Association chapters and components are fertile ground for member engagement, but they can often prove to be a thorny management challenge. As associations examine the value of their component networks, they’re finding that skillful investment in supporting the success of chapters will drive bigger and better returns.
When the Consortium for School Networking sought to hire a full-time component relations coordinator in the autumn of 2016, it was looking for someone with the proverbial green thumb. Dresden Farrand, MPA, MPP, CAE, Senior Director of Membership and Chapters at CoSN, based in Washington, DC says.
“I look at component relations as gardening. And you have to take care of your garden in order for it to grow. It needs key ingredients like water, sunshine, good soil. Some people talk or sing to their plants.”
Indeed, gardening is a labor of love and an apt metaphor for the work of association component relations. Plants are living creatures, and fostering their growth is as much art as science. Component relations professionals are familiar with that kind of challenge. In Mariner Management & Marketing LLC’s 2016 Chapter Benchmarking Study: A View of Association Chapters & Geographic Components, finding after finding showed a broad mix of chapter structures, financial arrangements, membership requirements, training practices, and staff support present in associations with chapter systems.
measuring return on investment
Also considering that less than half of associations even have such component structures, according to Marketing General Incorporated’s 2016 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, it’s clear that no standard playbook exists to ensure chapter success. Not surprising, then, was the Mariner report’s summation that “there is an undercurrent of discomfort with the status quo on chapters.”
The one question on which associations did widely agree in Mariner’s survey was about measuring return on investment. An overwhelming 95 percent of associations with chapters said they do not use any formal method to calculate the comprehensive ROI of their chapter system to the association. Credit that, again, to the complexity inherent in component relations. Savvy associations recognize, however, that the ROI question is critical, and no program on an association’s ledger can go unexamined. For all the time, money, and resources invested in components, associations must work to ensure that the bottom line ROI of their chapters (however it might be calculated) is positive.
We’ll take a look at some key strategies and steps to tip the chapter ROI balance with smarter investments at the central-organization level and better returns at the chapter level—and some ideas on how to measure it all, too.
Don’t use any formal method to calculate the comprehensive ROI of their chapter systems
From inside headquarters, it can be easy to forget that association management is not a commonly held skill set. Chapter volunteers typically come from other lines of work.
“It becomes incumbent upon national organizations to do a better job of helping component organizations, giving them the insights, the tools, and the resources that they need to be more effective, because managing chapters and other volunteers is not what they do on a day-to-day basis,” says Charles W.L. Deale, FASAE, CAE, Former Vice President, Membership and Chapter Relations, at Financial Executives International (FEI) in Morristown, New Jersey.
Clarify Who Does What
Often, problems with chapters arise from a misalignment of expectations. Perhaps chapters or the central organization feel like the other is stepping on their “turf,” or maybe one side feels like the other isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. In either case, time and energy are wasted.
Deale spent 13 years as Head of Society Relations at CFA Institute (which called its component groups “member societies”), where he says the development of a six-page “Principles of Affiliation” document was a game changer. “It basically codified what had been verbally understood — or misunderstood — over the years in terms of the respective rights, roles, and responsibilities of the two organizations — member societies and global headquarters. What one did and the other did not do, what they both could do, and where there was a delineation,” Deale says.
A workgroup made up of staff, members, and chapter leaders spent a year creating the document, which gave it the weight and backing it needed to serve as a foundation for the future and to keep expectations on both sides aligned, Deale says.
Create a Framework for Consistency in Decision-Making
Component relations presents too many variables to make decisions haphazardly, says Farrand. That’s why she built a set of internal guidelines for chapter relations decisions, such as when a chapter should be launched or when one should be dissolved.
- What constitutes acceptable chapter performance?
- What qualities do you look for in chapter leaders?
- What geographic locales do you want your chapters to serve?
“These are all very tough conversations, but you have to have a framework which you’re operating in to help you justify your decisions,” Farrand says. The details of such a framework will depend on any given association’s circumstances. At CoSN, for instance, it includes a “50-state plan” to identify areas where the association has weak membership levels. (It currently has 25 state chapters.)
“We’re not going to just have components to have components. We’re only going to have strong
components. So, that has meant I have dropped components, and I’m only going to bring in what I know, based on my framework, is going to be a strong component.”
Both Farrand and Deale say consistency in the chapter network is a main goal of a decision-making framework, and they cite the franchise model common in retail and food industries as a source of inspiration. At CFA Institute, Deale says members’ satisfaction was at times uneven among chapters.
“They might have a great experience in Cleveland, and then they would go to Chattanooga and it would be less good,” he says. “Realizing that there was going to be different levels of activity at different societies, we wanted at least a reasonable expectation that there would be consistent delivery of value by all the societies.”
Next Steps
Before you start the process of creating a framework, ask yourself these three questions:
- What constitutes acceptable chapter performance?
- What qualities do you look for in chapter leaders?
- What geographic locales do you want your chapters to serve?
Download This Whitepaper
In this Billhighway whitepaper, we’ll take a look at some key strategies and steps to tip the chapter ROI balance with smarter investments at the central-organization level and better returns at the chapter level—and some ideas on how to measure it all, too.
