To grow your association, you’ll need new tools, dedicated staff, and a reliable membership base. This last element is especially important, as a key part of expanding your organization is maintaining and engaging the members you have. After all, new members are far more likely to be interested in joining and staying with associations that have a lively community they can participate in. 

Connecting with all of your members online is key for maintaining an active and engaged audience. Although your association holds meaningful in-person events throughout the year, for most organizations, the bulk of communication with members will take place online. 

Events that bring your association’s community together are a great way to bring your members together in an engaging and memorable way. Often, these events become recurring annual activities, giving your members something to look forward to every year, even during challenging times. 

Attending the sessions at ICON2020 are sure to check a lot of boxes for you as you find the tools and information to fuel your association’s success during these challenging times. One challenge that is sure to outlive the pandemic is revenue generation.

Value is at the core of member retention. If a member doesn’t feel like they’re getting value from your organization, they’re likely to let their membership lapse. But on the flip side, if they do feel like they’re getting value from your organization, they’re likely to renew — and engage more with your offerings.

The ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition was held from August 10-13 in Columbus, Ohio, and neither the convention nor the city disappointed. The conference opened with a keynote by bestselling authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms in which they discussed the “new power” dynamics in today’s society. Their talk was based on their bestselling book, New Power: How Anyone Can Persuade in Our Chaotic, Connected Age. Until recently, the world was defined by “old power” which was held by only a few and was jealously guarded. “New power” is transparent and participatory. New power can help us run more dynamic associations especially in an era where the public is demanding more openness and input into their associations and many individuals’ engagement with associations is declining. The challenge is to channel this “new power” to make it work for you and your association and to develop a leadership pipeline for the future. The book is a fairly easy read and relatively inexpensive (available through ASAE or Amazon for less than $17).

At this year’s ISAE Annual Convention, held in South Bend, fun and learning were in abundance. Topics ranged from facing change, to best practices, to what young professionals want out of their association career and more. 

Renewal season is in FULL FORCE. But even though you knew it was coming, that doesn’t exactly make it easier. How can you bump up the chances that your members will actually renew?