Volume XIX Number 7

September 2006

Revitalize Your Membership: A Guide to Hosting a Membership Drive

By Bob Young, Immediate Past President, Northeast Ohio Chapter

Editor’s note: The Northeast Ohio Chapter STC won a 2006 Community Achievement Award of Excellence for “[its] efforts in recognizing, retaining, and recruiting members.”
Undertaking a membership drive can appear to be an intimidating project for both the novice and seasoned chapter leader. There’s the amount of time needed for planning, making arrangements, and seeking volunteers to complete the project. And there’s the chilling unknown of what happens if the results fall below expectations.

Well, if you glean anything from this article, it’s the simple message that a membership drive is not only doable, but an enjoyable process that breeds many positives. Today, thanks to last year’s concerted membership drive, the Northeast Ohio Chapter STC (NEO STC) has bolstered its roster numbers. More importantly, morale has increased thanks to teamwork and a refreshed belief that anything is possible. It’s amazing what a little innovation, a few slices of pizza, and a side order of optimism can do in reaching out to fellow professionals.

Brief background: NEO STC had not had a coordinated membership drive in the last several years. We had routinely invited friends of members to meetings, but there was no sustained recruiting drive. With few guidelines to follow, I decided, as incoming president for the 2005–2006 year, to implement a three-pronged initiative: an organized recruiting drive using phones and e-mails, a beefed-up public relations effort, and last—but by no means least—a recognition program to increase community involvement and retain existing members.

Each of these three objectives is discussed separately to show how they intertwined to help us exceed expectations with an 18 percent membership gain.

Making the Connection

“Over the past couple of years our chapter had done a good job of retaining members, but we were not bringing in new people. You would see the same people at the regular meetings and board meetings,” said Beth Williams, who spearheaded the recruiting drive as membership chairperson. “STC has great people but priorities change as careers develop. We thought about what we could do as a chapter to meet our members’ needs.”

That something, Beth explained, centered on reconnecting with the membership base—with a personal touch. It would involve more than phone calls. This would be a year-round commitment to showcase the educational and networking benefits of STC membership. As examples, NEO STC conducted a one-day FrameMaker seminar, paid the cost of STC webinars so members could attend free, and held a family day meeting at the Great Lakes Science Center on a Saturday in February so members could bring their spouses, children, and friends.

“Our message was: If your needs have changed as a professional, then STC can still help you grow,” said Beth.

Beth teamed with Jill McCauslin to orchestrate a two-day telephone drive to start the process. Both are veteran STC members, past NEO STC presidents, and recipients of the distinguished chapter service award.

The dynamic duo focused on having members call former and non-renewed members to update them on chapter happenings and show we were interested in their involvement.

The first task was to compile different membership lists that were used throughout the past few years into one master file. Beth requested a new membership list from the Society office as well as a non-renewal list that included members from the past three years. She also had a chapter list that had been expanded by the programs committee over the years with the names of guests at meetings. Beth compared the names on all the lists to remove duplicates and those who were on the non-renewal list but rejoined at a later date. Then, she went to the STC Web site and reviewed addresses to check if any of the non-renewals had actually just transferred to another chapter. Beth estimates it took five hours to sift through 200 names before the final compilation of two lists: one of current members and the other of former members no longer affiliated with STC.

While the master list was being compiled, Jill arranged for us to use the facilities at RADCom, Inc., in Hudson, Ohio, to make calls. This offer was a blessing because RADCom’s telephone service is toll-free from Akron/Canton to Cleveland. Our anticipated cost was reduced by not having to pay long-distance fees to contact former members. NEO STC’s geographical base stretches some 133 miles from southern Canton, Ohio to the outskirts of Erie, Pennsylvania.

Jill and I chose two days in August for the phone campaign; calls were made in the afternoon of one day and the evening of the next. This helped us reach a greater number of former members because we had business phone numbers mixed in with home phone numbers. E-mails were then sent to the membership with the dates of the phone campaign and a request for volunteers. We were pleased with the turnout on both dates despite work commitments and summer vacations. Maybe it was just good pizza and camaraderie. But there was no secret about the organized effort.

Beth had divided the calling lists into groups of ten people to make it easier for volunteers to make calls. The calling sheets included a section for notes to jot down changes in e-mail addresses and/or comments about why members chose not to return. The comments were helpful to the programs committee in learning what was working and what needed improvement. Most were favorable, such as: “Thanks for taking the time to call me,” and “Glad to hear NEO STC is doing well.” A few minutes on the phone can build a lasting connection (excuse the pun). To assist with any follow-up questions, our webmaster, Brian Baddour, placed
a link to a page about the membership campaign on the chapter Web site. This was placed near the calendar link so former members could easily review upcoming events and speakers.

Two weeks after the phone drive, members of our executive board were each asked to personally call or e-mail ten of our current members to thank them for choosing NEO STC as their geographical community and to direct them to the Web site for upcoming events and information.

