Leaders: born or made?
Sales people: born or made?
Terrorists: born or made?
Geniuses: born or made?
Artists? Great men? Great women? Bad drivers?
???
The answer, if you care to read all of these, is both. There is a certain ‘you got it or you don’t’ aspect and then there is a ‘use it or lose it’ aspect. You either nurture your native talents and inclinations or you don’t.
Supposedly, there are other people in the world who could do what Lance Armstrong did—the Tour-winning Lance, not the soon-to-be-retired Lance—not many but some. Many of them are also professional bike racers. Others are professionals in another sport. But a percentage has no idea that they could do that. They were born bike racers but they didn’t make anything of it.
What about members? Are some of us born joiners? Of those who join, i.e., the ones that are ‘born’, how many make something of it?
Better question: how many members do associations work at ‘making?’
Those that ‘make’ something of their natural propensity to join become volunteer leaders at some level. That comes, at least in part, from the association doing its part of the job.
Associations talk all the time about increasing member participation—and participation is the reason that people renew. A member who participates is a loyal member. But most members don’t and never will—and some of them are loyal too.
How to ‘Make’ a Member
- Find out what they want. Even if their only ‘participation’ is going to be reading your magazine, make sure that it’s what they want and satisfies them at the level they choose.
- Find out how they want it. The things they want can come in many shapes and sizes—big conferences, small meetings, private workshops, off-the-record conversations. If you’ve got what they want but they don’t like the way you deliver it, they’ll go somewhere else.
- Remember the 80-20 rule: 80% of your revenues will come from the top 20% of your members, the ones who participate heavily. Decide what percentage of resources will go to the participatory ones and what percentage will go to the checkbook members, i.e., the majority. Treat your volunteers and other strong participators as the huge value they are. Appreciate them. Reward them. Don’t nickel and dime them; give them things that other members don’t receive.
- Always give them more than they ask for. It starts with outstanding member services and goes from there. You can always pull back but you can’t regain a member once you’ve lost them through inattention.
- Surprise them every chance you get, preferably all the time. New ideas, always new ideas. Do not rehash. Do not rest on your laurels. Do not do the same thing you did last year. Change it up and improve constantly.
