Tips for Membership Committee Chairs

OK, so you volunteered to be the chair of your association's membership committee. OK, you were “roped in to it.” But now you’re committed, so what should you do to be successful?

Get a committee together. Even if you just recruit a few people, this can be a huge burden off your shoulders. The members of the committee don’t have to be other board members, in fact it’s best if they aren’t. Find people with a “reason” to be interested in meeting new people in your association.

Select a co chair or “chair elect.” Understand one of these committee members will probably be chair someday, so start right in with looking for your replacement.

Hold regular meetings. Set a time once a month to get together by teleconference and occasionally in person over lunch. Even if the meeting is short, the regularity will be a huge benefit to your success.

Decide if your focus is new member recruitment or retention. Pick one or the other and pursue that. Which focus you choose depends on your organization’s needs, how important membership dues are to your budget, and efforts that might be already handled by others (like your national association).

Create an annual calendar for the membership committee. Include social events, member call downs, member renewal campaigns, newsletter article dates, etc. Share the calendar with your board and all the committee members.

Set milestones and goals. Decide up front on goals for member recruitment and or retention. For example, “this year we are going to call 50 potential members,” or “we will hold 5 social events this year.”

Spend more time “doing” things than talking about what you want to do. Have less brainstorming and more action.

Give everyone on the committee a job. People quit committees because they don’t feel needed. So, give everyone a job to do. This can also be to serve as a “day chair” for a social event, or “captain” of a call down team.

And, a last bit of advice - be enthusiastic all the time. Thank your committee members for their help. Your team will respond to enthusiasm and it can be contagious!