Early in my career, I remember everyone in the corporate office I worked in took a lunch hour. People went out to eat together, went for walks, and a core group met to chat every day in the cafeteria. Fast forward seven years, lunch became a cup of yogurt consumed between phone calls or a handful of peanuts thrown back while walking to the next meeting.
Lunch is just one example of how most professional’s days are becoming ever busier. Days are longer, and work bleeds into home time. The demands are so steep most middle-managers feel like they are failing. Inboxes contain 3,000, 10,000, or 40,000 emails. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say they are doing the jobs of two, three, or four people. The frantic pace, unreachable goals, and sheer volume of work have profound implications for associations.
The nature of member engagement is changing.
Members don’t have the time to devote to their association anymore. We see it in our metrics with lower clicks, registrations, and renewals. We feel it too – perhaps slightly less energy and enthusiasm. No one wants to sign up, submit a proposal, or stick around for their whole volunteer term. But these are all problems we can solve together!
The Associations Societies Alliance (read: your state society of association executives in partnership with many other SAEs) is hosting a collaborative learning lab focused on member engagement facilitated by me! I’m sooooo excited because I LOVE to create these kinds of events 🙂
During three 90-minute virtual sessions, we will experience, discuss, problem-solve, experiment, and play with all the engagement topics, including new member, attendee, long-time member, contributor, and volunteer engagement. We will tackle immediate challenges like how we engage virtually and how in-person is changing. And we will answer the critical question – what is the future of engagement? Each session will provide you with oodles of actionable ideas you can try immediately with your members.
Expect a comfortable, generous, curious environment. Together, we will build a collaborative learning lab where we all get to share our ideas and tap into the wisdom of the community. Join us, learn a lot, meet new friends, and have fun (earn your CAEs too). Register today. I hope to see you there!