than these members are qualified to sing the praises of the value your membership organization delivers to members? These members could easily be converted to member recruitment evangelists. Since these members can also access their (non-member) colleagues far easier than can professional headquarter staff, why not make the most of what you’ve got?

The Problem

The majority of your engaged and retained members are of Baby Boomer age. Their membership paradigm is that of joining their trade association or professional society because they should, because they need to support their industry or profession. Yes, those were the association good old days—gone perhaps forever. Today, the majority of the younger association and society stakeholders (non-members) are less interested in joining because they should and much more interested in what’s in it for them—what’s my return on investment? This creates a huge selling/recruitment chasm between the generations. Quite frankly, most Baby Boomers are ill-prepared to successfully engage and recruit those of Generation Y age (the twenty-somethings).

The important question is what do current members need in the area of selling tools and ideas to be successful in engaging the interest of non-members, especially younger ones? First, let me tell you what it isn’t. Your current member recruitment “hard-copy package” is most likely ten pounds of paper and other stuff that you have assembled over the years, with a lack of strategy, to convince someone to join your organization. I call this baffling them with bulk. The important learning point here is that you most likely send out gobs of information that a prospective member might, if you are lucky, scan. They surely will not read all the material as it is just too much. A prospective member just wants the core information that explains the, what’s in it for me—how will I profit from membership—prove to me that it is in my best interest to join.

An Argument for Qualitative Research

First is the pre-solution step. You must be able to prove in relative simple terms that membership in your organization is a good business decision. The best way to do this is to conduct active qualitative research among a sampling of your membership to determine the yearly sustainable real-dollar return that they receive from each of their membership investment dollars. Too many well-intended associations have their staff “determine” the dollar-value of member benefits but unfortunately the staff-driven numbers fail to pass the member smell test. For a glance at how this is done visit: http://www.rigsbee.com/association-member-retention-1.htm

The Solution

This the tool for which your engaged members have been waiting. Build a simple member recruitment brochure that dazzles membership prospects with brilliance as opposed to the old way of baffling them with bulk. I am happy to provide any association or society executive with my recommended member recruitment brochure template. To receive this, just email your request to ed@rigsbee.com and put “template request” in the subject box.

Now that you have the proper tangible member recruitment tool (brochure)—one that proves the return on investment (ROI) of membership, you need to re-educate your members on how to promote the organization. Get off of the tired old, no-sale method; of talking about all the advocacy and legislative work the organization does as a reason to join. This is crazy! The non-member already receives this “industry stakeholder” benefit at no cost. Why would they be motivated to pay for that which they already receive for free?

Better, is to teach your current members about all the “member-only” benefits in real-dollar numbers that your organization delivers. Give your members this awesome member recruitment selling tool. Educate your members in how to properly explain why membership on your organization is a good business decision through proving and explaining the real-dollar ROI of membership.

I guarantee you that effective selling technique, proving membership ROI, is far more successful in recruiting long-term members than is attempting guilt—very few people these days join an association or society just because they should.

Executive FAQ & Answers

1. How do we identify potential evangelists?

Look for highly engaged, long-term members who consistently attend events, volunteer, or refer peers informally.

2. What if our senior members resist this new messaging?

Train them with ROI proof and explain the generational shift in buying motives.

3. How much research is necessary before launching?

A structured qualitative session with representative members is sufficient to begin.

4. What should we eliminate from our recruitment packet?

Anything that does not directly prove member-only economic value.

5. How do we prevent ROI exaggeration?

Use member-assigned numbers only. Avoid staff-created estimates.

6. How do we measure evangelist success?

Track referral sources, conversion rates, and retention of recruited members.

7. Should we incentivize evangelists financially?

Incentives can help, but credibility and belief in ROI are more powerful.

8. How do we reframe advocacy?

Position it as a reinforcing benefit — not the lead selling point.

9. How do we support members uncomfortable with selling?

Provide simple scripts and one-page ROI summaries to reduce friction. Better is to create a Member ROI Recruitment brochure digitally and hard-copy. This is the “Ultimate-Tool” for member recruitment evangelists.

