Karin Jaros, Head of Membership and Annual Fund at The Morton Arboretum and McKinley’s Mike Norbut recently wrote an article “What Tree-Huggers Can Teach You About Segmentation,” which appeared in the June/July 2012 issue of FORUM magazine, published by the Association Forum of Chicagoland. See below for an excerpt.
For The Morton Arboretum, market intelligence is a precious commodity that directs activities across the organization. The Arboretum, a nonprofit membership organization based in Lisle, Ill., is a leader in tree science and education, working to save and plant trees.
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In the hallways and around meeting tables, I’ve heard a lot of colleagues admit that Great Ideas is fast becoming their “go to” ASAE conference. Overwhelmed by the size of the Annual Conference or just wanting to have a more intimate and creative meeting, many association professionals are choosing Great Ideas as their exclusive education and networking event. I can appreciate this shift in thinking; Great Ideas has always been one of my favorite conferences, and 2012 was no exception.
This year, I had a chance to present on the very idea of community – in this case, the frequent topic of online community. As Amanda Adolph, former Vice President at the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) and a long-time McKinley client described it, “building a social networking community is easy; creating a community can be challenging.” Amanda and I shared the story of how AGB created an online networking community that grew 20% in one month and talked about the three pivotal events that led to the community’s rapid expansion and success. You can see more by reading through our slides. Or please be in touch if you’d like to talk more about the AGB community.
~ Post by Shelley Sanner, Managing Consultant
In a previous blog post, I wrote about the work that we did with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) around membership recruitment and retention. The primary audience for our efforts was one that associations can easily overlook: former members. While there likely was a reason why members decided not to renew their membership, there also was a reason that compelled them to join in the first place. Because of that, reaching out to these former members and asking them to return to the organization can have a stronger impact than simply making a pitch to a new list of prospects.
ASA’s recruitment success was featured in a March 2012 story that appeared in FORUM Magazine. To read the story, click here.
~ Post by Mike Norbut, Managing Consultant
