Definition of Member Engagement for Associations

The term ‘member engagement’ is often bandied about in the association world. More of it is considered better yet we rarely state what that actually means. I thought I would put a stake in the ground with my definition of it in the work I do with clients.

Member engagement is the result of a member investing time and/or money with the association in exchange for value. The more of these precious resources they invest, the more engaged they are.

A member who speaks at a lot of conferences and writes many articles for association publications is highly engaged.

A member who invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship money is also highly engaged, even if they do absolutely nothing else.

Engagement is about value. The value for the person doing the engaging as well as the value of that engagement for the association.

Healthy associations create more engagement opportunities in areas that create strategic value for the organization. Having a surfeit of articles to publish is nice but doesn’t really matter if the budget has been in the red for the last three years.

Create engagement where it matters.

Comments

Expand Engagement Before and After Membership | High Context Consulting
[...] a follow-up to my definition of member engagement for associations, I’d like to discuss the idea of broadening your engagement strategy beyond [...]

December 30th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Tony Rossell
David — We ran some data analytics for one client and found data that supports your definition. We found the following related to behavior and renewal:

– Members who placed a product order in the past year were 28% more likely to renew than those who had not placed an order.
– Members who also maintained membership in an optional local chapter along with their national membership were 17 percent more likely to renew than those who were not a member of a chapter.
– Members who attended an association meeting in the past year were 19 percent more likely to renew than those who did not attend a meeting.
– Members who attended an association meeting at any time in the past were 7% more likely to renew than those who never attended a meeting.
– Members who attended four or more meetings were 30 percent more likely to renew than members who never attended a meeting.
– Members who upgraded their membership in the past year to a higher level of service were 12% more likely to renew.

So part of our challenge is how do we provide the value that produces the behavior that encourages continue membership?

Tony

December 30th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
David Gammel
Thanks for sharing that data, Tony. Interesting stuff.

If the goal is growing and continued membership, I think you follow the data such as you just shared. Which activities tend to generate the most members? Which tend to increase retention? Invest in growing those and track impact.

December 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Dave Phillips
David,
Great definition and thanks to Tony for the analytics. Too many people think member engagement is defined by showing up to a meeting or participating on a committee. Filling out an electronic survey or even sending feedback in an email is also member engagement.

How about a definition for “transparency?” I could not find a modern, organizational definition of this buzz word, so I invented one. What do you think?

Transparency is more than telling the simple truth about what you did; it is the act of making known what you are thinking about doing, how you are planning to think about it, who is going to be involved, and why you are thinking about doing it. Then, after you have done it, telling what you did and why.

Transparency is no longer a matter of seeing through the organization, it is now about seeing into it.

January 5th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
David Gammel
Dave, I might add to your definition to choose, based on strategy, where to be transparent. While most orgs are too opaque I think too much transparency can hinder your ability to operate.

The question becomes one of where will transparency in the organization create the most strategic value for our mission.

January 6th, 2010 at 2:42 pm