10. What is the biggest mistake associations make in peer recruitment?

Failing to equip members with concise, credible economic proof.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Selling Strategy for Association Executives (1339 Words)

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How is the line, “Membership is Priceless” working for you these days in recruiting new members? “Not so well,” you say? The heyday of trade associations and professional societies recruiting members under the pretense of nebulous value propositions has gone the way of IBM Selectric typewriters.

Stakeholders in your industry really do want to join your membership organization—even though they don’t realize it. They must however, first understand what’s in it for them. They must see the possibility of a real and honest return on investment (ROI) for their time and treasure.

For association and society executives, the quickest way to selling dominance—actually recruiting the people you talk to about membership is through understanding basic North American buying motives. There are only six basic buying motives into which almost all situations fall. Yet, understanding the buying motives is not enough. You must also offer the translation in explaining how your organization delivers the value to satisfy their primary buying motive.

Feature Verses Benefit

Before we can get into a substantive discussion of buying motives, you must first be very clear on the difference between features and benefits. As an example, your organization is aggressive in advocacy and affecting legislation in your industry. First, that activity is an industry stakeholder benefit not a member-only benefit. Everyone gets the value regardless of holding membership in your organization.

You also send to your members a legislative update keeping them informed of your progress, results, and how recent legislation affects their business. If you only send this out to members and at the very most, you only offer simple headlines via email blasts and Web Site postings to non-members—you have an awesome member benefit in the legislative update. This is value that one only receives through their paid membership.

The legislative update is not a benefit but rather a feature of membership. The benefit of this feature is how the update makes the lives of your members better. Timely and accurate information about legislation and regulatory issues can save your members time, money, and heartache—if they heed your warnings and information as it applies to their businesses.

This member-only benefit would most likely satisfy the buying motive of profit and gain, as well as that of fear of loss, and possibly avoidance of pain.

Profit and Gain Buying Motive

In the above scenario, your member might discover through your legislative update, new regulation that allows them to: sell differently, save money through a new approved manufacturing/service process (more profit), or get a competitive advantage over a non-member who might not have this new knowledge.

Fear of Loss Buying Motive

Continuing with the legislative example, your member (depending on industry) might constantly be operating in fear of failure to follow (ever changing) regulatory policy and procedure. This fear of lost time, temporary shut-down or even permanent closure can weigh heavy on your members. Your legislative update can help members to have the piece of mind that their association is watching out for them on a daily basis.

Avoidance of Pain Buying Motive

Receiving crucial legislative and regulatory update information in a timely manner can very well save a business from potential fines and penalties from unexpected government agency visits. Any business owner or executive would gladly embrace methods for avoiding the pain of regulatory fines or temporary shut-downs.

When association executives speak with potential members, the default position frequently is to talk about providing legislative updates for members but to forget to translate the value of the updates for the potential member based on the person’s personal or organizational buying motives.

The remaining three buying motives are a bit softer in perceived value, nevertheless are important to understand as some industry stakeholders will also make their buying decision based on them.

Comfort and Pleasure Buying Motive

The famous WalMart founder, Sam Walton, for years worked at a plywood desk—a sheet of plywood resting on two sawhorses, in the upstairs stockroom of one of his early stores. What kind of a desk do you work at? What kind of an office do you have? My guess is that your work environment is a bit more luxurious than that of Walton’s. Do you really need it? Who knows—but what we do know is that you were motivated by the buying motive of comfort and pleasure to have the work environment that you currently enjoy.

What about your members? Does your membership organization offer its members the comfort and pleasure of knowing that they will be kept up to date on the industry’s best practices, rules/regulations, and industry news? This saves a member time, mental space, and need for constant industry scan—as your association regularly does this for its members.

Love and Affection Buying Motive

Believe it or not, even business leaders and owners need collegiality. This is one of the great benefits associations and societies offer to their members, the bringing together of the industry through meetings and other methods. People need recognition; I conducted an extensive study on this topic throughout the United States in the mid-1990s. Many industry leaders truly need the adulation of their industry colleagues and associations provide this through leadership opportunities, awards, and credential programs. They join their industry associations and societies to get what they perhaps do not get on the job.

