Membership Growth...

Yesterday, Tom Brahms reported that the membership growth of ITE was up 1.75% in 2007. The following table illustrates the growth patterns over the last ten years.

ITE has established a Membership Task Force focusing on the "3-Rs" -- Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation. This task force is charged with looking at ways to increase overall membership in the organization, and helping all segments of the organization attract and retain members.

The task force, with the counsel of the Mark Betchkal of Yes Marketing LLC (a membership marketing consultant working almost exclusively with CESSE [Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives] member organizations) made a number of initial observations:

1. Student Chapter advisors are a critical links between the Institute and the students. We need to find ways to provide meaningful services to the faculty advisors and to encourage them to be active members in the Institute.
2. We must recognize that we are less likely to attract recent graduates in the first five years after graduation because their focus is not on membership in professional societies. We need to track these young professionals but devote our efforts to those who have attained a stable professional and personal life.
3. We need to eliminate admissions, transfer and reinstatement fees.
4. We need to simplify membership applications to seek only the information necessary to determine that the applicant meets the requirements for membership.
5. We need to do a better job of describing what we do and better describe and disseminate the value of membership.
6. We need to identify champions within targeted market sectors to assist in the recruitment effort by reaching out to their non-members peers, explaining the benefits of membership and encouraging their participation in the Institute.
7. We need to understand that not all professionals or other users of our services will become members. We need to wed these individuals to ITE as valuable customers and service them appropriately. The Institute’s value to them and their value to the Institute can be partially realized with their being customers. Serving them well as a customer will increase the chances of their becoming members.
8. We need to understand and recognize the social and “fun” aspects of membership and incorporate these aspects into our program accordingly. People like to volunteer and serve those organizations where they can have fun doing so and where their contributions are appreciated.

The task force and the International Board of Direction will work towards the development of a program to implement many of these observations into reality. Stay tuned...