Chapters in Crisis: How to Prevent Chapter Website Disasters

Depending on your association’s relationship with its chapters, you could prevent these website scenarios by choosing a different way to handle website hosting and management.

1. Let chapters design and manage their own sites as long as they adhere to your affiliation requirements.
2. Set expectations but provide resources to assist chapters with their digital presence, such as shared or subsidized technology, budget assistance, staffing support, or consulting services.
3. Take over management of chapter websites. However, this administrative responsibility may require additional staffing at National.
4. Provide a website template and requirements checklist that chapters must use to build the website themselves or with vendor assistance. However, since chapters still manage their own sites, you still have risks.
5. Host a platform that provides a website for each chapter, but allows the chapter to manage its own site. Many association management systems have a content management system (CMS) module that provides this functionality.

The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) provides microsites to their chapters—you can see an example here. These templated web pages integrate with IMA’s website so information can be cross-posted, for example, IMA can push out global events to each chapter’s website. The microsites are easy for chapters to create and manage, and they adhere to IMA’s branding guidelines.

Provide the training and resources chapters need to create and maintain a website. Don’t assume chapters know what to do—and don’t assume young members, since they’re “digital natives,” know what to do.

Share website resources in your chapter leader hub or portal.

• The American Student Dental Association provides a How-To Guide for Chapter Websites.
• The Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing shares a Chapter Leader Quick-Start Guide to Website Management on its website.

In addition to a guide, provide a sample list of membership benefits for chapters to use on their website—a list that focuses on the impact, not the features, of membership.

As part of their annual report, ask chapters to complete a checklist that includes requirements, such as:

• Safe storage (with National as a possible backup) for website content management system and other software credentials (usernames and passwords)
• Website hosting and domain registration information, such as expiration dates, and credentials
• Software subscription status – is it a monthly auto-payment or annual payment?

This checklist could also include website requirements related to functionality, security, speed, responsiveness, SEO, and branding.

In our earlier post on federal and state compliance issues, we suggested transforming the checklist of chapter requirements into a self-assessment. Chapters rate themselves on how well they meet best practice standards for things like their check signing policy and website mobile responsiveness. You can incentivize their performance by rewarding high-scoring chapters with financial or consultative incentives.

Some associations provide website platforms to their chapters as a way of ensuring compliance with branding and functionality standards. Chapters can’t get into too much trouble (for example, expired domains and lost passwords) if National is keeping an eye on things.

Provide an annual website audit as a chapter consulting service. After reviewing website functionality and website copy, you can make recommendations for improvements and work with the chapter on an action plan.