Empowering Chapters Through Education

One Association’s Scalable and Strategic Approach

Education is more than just knowledge transfer. It’s the engine that drives excellence. At its best, education strengthens leaders and enriches members. When we support chapters in offering member education, we’re not just helping deliver content, we’re building leadership capacity, modeling best practices, and fostering deeper engagement.

An added bonus? Supporting our chapters’ educational offerings elevates the visibility of chapters while confirming the CRP’s value as connectors and collaborators. Lifting all of our efforts up!

We explored all this during the April 4th CEX 2025 session with two education pros who reminded us that our chapters hold a wealth of untapped knowledge, which we can use to build an education ecosystem that’s not only vibrant but constantly evolving (read more).

In our May 21 webinar, we went further by exploring a collaborative educational system through two powerful lenses: how it empowers leaders and how it enhances the member experience.

In this post, we’ll focus on the first as Antje Teegler, Senior Director of Membership Initiatives and Chapters at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) shares how ACC’s approach blends strategy, support, and volunteer development to scale impact across a global network.

*Missed the conversation? You can listen to the full webinar here. 

 

The Turning Point
On Educational Focus

We started building our training around four columns… we took the questions in our survey, divided them up in leadership, administrative support, membership engagement and membership benefits.

Like many associations, ACC’s chapters were hit hard post-pandemic, facing burnout, resource gaps, and big questions about their long-term role.

Launched in October 2022, ACC’s new 3-year strategic plan recognized what many of us already know: chapters are the key to member engagement. Under the plan, Antje’s team was tasked with helping chapters grow stronger, run more effectively, and become more connected with the broader ACC community.

The charge felt a bit ambitious at first, so Antje turned to the CRP community for inspiration by attending CEX in 2022 and 2023. She also turned to several resources, namely Mariner Management’s Chapter Dashboard Indicator, a guide for assessing chapter health (shameless plug!), and the 2022 Chapter Benchmarking Study, which helped make a compelling case to HQ about the importance of strong chapters. (Check out more resources here.)

*Psst: The 2025 Benchmarking and Exploration Study is now underway. Stay tuned!

Armed with new tools, insights, and data from a subsequent chapter survey, the team began structuring training around four key pillars: leadership, administrative support, member engagement, and member benefits. The initial focus was on education and services, which would then support chapters in these four pillars.

 

 

The Nitty Gritty of the Plan

ACC is a global community built on strong local connections with membership spanning over 60+ chapters across six continents. Bringing it all together started with building trust not only between chapters and HQ, but also among the chapters themselves. These connections laid the foundation for meaningful peer mentoring and shared success. This also meant supporting both chapter leaders and their administrative staff, so they could become partners in developing a successful educational system.

Here’s a snapshot of how ACC does it:

SUPPORTS CHAPTER EDUCATION & LEADERSHIP

In FY2024, ACC chapters hosted 2,000+ programs for 75,000 attendees. HQ supports this through:

  • Resources & Toolkits: Self-service portal and targeted toolkits (e.g., membership, programming, sponsorship) help chapters exceed the six programs per year minimum.
  • Strategic Alignment: Programs reflect ACC’s strategic goals and reinforce chapters as integral to the member experience.
  • Performance & Incentives: Chapters track engagement and retention; benchmarking and awards programs encourage participation.

 

On Building Trust and Relationships

We want to have the family feel. We wanted our leaders not only come to us when they are having a question [but] that they know people in other chapters can help them too, and they build friendships.

On Transparency and Leadership

Our chosen motto for 2023 was transparency and predictability, because that seemed to be our main challenge … people didn’t know what was expected of them. 

EMPOWERS VOLUNTEER LEADERS

ACC trains leaders through:

  • Onboarding & Microlearning: Timely virtual calls, short videos, and quizzes guide new leaders.
  • Ongoing Learning: Year-round virtual training, special interest calls, in-person Spring and Fall Leadership Development Institutes, and 1:1 staff support.
  • Admin Development: 70+ paid administrators join regular “Idea Swaps” and receive tailored training.

 

FOSTERS CONTINUITY & COMMUNITY

One of the standout aspects of ACC’s approach is its emphasis on information retention and leadership continuity:

  • Succession Toolkit: Guides chapters in leadership transition and onboarding.
  • Knowledge Sharing: Templates and shared docs support long-term memory and collaboration.
  • Community-building: Calls and training sessions emphasize introductions, fun facts, and personal connections to foster community, a critical tactic in volunteer engagement and leadership development.

 

Final Thoughts

ACC’s volunteer leader education strategy reflects a commitment to scalable support, meaningful engagement, and continuous improvement. By combining digital tools, personalized outreach, and structured content, ACC has created a model that not only educates chapters but turns them into active partners in delivering member value. If your organization is looking to boost chapter support and education, ACC’s model offers inspiration in strategic alignment, thoughtful infrastructure, and relationship-centered leadership.

⇒ Stay tuned for a future post where we’ll examine how one association’s education strategy boosted the member experience.

CHECK OUT THESE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES…

Bonus tip: ACC introduces an annual theme each year to help chapters focus. Here’s a quick recap of the last 3 years…

  • 2023: Enthusiastic Membership Engagement: Focused on connecting with new members during their first 90 days (led to an 8% increase in first-year member retention).
  • 2024: Sustainable Chapter Leadership: Launched the Succession Planning Toolkit (1,000+ page views). Many chapters have revamped their volunteer recruitment processes and are now updating their bylaws to reflect best practices like transparent nominations, term limits, and committee structures involving members as a stepping stone to a board seat.
  • 2025: Valuable Member Services: Centers on launching and promoting ACC’s new mentoring program, in partnership with chapters and networks.

 

*A special thank you to Antje Teegler and the Chapters at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) for sharing this information with us.

 

 

Tags: Learning | Training