Pride and Prestige Buying Motive

Some North American associations and societies have done a fabulous job of creating the perception within their industry that it is prestigious to belong to the organization. And with this prestige comes pride of membership and belonging. One example is the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dinosaur Program. This is a special added membership, only available to LACBA paid members. It is for the senior lawyers in their 60s and older—the association provides special programming just for them. They even get a  LACBA lapel pin that is a little different, with a dinosaur in the center. The Dinosaur members are very proud to wear their distinguished lapel pin.

The Six Buying Motives

  1. Profit or Gain
  2. Fear of Loss
  3. Avoidance of Pain
  4. Comfort and Pleasure
  5. Love and Affection
  6. Pride and Prestige

Sell to the Primary Buying Motive

Association executives would do well to take the time to ask more questions as to what a perspective member is looking to receive through membership in their organization. Focus on explaining the benefits they will receive from the features of membership. Do this through the window of the prospect’s primary, and perhaps secondary buying motive and your sales (membership) presentation should prove to be quite successful.

Extra Icing on the Cake

Understanding the above will also help you to improve the member-perceived value of each member-only benefit your organization offers. Go through the list of “member benefits” that you have listed on your web site. The first thing you will most likely notice is they are not benefits at all but rather the features of membership.

First translate each of the features into member benefits, keeping in mind the above buying motives. Next check to see which ones are actually member-only benefits as you will use only these in your sales (member recruitment) efforts. And to ratchet it up another notch, perhaps you might want to make some of the member only services and products available to non-members—for a price. If you are giving your members products and services at no charge, while that is awesome for the members, there is a challenge in members not appreciating the value. At your Web Site show these products and services at no charge to members and at a charge to non-members. That way your members will see a higher perceived value in what they already get at no charge.

Selling benefit is easy, while selling features is excruciatingly difficult. Why make your life any harder than necessary. Sell member-only benefits with the translation to the prospect’s unique situation, and do so keeping in mind their buying motive and you’ll be amazed with your results.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Rigsbee’s Member ROI Valuation Process (1075 words)

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Discovering the Real-Dollar Value of Your Association Membership

 

Grow your organization by proving membership is a good business, financial, and career decision. Gone are the days where professionals and business owners would simply belong to their association because their should or for “networking” opportunities; that was a Baby Boomer paradigm. Today, more than ever before and forced by younger generations, it is crucial that trade and professional associations deliver high-level and usable value to their entire membership. I’m talking about the real-dollar value that individual members now demand rather than the value that the leadership thinks they need.

Frequently, when I’ve asked association members about the value they receive from their membership they stumble. How would you, as an executive director or volunteer leader, feel if all the members of your association said, “I’d be foolish NOT to belong to my industry’s association and attend its annual meeting?” You would feel fabulous!

Unfortunately, that’s infrequently the case. In an issue of Association Management magazine, there was an article about why membersdo not renew. The article stated that American Society of Association Executives’ research revealed the following reasons for association members not renewing:

  • Business closed/merged–12%
  • Change of profession-15%
  • Cannot determine-16%
  • Dues too high-17%
  • Not enough time to use member benefits-7%
  • Services no longer relevant-17%
  • Other-16%

In my opinion, the only “non-value” issue is the business closing or change of profession. All the remaining reasons loudly say, “Not enough perceived value!” Over 73% of the non-renewing members said, “Not enough perceived value.”

Two Categories of Association Members

Today, there are basically two categories of association members: The first is the most desirable by many leaders. They will belong to their industry’s association and support it with attendance—no matter what. These “jewels” are dying off. The second is a more challenging type. They say, “I’ll come and play in your sandbox if you can show me that I will get more out of it through synergies and economies of scale than by not participating.” The latter, generally are younger and many times have taken over the business from a parent. Their life is busy and they do not want to waste their time just “networking”.

Why are association executive directors and volunteer leadership not listening? Perhaps, it is because it’s generally easier to blame the member reduction problem on industry consolidation, an area of no control, rather than on lack of member perceived value, an area over which leadership does have control. Even with consolidations, if the involved parties really believed in the value of membership in their industry’s association, they would find the time and dollars for multiple executives, and or subsidiaries to hold membership.

Now that an enormous problem has been unearthed, let’s look at one possible solution: A process for helping members to determine the real dollar value of their association membership. This will help your members in having an emotional ownership in their membership. Additionally, this process will empower and encourage members to talk to non-members about membership in your association.

