Empowering Chapters through Self-Assessments & Awards
The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) has its chapters do a self-assessment every year. Originally, this initiative started as a way to bring more objectivity to the chapter awards process. However, ACG has found that it’s also led to an increased two-way dialogue with chapters. The self-assessment has four categories:
- Leadership and governance
- Programs and marketing
- Membership
- Financial operations
ACG’s Self-Assessments
Chapters rate their performance on each item in the category checklist. By doing so, they see where they can perhaps do better, according to best practices. For example, if their check signing policy isn’t following best practices, the chapter leaders realize they need to change that policy—or they’ll never win the chapter of the year award!
This change in chapter behavior has been the most significant impact of the self-assessments. It helps that the ACG membership is “super competitive.” Chapter leaders want to bring home an award so they reach out to ACG staff to find out where they can improve. Now isn’t that a switch? Instead of having to tell chapters what they need to do to comply, the chapters are taking the initiative to change. At the annual conference, ACG highlights best practices and programs from award-winning chapters, so high-performance behavior is shared and spread throughout the network.
Go Deeper on Chapter Performance
Tracking Chapter Effectiveness: Tips for Creating Powerful Dashboards
One Example: Tying Incentives to Awards
The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) chooses four regional winners for their Chapter Excellence Award and then one national winner from that group.
Each regional winner receives two scholarships to attend the spring regional conference, and the national winner receives four annual conference scholarships. These scholarships cover expenses for:
- Conference registration
- Airfare
- Transportation
- Hotel accommodation
Go Deeper on Chapter Awards
Download The Report
Mariner Management, in collaboration with Billhighway, launched this second edition of the Chapter Benchmarking Report. The report was designed to gather industry data that helps associations benchmark their chapter programs against others. We also wanted to fuel the dialogue on what makes an effective chapter—and an effective chapter/association relationship.
