Chapters in 2019, Looking ahead to 2020

While more is still written about membership, events and technology, chapters did merit coverage in 2019 from a couple of the association’s leading sources. In case you missed some, here a few articles worth a look (or maybe a second look). As you peruse, just maybe there is a tip or strategy for 2020.

The Changing Role of Association Chapters. Tim Ebner offers a look at the Mariner-Billhighway 2019 Chapter Benchmarking study focusing on the renewed view of chapters as an increasingly important element of the member engagement strategy. Success requires shifts to our chapter programs.

Chapters in Crisis: a series. Billhighway provides an evergreen resource bank on chapters and in 2019 the cream of the crop is their in-depth series on how to spot, help and avoid chapter crises.

8 Ways to Build Educational Partnerships with Chapters. This post starts with reciting three commonly understood facts: chapters live and die by their educational events; chapters are often gateways to an association’s target audience; and there is a naturally occurring competition between national and their chapters when it comes to educational dollars. There is also opportunity.

Need More Chapter Volunteers. This a post I shared on the YourMembership blog was written for chapter leaders – in part by chapter leaders. We spoke with 12 chapters from 12 different associations.

Are Association Chapters Worth the Effort? AssociationSuccess.org explores the question through an interview around the 2019 benchmarking study.

When Is It Time to Close a Chapter? Here are a few indicators to make the decision.

Charting a Course to Uncovering the ROI of Your Association Chapters. For this NetForum post, we share how two associations went about answering this question.

Virtual Chapters: Are they a viable alternative? We share the findings from a hands-on workshop with CRPs.

And check out these Membership Hacks on AssociationsNow.com designed to leverage chapters:

 

And if you didn’t already download, here are 2 resources to check out:

 

What will 2020 bring for your chapters and for your team?

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