Association Member ROI

I discovered this process due to association member request. It is truly fulfilling to see people make a shift when they understand and work collectively to discover answers. I believe if you look at this with an open mind, you too, will absolutely want to take your association membership through this valuation process. While I have helped a number of associations with this process, I will detail my work with one such association.

  • Initially, ask the members what they get out of belonging to their association. Every item they mention, list on a flip chart or enter into PowerPoint with the image projected on a screen.
  • Next, after each item is listed, conduct a discussion on the real, honest and yearly sustainable dollar value they received through their association membership and attending their conference. This can be difficult, as people will argue incessantly about the numbers. Hang in there and gently force them to come to some kind of agreement on the value of each item listed.
  • When the group seems to have exhausted the line items, push them to explore further, many times more valuable items will be discovered. Below is an example of the association membership value that one group determined:
    1. $1,000 for industry specific technical training offered twice a year.
    2. $1,000 for business, management and marketing training twice a year.
    3. $300 for monthly legislative updates.
    4. $1,000 for coupons for goods and services offered by the national organization with national and regional membership.
    5. $600 for legal seminars offered twice a year.
    6. $200 networking value at semi-annual meetings.
    7. $300 tax savings on income spent attending vacations (meetings).
    8. $500 for mentoring opportunities available through meeting attendance.
    9. $200 for product knowledge gained at meetings.
    10. $200 for company credibility and image associated with membership.
    11. $300 for education in accessing local publicity.
    12. $200 for publicity and exposure through association membership.
  • Now ask the group how much it costs them to both belong to the association and attend the association’s annual or semi-annual meetings. Put that number on the flip chart.
  • Next, add up the dollar amount of all the line items on the board and show the two numbers to the group. For the above-mentioned association, the cost of membership and attendance at the two semi-annual meetings was pegged at approximately $1,600. After less than an hour (session time expired), the group came up with membership value in real dollars at $5,800.
  • With numbers like the ones above, it is easy for one to justify the time and dollars necessary to take advantage of membership in their industry’s association. It is possible for your members to say, “I’d be foolish NOT to belong to my industry’s association and attend its annual meeting?”
  • The last thing is for the association leadership to produce a Member Value brochure; in which are listed the actual services and yearly sustainable real dollar values offered by the organization.

I believe one of the best ways for any association to grow its membership is through a membership participation process like the one I’ve outlined for you. This will help your current members to truly become active advocates for the association rather than just passive members. Realistically, not all members will do this, but many will. Give them the right tools, and people will amaze you with their results.

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Why Today’s Associations Must Prove Their ROI (Return on Investment)  (820 words) 

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Your membership organization is most likely delivering quite a bit of value to the members. Unfortunately, very few of your members know about the real-dollar value. In reviewing, yet another, association magazine I’m reading a two-page article about this particular association in which the virtues are explained for the members. The sub-headlines are: education, a new inspection initiative, distributor best practices, and (of course) the annual convention. It was a great feel-good, warm, and fuzzy article about the association. However, to quote the 1970’s Wendy’s TV commercial campaign tagline, “Where’s the beef?” 

Baby Boomer vs. Gen X&Y Members

God bless the baby boomers, they joined their trade association or professional society because they should. They believed in supporting the industry that provided them with a living. However, today the younger folks are saying, “I’ll come and play in your sandbox if you can prove to me that it is worth my time and money.” They want you to prove the ROI that you deliver—Bummer! 

Back to the article; in the two pages, there was not a single mention of real-dollar ROI. While this is commonplace for an association “member benefit” article, it really does not have to be. Because of retirement and death, from this day forward, there will be less baby boomer members than the day before. But, will there be more Gen X & Y members? Perhaps there will be, yet only if you can prove the ROI.   

Why Not State the ROI?

So why are associations not stating the member ROI that they deliver?

1.      Unwilling to dedicate the time and money resources to determine the yearly sustainable real-dollar membership ROI. This is truly the number one reason.

2.      Afraid that if they go through the process that they will fall short of member expectations.

3.      Stuck in the 1970s mentality that industry stakeholders “should” join.

4.      Still believe that the association is the one and only repository of industry-specific knowledge and education so those that “want what we have” must join.