Revitalizing the PR Spirit

At the same time that the membership campaign was being conducted, the public relations committee was formulating goals for the year. Besides revitalizing marketing initiatives, the PR team assisted the membership campaign. PR Committee Chairman Mario Morelos wrote scripts to assist callers in spreading the message. The scripts contained key points that we wanted to emphasize and helped break the ice at the start of the phone calls.

The programs committee, meanwhile, realized that we needed an impact speaker at our first meeting of the year in September. This would give us an opportunity to stir interest in the coming year among both past and current members. We were fortunate to arrange for Neil Perlin, a veteran STC presenter and technical expert, to kick off the first meeting with a presentation on emerging technologies, including blogs and wikis.

By reaching out to both current and former members, we had fifty-two people attend our September 8 meeting featuring Neil Perlin. This was the largest turnout for a regular meeting in many years for NEO STC.

Retention of members is equally important. To this end, the PR team pledged to improve communication with the membership and increase NEO STC’s visibility in the northeast Ohio community. These objectives were met with a redesigned chapter logo, press releases sent to area media, e-mails to members, and a new meeting program that introduced the evening’s presenter and spotlighted sustaining organizations and sponsors. In addition, a colorful, professionally printed brochure was written by our members to highlight NEO STC’s penchant for developing career skills.

You may still be asking yourself what PR has to do with recruiting members. Everything! We have to get into the mindset of “selling” the many benefits STC offers and the work we do. By reacquainting ourselves with other professional groups, we will be able to offer more diverse meeting topics to interest more potential members.

We also have increased our sponsorship coffers, allowing us to provide more services to our existing members such as webinars, Software Saturdays, and volunteer recognition. This brings us to the next initiative on our list.

Recognizing Senior Members

NEO STC initiated a recognition program that was modeled after the successful program of the Orlando Chapter STC. The key is to take time to give thanks to your volunteers and pay tribute to senior members of your chapter. Volunteers who feel appreciated are more willing to get involved in activities and, in turn, the resulting teamwork creates stronger bonds within the geographical community.

The Society office sends a letter and certificate to STC members who have reached five years of membership. NEO STC wanted to “add value” to senior member status, so we decided that our recognition program would include giving our five-year members a “senior” pin along with an NEO STC certificate during a meeting. We purchased a total of fifteen pins at $10 apiece. Although it would be helpful for the Society office to provide chapters with a better price for the pins, it’s still a small price for a boost in morale. Plus, the pins are excellent recognition for the chapter as well.

NEO STC member Bob Clark wore his senior pin to work the day after being recognized at the meeting, and the little red pin did its magic.

“I asked, what is that? What affiliation?” said Neil Stenger in reference to the STC senior pin. “I had heard he [Clark] was a member. I was curious.” Stenger, an intranet manager at Ohio Savings Bank in Cleveland, added: “It’s great brand recognition. It looks professional.”

Sharon Resar joined NEO STC thanks in part to Clark’s pin. “I had looked at [STC membership] before and thought about it. Bob convinced me to join.”

Resar, who is a senior analyst in methods and procedures and an employee com-
munication coordinator at Ohio Savings, says her membership “is a good way to stay informed and educated” about the technical communication industry.

New member packets that focus on the benefits of membership are also an important part of a successful membership drive. The welcome letter does not have to be fancy. The message must communicate that STC membership provides excellent networking and career growth opportunities.

“Our recent hires have been technical writers. We’ve become more technical-oriented. We needed people with certain skills,” said Evelyn Kozik on her reasons for joining STC and seeking NEO STC writers and editors. Kozik is the manager of the knowledge management group at Ohio Savings.

Rewarding Effort

As you can see, NEO STC’s membership campaign involved more than telephone calls and e-mails. But, your community could still use a few of these ideas to start recruiting. We started the STC year with 144 members and, by January, we led Region 4 in percentage of increased membership at a 17.5 percent clip. Overall, twenty-six new members joined in a nine-month period—an 18 percent increase. It was a team effort. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how members contribute time and energy to renew enthusiasm in your organization. This certainly happened in our group, which I believe is more important than what the numbers show.

We saw a dip in non-renewals, but efforts are already under way to contact those members to tell them we want their participation. It’s a continuous opportunity to try new recruiting tactics.

“This isn’t rocket science,” said Beth. “We simply reconnected with our members. That’s always a good thing to do.”

Bob Young is a senior documentation specialist for MAXIMUS, Inc., which develops and maintains judicial software applications in North Canton, Ohio. A lone writer, Bob is responsible for all content, editing, and the design of user manuals in PDF and online formats for case, jury, and jail management applications. Bob is a senior member of the Northeast Ohio STC community and served as president for the 2005-2006 year. An avid boater and Cleveland Indians baseball fan, Bob earned a journalism degree from Ohio University. He was a sportswriter for two daily newspapers prior to joining the MAXIMUS team.