“You want them to be active, to participate, to come, spend and enjoy. So that is where the calculations and profile comes in. It's not department to department, but institutional wide, how is the membership permeating and where is it affecting.”
 — Diane Ward, Membership Matters

Why Does Membership Matter with Diane Ward

Session 138

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It sounds like a simple question, but there isn’t a simple answer: Why does membership matter? This week, Diane Ward, president of Membership Matters, joins in to share the ins and outs of membership programs, from data collection to evaluating who your members are. Within her work experience, she has learned how people “move in, move up and move out of membership programs.” Members vote with their feet and wallets, she says, so she takes a look at why it’s important to look beyond factors such as revenue and expense equations and focus on what members do for your organization. Members’ visitation and how they engage in one year usually foreshadows their retention in the next year.

She and Beth discuss:

  • How Diane recommends dealing with the data attached to understanding memberships and how to focus on what’s most important
  • Why it’s important to evaluate what members do for your organization
  • The two most common measurements people use to evaluate their programs
  • How participation with an organization can serve as a barometer of how active people are
  • What do actions beyond paying membership dues show about about the organization?
  • How to use metrics and technology to build a user profile and how it can help you determine if memberships are working
Resources:

Download Full Transcript

Enjoy Driving Participation! If the program is helpful to you, please subscribe in iTunes to have sessions sent to you as they go live. And please consider leaving a review in iTunes as well. Reviews help other organizations find the show and learn from these terrific stories.