communication department

Volume XX Number 3

Membership

Connecting with Inactive and Lapsed Members

In April, the STC office will purge from its records the names of all members who did not renew their memberships by the March 31 deadline. As usual, community leaders will receive a list of inactive members from their community in early April. Some of these members may simply have forgotten to pay their dues; some may have lost funding from their employer for professional societies; others may be deciding whether the benefits of membership justify its costs. Regardless of the reasons for not renewing, communities shouldn’t let inactive members simply drift away.

Contacting Inactive Members

One effective way to convince inactive members to remain with STC is to send each of them a letter on community stationery explaining the benefits of membership and inviting them to renew. A letter from a local community leader often has much greater impact than e-mail. Letters (even form letters) lend a personal touch to communication that is difficult to achieve through e-mail. Consider offering nonrenewing members a coupon for one meeting or live Web seminar at the member rate; such a gesture lets recipients know that they’re an important part of the STC community.

Contacting Lapsed Members

Leaders are also encouraged to reach out to those whose memberships expired several years back. These lapsed members may have lost touch with their communities and may not know about recent changes in STC, including new benefits such as the online STC member forum. When contacting former community members, outline the new benefits of STC membership—and the specific benefits of membership in your community—and invite them to attend a meeting, peruse your community Web site, or read your community’s most recent newsletter. A personal, courteous invitation is often hard to turn down.

STC keeps contact information on lapsed STC members for five years, so you may have a rich field to mine. To receive contact information for former members of your community, send your request to Cara Gardner or Ella Carlson, Membership Assistants.

Religious Holidays and Events Planning: Some Thoughts for Communities

As part of STC’s efforts to acknowledge the diversity of its members, the office staff and members of the Board would like to remind STC leaders to be aware of religious holidays that members of their communities may celebrate. Whenever possible, STC events should be scheduled to avoid conflicts.

STC’s recent adoption of a diversity policy reflects this desire to be conscious of our members and their various cultures and backgrounds.

The following list of religious holidays was compiled from various online sources. We are also grateful to Leah Guren of the Israel Chapter STC for her assistance in identifying Jewish holidays.

This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and does not include government holidays. To learn more about holidays that may be relevant for members of your particular community, be sure to ask your members for more details and additional information to consider when planning events.

You may also find this list of resources helpful:

• Buddhist holidays
• Earth calendar
• Iafrica.com, 2007 religious holidays
• Worldwide public holidays, 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 2007

June 2007

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

February 2008

Community Membership Drives

To attract new members during their membership drives, chapters can use the promotional items mailed to all membership managers and student chapter advisors in early November. These items include membership applications, flyers promoting STC’s 54th Annual Conference, and copies of the Discover the Benefits brochure. Discover the Benefits contains information about STC and its services, publications, and special interest groups. Applications and brochures can also be downloaded from the Society Web site.

Below is a list of STC membership drive achievers. The communities listed are leading their respective categories in growth percentages from June 30 through March 12, 2007. Chapters are ranked in the size category they attained on June 30, 2006; the list also includes a category for SIGs. The numbers in parentheses denote the number of communities in each category as of June 30, 2006. This is the final membership drive list for this fiscal year.

Professional Chapters, Size Category 1
More than 600 members (2 communities)

Professional Chapters, Size Category 2
301 to 600 members (9 communities)

Professional Chapters, Size Category 3
151 to 300 members (18 communities)

Professional Chapters, Size Category 4
76 to 150 members (24 communities)

Professional Chapters, Size Category 5
41 to 75 members (21 communities)

Professional Chapters, Size Category 6
Fewer than 41 members (30 communities)

Student Chapters, Size Category 1
20 or more members (7 communities)

Student Chapters, Size Category 2
Fewer than 20 members (23 communities)

Special Interest Groups
(20 communities)