5.      Still believe that 12 magazines and an annual meeting each year is enough value for members to remain loyal.

6.      The Board of Directors and the paid professional staff cannot agree on the strategic direction of the organization.

7.      The individual members that make up the Board of Directors are engaged and see the value and they cannot fathom that other members cannot see the value of membership.

8.      And the list goes on and on… 

Morphing to Communities of Reciprocity

Twenty-first century associations that plan to survive will transcend from the 12 magazines and an annual meeting, 1970s model to vibrant communities of reciprocity for various member contingencies, thereby remaining relevant to all ages of membership. Recently, the Los Angeles County Bar Association created their “Dinosaur” group for the senior lawyer members. They charge a little extra and deliver special age and topic specific meetings for that community. What are you doing? 

The current social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and (to some degree) Facebook offer very low cost methods of delivering community specific value to your members. For most associations, LinkedIn should be your number one choice. LinkedIn groups cost nothing but deliver amazing return. My recommendation is to keep your groups closed. The idea of letting everyone in is not a good idea in the area for reasons of control and ROI delivery. 

Google Makes it Easy

Never before in the history of mankind has information been so available to the masses. Since it is now impossible for associations to be the exclusive holder of industry information, best practices, codes, etc; associations must prove their value to retain members and also to recruit members. The stakeholders in your industry can get much of the industry specific information that they need to succeed in business through a simple Google search of the topic—and they can do it almost anywhere with their Smartphone. Yes, the paradigm has shifted. 

Today’s associations cannot rely on their old paradigms for member recruitment. The conversation from member to prospective member can no longer be, “You should join the association to support your industry and network at the convention.” Today the conversation must be, “Let me explain to you why it is a good business decision to join the association. The return on investment of time and money that most members receive is…” 

Reality Check

I’m a baby boomer and I admit that I frequently morn many traditions that are no more. Gosh, today’s men even believe it is acceptable to wear their hats indoors—oh well, that’s progress. Kids think profanity is simply additional adjectives, adverbs and nouns that are necessary for their expression punctuation. And, the world is becoming far less provincial. Things change and so must associations. Feel-good is no longer good enough. For today’s associations to thrive; each and every one must continually prove the real-dollar ROI they deliver to their members.   

Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Membership: What’s in it for You? (678 words)

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(678 words)

If you are taking advantage of the “member-only” products, services and activities that (fill in org name) provides—you realize that membership is a smart decision. You demand a reasonable return on your investment (ROI) in membership and you should get it. You have done more than the non-member outliers; you have invested in this organization. Simply put, you deserve more.

You differ from the other industry/profession stakeholders that simply take advantage of the (fill in org name) activities that serve the (fill in the blank) industry/profession. You have decided to actively participate with your time and resources. Let’s make sure you are getting all you can.

Several Years of Research

Over the last several years, Rigsbee Research has been conducting qualitative research in the area of calculating the ROI of membership in actual dollar numbers. Surveying members as to their perception of value in dollar numbers for every member-only feature delivered by their organization. Association and society members like you, have valued their memberships accordingly: in the category of Professional Development at an annual real-dollar value of just under $4,000. The number for the Business Solutions category is just over $7,100, with Knowledge Management delivering a little over $2,400.

Professional Development

Professional development and career growth are basically synonymous. Some of the member-only features are as follows:

  • Income differential through certifications
  • Gained knowledge and experience through volunteer leadership positions
  • Peer support and mentoring
  • Access to National or State Chapter resources
  • Special interest groups
  • Career development services
  • Peer and Industry prestige

Business Solutions

The business solutions category is a large one for many organizations. Some of the member-only features measured included:

  • Safety programs, education and resources
  • Business development and peer referral opportunities
  • Affinity or partner program discounts
  • Innovative business/practice solutions
  • Access to other organizations through affiliated membership agreements
  • Discounts on organization’s goods, services and events
  • Access to assistance at organization’s field or headquarter offices
  • Legal seminars and consultations

Knowledge Management

In days of old, associations and societies were the hard-copy depository for industry or professional knowledge. Today, membership organizations compete against Google daily; however to organizations that excel in knowledge management have found ways to make access by members to their vast resources quick and easy. Some of the member-only features measured included:

