Psst…want to stop wasting time and resources and really grow your association chapters?
If you are serious about growing your association, classic membership recruitment and retention training is the wrong primary path.
I’ve been working with chapter leaders for decades and have rarely found people who did not know how to recruit.
(Boiled down, it is simply inviting others to play with you.)
Instead, I find growing chapters is a lot like losing weight – and keeping it off.
Most of us can learn about a diet and implement it for at least a few hours, days – or weeks.
Then we go back to how we were always eating or living.
(It’s why most diets have almost a 100% failure rate over the long term.)
Chapters and leaders are a lot like those who want to lose some weight.
- It’s not totally comfortable the way things are with fewer members than what would make it much easier to run the chapter – BUT it’s also comforting to be how it’s always been.
- I had a chapter leader tell me once that while she knew she needed to grow her chapter, AND she was okay being mediocre – as long as the chapter lasted to foist onto the next president – and didn’t die on her watch.
If you really want to grow your association, it’s more than a one-time training. Just like successful dieting.
There is much more to losing weight or gaining members than just holding a recruitment event (going to the gym) or having a few people who know how to do it. (The people selling the diet programs.)
I find like people, most chapters have a set weight of sorts.
The membership level they’ve been at for a while – in spite of the best training efforts.
To break the set number of members for a chapter, you need a core group to embrace the idea of growth – AND be able to influence other members to buy into it.
That takes Rockstar energy – that lasts for months and years.
Otherwise, like our dieter, the old ways come calling and the long-time members eat their young by becoming member repellents.
- I’ve had so many leaders tell me how they want more people involved.
- And resent that the new members/volunteers bring new ideas – as if they want to change everything!
- Why can’t they be happy just supporting what’s worked for years?
(Interestingly, I’ve heard this from college leaders, young professionals, Gen Xers, Boomers – and more!)
If you want to grow your association, you need leaders to be influencers over the long haul – which requires a very different set of skills than the typical recruitment and retention skills.
Helping leaders feel like Rockstars rather than dieters is the missing secret ingredient – and why most membership growth campaigns for chapters struggle to make meaningful and lasting impacts.