Twelve-Month Total Organizational Strategic Membership Growth Process

This is a whole-organization organic process for helping your organization to get from where you are to where they want to be. This year-long membership growth strategic planning and implementation process will help your organization to build the tools and skills necessary for long-term execution and maintenance. Many of the elements of this process are listed below:

External

• Number of potential members
• Competitors sharing your industry/profession segment
• Average annual industry/profession growth
• Recent significant events in industry/profession
• Indirect competition
• Competitive strengths and weaknesses

Internal

• Developing measures of success
• Interdepartmental communication and roadblocks
• Membership value assessment
• Membership service assessment

Capabilities & Competencies

• Identifying strategic capabilities
• Intellectual competency discovery
• Benefit copy writing

Assumptions

• Assumption errors
• Information sources
• Probability of success
• Perceived downside risk

Strategies

• Member Growth Roadblock Demolition Strategy
• Become a Member-ROI-Centric Organization Strategy
• Grow Member Value Proposition Strategy
• Member Retention Strategy
• Member Win Them Back Strategy
• Member Recruitment Strategy
• Components Strategy
• Collaboration-Alliance Strategy
• Non-Dues Revenue Strategy

Goals & Objectives

• Commitment
• Competencies
• Focus

Action Plans

• Member ROI Valuation qualitative research via focus group methodology
• Membership marketing materials re-write and publishing/production
• Bylaws adjustment
• Staff & Volunteer Leader considerations

Budgets

• Return on investment
• Five-year operating investment

Schedules

• Personnel
• Monitoring
• Accountability

I found working with Ed an enlightening experience. His skill set, process, analysis, transfer to reality are all spot on. He is a true consultant. That being said, he comes in with no preconditions or conceptions about your organization. He finds the good, bad and ugly of the organization and calls it out, in a very professional way. I valued this as the E.D., either confirming my thoughts or, in some cases, changing them for the better. There are no “sacred cows” in Ed’s economy, which I appreciate very much. He objectively observes your operation, evaluates its current effectiveness and gives you concrete plans on how to improve it. That is the good news…….Ed is very good at his profession. The bad news is that organizations must be ready to entertain his “view”, at least as a possibility or the entire exercise will fall flat. As in the movie, A Few Good Men (during the exchange between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson…..”I want the truth” to which Jack retorted…..”you can’t handle the truth”). Ed will give you the truth, as he sees it, from working with dysfunctional associations for many years. And, given an honest effort to evaluate his recommendations, his “truth” most always works out. But if you are not ready to have someone leave no stone, and I mean NO STONE untouched, it would be in your best interest to look elsewhere for a “make you feel good about what you are already doing” type consultant. I am sure there are many out there. However, Ed is not one of them. If you are doing something well, he will congratulate you and add his opinion on how it might become better. However, if there is something truly wrong (which usually is the reason you hire an outside consultant in the first place), then he will point it out, tell you why its wrong and tell you how to fix it. Period.

The best I can say is that he may not make many friends in your organization, but he will make a difference for the positive. Before hiring him, be sure that is what you want. To hire him for any other reason than to look at your organization (at least the broken parts) and work toward a solution, without reference to its political fall out, will result in a positive and productive engagement. To do so for any other reason may prove somewhat “uncomfortable” for those who dislike productive and progressive change.

Thanks Ed, for your counsel, leadership and solid principles on which an organization truly wanting to improve itself, can flourish.

Best, Tom