Guest Post:
If the pandemic this past year taught us one thing, it is that local chapters are definitely still relevant. Chapters have been essential contributors to our association’s bottom line by delivering member value through education, volunteering, and networking. As our capacity for in-person engagement at the national level has been stifled, this collaboration has never been more important.
Heading into 2021 and beyond, the question is how can we better mobilize our chapters to serve members and advance the mission while creating a win/win for everyone? The answer may be in real-time data.
But don’t we already get data? Yes, we get it in monthly/quarterly/annual reports. Here’s the problem: by the time we see the data – be it member engagement, performance or financial – a chapter may already be in trouble.
Think about member retention. Retention data is knowledge gained after the fact – once membership has dropped, it’s too late to act. But if you had data in real-time via registration and membership trends across your chapter network, you could identify lackluster chapters and intercede before it’s too late. Likewise, you could identify thriving chapters and use that data to help others. You’d have the chance to influence the future now instead of playing catch-up later.
In our December webinar with Billhighway, we explored the power of real-time data. Listen to the full webinar here. We covered three key types of data:
