association comments-o-matic

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Kristin, I’m sure I’m not alone in appreciating these periodic posts you do demonstrating positive association efforts related to sustainability and other social issues. The examples are always inspiring. Thanks for sharing them.

- Jeffrey Cufaude

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The real question is how many members of associations with chapter would retain their national membership if chapters were not an option. The industry and disposition of the membership is integral in this discussion.
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Hi David – Thanks for your comment. Benchmarking comes with strengths and weaknesses. Wikipedia defines benchmarking as a “process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance.”

For our purposes, we have defined the peer group broadly as membership associations. The challenge with this is that as you point out there is a good deal of variability between groups in size, purpose, and scope. The strength is that most membership associations use common terms and standards that can be used as a starting point of comparison.

That is why I always include an important disclaimer when I publish this annual report. Anyone reviewing the data should be aware that because an activity or practice has a statistical correlation with a growing or declining membership or better renewal rates, we are not claiming that any one behavior in and of itself causes this outcome. There are literally thousands of variables that impact membership results.

We do for example, ask respondents about the number of members, their budget, membership structure, and many other demographic characteristics. So I take these into consideration when reporting data. The challenge is that if you report data broken out be demographics, you have very small samples and can lose statistical validity.

Nevertheless, if as a marketer one sees that organizations with certain behaviors or practices tend to be doing better, one at least will want to explore the issue and see if there is something that can be applied to his or her organization.
I hope this helps explain the purpose and method or our reporting. Tony
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What does the ASAE data mean to NAIFA? It may mean nothing. The reason lies in the character of the surveyed associations i.e. the data pool. A myriad of national associations consist of individuals or companies that aren’t large in numbers, but are very focused in the subject(s) that bring them together. Think about the National Association of Atomic Scientists (NAAS), which has 150 members nationwide. It had an increase in membership last year; an increase in membership over the last 5 years; an increase in the renewal rate last year; and an increase in renewal rate over the last five years. With only150 members and little political interest, chapters would be irrelevant, inappropriate and unworkable. NAAS and many other narrowly focused national associations have very little in common with NAIFA’s 40,000 members either in terms of size or member interests and benefits. Yet they’re in the survey’s data pool. The fact that NAIFA has chapters and NAAS does not has no bearing upon the fact that NAAS is flourishing and NAIFA is not. Apples to oranges comparisons can lead to faulty conclusions.

A much more relevant comparison might be made between NAIFA and another 3- tiered federation, the American Institute of Architects (AIA)… roughly 70,000 members, 50 state components and 110 chapters. Though obviously the recession has adversely impacted the design/construction industry nationwide, AIA has not closed a single chapter or state association… and has continued to expand its professional and political influence even as NAIFA has lost ground.

NAIFA and AIA have comparable structures and governance… and their chapters draw from the same labor pool, so we might reasonably exclude staff quality as the culprit…

Could it be the membership model… or marketing… or something else?
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Dan & Tony, while I think chapters (when run effectively) add a lot of value to the membership, it seems the statistics you stated could be a reflection of the economic conditions. Organizations with chapters have national dues and chapter dues and perhaps folks don't want or need to pay both. When things are going well they don't mind, but when things "tighten" up something has to give. Some may chose national, some may chose local (if allowed) and some just may need to take a year or two off and attend the local meeting at the higher non-member rate. Probably is no one explanation and I hate to blame everything on the economy. Fact is if your membership provides outstanding value and it is an integral part of the members business and career, cost should never be the issue. Chapter or no chapters it all comes down to member value and the value perception/reality.
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