  • Industry research, benchmarking and compensation studies
  • Legislative updates
  • Member-only password protected knowledge sections on organization’s website
  • Industry/profession standards, regulations and codes
  • Printed and electronic magazines and newsletters
  • Member directories

Buying Motives

In the above listed examples of features of membership delivered my various membership organizations—your specific value might depend on your buying motive for joining and belonging. Of the six buying motives listed in The ROI of Membership, the three most frequent membership buying motives tend to be:

  1. Profit and Gain
  2. Fear of Loss
  3. Avoidance of Pain

With this in mind, consider the (fill in org name) to be your number one strategic alliance for success. Much of what you and your organization need to prosper is available to you as “member-only” features of membership. Just think how much more value the (fill in org name) could deliver to you in products, services and activities if there were twice as many members. Help the (fill in org name) to help you by recruiting just one new member this year. Then, help that new member to assimilate into the organization by influencing them to attend the annual meeting—and when they do—introduce them to your network of friends and colleagues. This will better assure their long-term membership.

Interestingly enough, we found that most membership organizations today are far better at delivering value to members than they are at calculating and communicating the ROI of membership. It has been quite common for various membership organizations to deliver, annually, in the range of $10 to $50 in return for every dollar invested in membership. What does this mean to you? While the (fill in org name) may not have communicated all the value they deliver to you, you can be assured that if you access all that is available to you—you will enjoy an excellent return on your membership investment.
Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

Helping Your Association Members to Evangelize (645 words)

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(645 words)

In order for any trade association or professional society to best serve its market and constituents, it must reach, maintain, and hopefully surpass critical mass in its membership ranks. Today’s challenge for organizational staff and volunteer leaders in doing this is in the influencing of younger stakeholders in your industry or profession to join in and support the cause. Here’s the rub; younger people tend not to join the cause, just because they should as did their predecessors, the Baby Boomers—bummer!

There are three basic ways to recruit members:

  1. Direct Sales where you have commissioned sales persons on the street or working the telephones.
  2. Pull Marketing where you use expensive traditional or electronic marketing campaigns.
  3. Member-Get-a-Member

Encouraging Member Evangelists is the number one method for both successful member recruitment and assimilation. Remember, recruitment without assimilation is about as silly as spitting into the wind. Member retention leads to member evangelism. The crucial question is, “How does one convert happily retained members into member recruitment evangelists?”

1.   Remind your happily retained members about the value they continue to receive, yearly, from their membership through proving the return on investment (ROI) they enjoy.

2.   Show your happily retained members a vision of what might be possible for them if the organization grew. Everyone is interested in the, what’s in it for me. When members both intellectually and emotionally realize what additional benefits might be possible for them through a much larger organization, they will find a new motivation to spread the good news about your organization.

3.   Give your member evangelists the correct tools for effective evangelism. In order to influence the younger generations into holding membership, your evangelists can no longer stand on the generationally dead pulpit of supporting one’s industry, but rather must prove that it is a good business decision to join. Most of the organizational member recruitment paraphernalia in the marketplace today, tries to “baffle with bulk” rather than to “dazzle with brilliance.” Shorter is better and there is no replacement for proving your ROI.

4.   Recognize the efforts and successes of your evangelists. In the majority of cases, that is really all you need to do to motivate evangelists. Recognition is a powerful tool, one which many leaders frequently overlook. Skip the contests and handout acknowledgements rather than prizes.

5.   Member-get-a-member campaigns are fabulous is long as a contest prize is not the motivation for participation. Do it now! Throw out your prize-driven contests. They just motivate members to be competitive and want to win something. To be more successful in member recruitment and retention, you only want each member to enroll a member, or two, each year, as that is all they can realistically help to assimilate into your organization. There is absolutely no long-term value in recruiting a bunch of members into your organization—through a contest or telethon—that you cannot properly assimilate, knowing they will leave in a year, and then badmouthing about their lousy experience to all in the marketplace that will listen.

6.   Accountability on the part of your board of directors and membership committee is the key. These volunteer leaders must remain accountable, to paid staff, for membership growth and the methods employed to reach stated goals. They must also be held accountable, by paid staff, to assimilate, engage, and retain members once recruited.

