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Re: Membership Chair
Posted:
Nov 3, 2009 2:15 PM
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Hi Jeremy,
All of us who participate as member leaders for our sections, divisions and forums understand the challenge you face. If there was a "magic bullet" answer, surely it would spread like H1N1 flu in a pig sty. That you are concerned and are taking your role seriously is half the battle.
The first challenge is retention. Getting new members probably takes ten times the resources as keeping current members. Do you know why members do not renew? Has anyone asked?
My guess is that members who don't renew base their decision on the same criteria as people who do not join. We can't identify those who opted to not join. We can identify, through a year to year comparison of member lists, those who didn't renew. Call them up and ask why.
Isn't this a basic quality problem solving tool? Root cause analysis, five whys, Ishakawa, fishbone. Use the foundational tool of quality improvement to get to an understanding of why members leave. Then, fix it.
A common response is "my company stopped paying my dues." Ask the next why, "Why don't you pay it yourself?" The response, "I can't afford it." Why? "I got laid-off." Why don't you get another job? "There are twenty of us looking and only one hiring." Why don't you see ASQ as a path to amployment? "Hmmm, novel thought. What do I get for my $100 plus dollars that will lead to employment?"
Quality Progress, membership in a special interest group, training and certification discounts, cert renewal, being part of a community and more.
You get the idea. There is no simple answer. There is only hard work. And, if you already have a job, you don't have time to do the hard work as a volunteer.
My guess is until we find the answer to the last why we can't truly plug the drain. We can only address symptoms and that doesn't cure what ails us.
Final example of a serious symptom - did a spell check on this missive and the Dictionary on the ASQ site suggested I change Ishakawa to Fishcake.
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