Stimulating Connectedness. Many association executives still yearn for member “loyalty” and have traditionally sought to measure it by retention rates. What does membership loyalty mean? There are very few examples of one-stop shopping. In a knowledge economy, members proactively seek information from many sources.
People most value the things in which they personally participate. They feel more “connected” to those groups who value their personal contributions. Accelerating strategic member engagement (http://bit.ly/1g8g1J2) is about creating many opportunities and “experiences” to contribute and feel valued; something that members don’t find elsewhere.
Creating Solutions Together
Traditionally, associations focus on what they do for members. The real power of the association form of organization is facilitating the creation of new solutions to address evolving member objectives. To accelerate this, volunteer leaders and staff must create a culture of “we”.
The “We/You” Fallacy
Determining an Association’s alignment with member needs includes assessing the relationships between staff, volunteer leaders and other members. We find that most association executives view this interface through a lens of “we/you”. The evolving association model is all about “we”.
GCCA, www.gcca.org, the Global Cold Chain Alliance continues its transformation to a “we” focused organization notes President & CEO Corey Rosenbusch.
Strategic Member Engagement Framework©
Moving to “we” doesn’t happen overnight. It requires nurturing; “surprise and delight” if you will. Actually it is a 3-stage transition that goes from:
“We (staff & volunteer leaders)/They (outsiders)” to
“We/You” (as the member becomes a recipient of association offerings), and then strategically on to
“We” (highly engaged solution community)
Stimulating Connectedness
As members start to contribute and collaborate the relationship shifts toward “we create new solutions together”. However, if members are never effectively engaged, they remain in “we/you” relationships with the association.