7.   Adopt the system for your road map to success. Working with non-profit organizations for over two decades, I have found that the implementation of a system is necessary to keep everyone on track. The system is circular rather than linier; Recruitment àAssimilation à Engagement à Retention à Evangelism à Recruitment, again and again and again.
Ed Rigsbee, top speaker on Membership Growth

How to Build Heretics Into Association Governance (783 words)

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Out of the box collaborationIn their book Frugal Innovation: How to Do More with Less, Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu show how global companies have accessed talent from developing nations, relying on their cunning and ingenuity to develop new products at high speed and low cost. This is heresy to most of the western world’s research and development departments.

Similarly, in his book Tribes, Seth Godin talks about the idea that managers settle and leaders disrupt. Let’s apply this to leadership at associations. Are many disrupters or frugal innovators? It’s possible. But “let’s get along” and “that’s how we’ve always done it” are strikingly powerful forces for today’s associations. Godin writes, “Our culture works hard to prevent change. We have long had systems and organizations and standards designed to dissuade people from challenging the status quo.” If that doesn’t describe so many of today’s associations, I don’t know what does.

In my experience, many associations want to become more relevant but either do not know how or have a stifling culture that values stodgy consistency over progress. That’s unfortunate, because heretics aren’t just bulls in the china shop. As Godin writes, “Heretics have a plan. They understand that changing the status quo is not only profitable but fun too.” Putting the ideas from Tribes and Frugal Innovation together got me thinking about the giant “mission-driven” associations like the American Medical Association; while specialty medical associations have steadily been rising in membership—for instance, the American College of Physicians nearly doubled its membership between 1995 and 2009, to 130,000—AMA has seen steady declines.

So, how do we embrace the heretics in our industry and organizations to help us grow, innovate, and become as relevant as possible, before they create new competing associations like the specialty medical associations did? Below are five tips.

Be Alert to Protectionism

Nonprofit governance is generally a hybrid of paid and volunteer leaders. Though this perhaps oversimplifies, I’ve found it to be true that the paid leaders have a more bureaucratic mindset while the volunteer leaders tend to be entrepreneurial. The two mindsets create healthy tension and generally guide the organization well.

The problem is when the volunteers and the paid leaders both have bureaucratic mindsets. Then, the organization tends to fear growth, improvement, or change. Also, when leaders are not confident in their ability to lead due to newness of tenure, knowledge, or skills, saying no to everything is much safer that saying maybe, let alone yes.

Know the Heretic Mindset

In order to successfully work with heretics, one must first understand their mindset. Some disrupt simply for the sake of disruption, but more often than not they want to drive positive change and growth. They see very different patterns and holes in your organization’s member value proposition and are in a hurry for improvement. They’re generally burning to make a difference and rarely are included in governing bodies because they’re seen as too difficult.

But, when you take the time to get into the heads of contrarians and see their perspective without the protectionism filters, you discover a world of new value propositions for your organization. Will it be easy to bring them into the fold? Not on your life. Fellow leaders that are in protectionism mode will only see threats, bullying, and coercion. It will be your job to help them see the potential for opportunity, innovation, and improvement.

Step Up Your Communication Skills

I recently served as the “voice of the heretic” at an ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo session, alongside Stacy Tetschner, FASAE, CAE, CEO of the National Speakers Association, who spoke as the voice for organizational principle. We lectured on our partnership failures and successes spanning a decade and a half. That kind of candor will be essential in attracting a variety of people, especially those heretics.

Listen, Engage, and Utilize

My involvement with NSA led to my helping create what I think of as a heretical party group, Cigar PEG, a charity fundraiser connected to the NSA’s annual conference. Over the years the NSA recognized that Cigar PEG was delivering high-level value by giving members one more reason to retain their membership and attend the annual convention. The party consistently draws 20 percent of the annual convention attendees, and NSA leadership, both paid and volunteer, realized that putting fewer roadblocks in front of it paid off.

Never Say Never

Had someone a decade ago said that we’d be co-presenting at the ASAE Annual Meeting, everyone in NSA would have laughed hysterically or found themselves in mortal fear. But spokespersons for the establishment and heretics came together to share that they too could build bridges with their heretics, contrarians, dissidents, disenfranchised, and malcontent members. So can you.