IDEAS ON MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

By Eric Cardinal, Director, Lake County Historical Society, Mentor, Ohio

Local History Notebook, November / December 1992

Several years ago, Gayle Flood, an editorial assistant for the American Association for State and Local History's History News, wrote a provocative article which explored the pros and cons of membership programs for historical organizations. The crux of the question Flood posed was both basic and simple-'Whether membership programs are worth the effort."(1)

Flood marshaled evidence that suggested that 1) active membership recruitment programs did not necessarily bring in substantial dues revenues and related support, 2) member services frequently cost as much as the price of membership, and 3) membership development campaigns could potentially divert an organization's efforts from important primary services to potentially unrewarding "drives." Flood concluded that organizations that valued membership programs should apply cost analyses and market studies to themselves and their target constituencies. They also needed to target specific interests within their audience and tailor programs to those interests.

For all of these reasons, our planning committee decided that expanding the membership base of the Society should become a priority. In the seven years since, membership in the Lake County Historical Society has risen from just over 300 to just under 950, substantial, but not spectacular growth. We developed a definite philosophy of membership development and took specific steps to implement that philosophy. What follows are some thoughts which grew out of these efforts.

Membership Development

There are numerous ways to approach membership development, but before setting down ideas that we have used at the Lake County Historical Society, there is a need to see how other organizations throughout Ohio handle the issue. The Society undertook a small, admittedly impressionistic, survey to discover how others grappled with the issues of membership.

Questionnaires were sent to 27 organizations, 19 of which responded not only by answering the questions, but with helpful and suggestive comments. If one thing was made clear with even such a small survey, it is that approaches to membership development are almost as numerous as the number of organizations that employ them. Each institution places different emphases on membership recruitment, services, and renewals.

While most organizations had at least close estimates of the percentage of their members who do not renew from year to year, 13 of the 19 responding organizations do no specific follow-up with their non-renewals to discover why. While 12 of the organizations used computers in their membership efforts, they did so in widely different ways. A few used them to organize periodic drives and to reach certain segments within their membership base, but others used computers simply as a faster way to produce mailing labels.

Nor is there a correlation between the price of memberships and the number of members an organization attracts. Low rates for annual dues are to be found among both high-member and low-member institutions. Relatively high rates of annual dues are likewise to be found among both the largest and smallest membership organizations responding to the survey.

Indeed, if the results of this survey indicate anything, it is that there is no one way to approach membership development. What works in one's own distinctive situation may be the best way, regardless of what others do. Responding to one of the survey questions, asking which system of membership organization of several suggested was best, the president of a large member organization responded, "The one we use."

Membership Inducements

The first and perhaps most important step organization planners should take is to consider exactly why an individual chooses to become a member in the first place. This is a fundamental question and needs to be seriously addressed. This is not to suggest that anyone should join your organization merely to support it. While historical organizations both merit and need community support, it is no one's obligation to be a member. Nor is the mere worthwhile existence of a group much of an impetus to join it. Most organizations offer member benefits. In the survey for this article, those most commonly listed were free admission to the museum and receipt of the organization's publication. Your members will appreciate these and other prerequisites--access to seminars, workshops and programs; discounts on publications or items in the museum store; society-organized excursions or meetings. Some of these benefits will actually induce individuals to join.

A Base of Membership

Once you have determined why people may be impelled to join your organization, take steps to broaden and deepen your base of support. Within the context of your mission, be sure that your programs and activities are broadly inclusive and that your operations are user friendly. Your member survey will have revealed your core constituency. Are there not more people with such interests "out there" than are currently members? If the answer is yes (and it almost always will be), explore ways to reach that audience.

At the same time, aren't there others in your service area who are outside of what appears to be that core group but who seemingly have an interest in what you do? Are you a county-wide organization that finds that fully 50 percent of your members come from the county seat? Take steps in your programming, publications, and your board's composition to broaden your base within the county. See if there are important segments of the population missing. Think about instituting specialized memberships for senior citizens and students.

Setting Membership Goals

To increase memberships, set realistic and specific annual goals. For example, you are a county-wide organization with a current membership of 400. There are 120,000 residents in your county. You may decide to set an arbitrary number of members as your ultimate goal--let's say one percent of your county's population, or 1,200 members. Ambitious? To be sure. Unrealistic? Not if you set reasonable short term objectives. Attempt to increase membership by 10 percent each year. Thus, in the first year your goal is a membership of 440. Since your goal is a 10 percent increase in total members, you may need to attract as many as 50 or 60 new members to offset inevitable non-renewals. Whether you succeed or fail to reach your goal, set the same 10 percent goal for the ensuing year. Let's say your membership rises from 400 in year one to 432 in year two, an increase of eight percent. Your goal for year three should be a membership of 475, a 10-percent increase. By setting ambitious but reachable goals each year, you are more apt to attain them or, at the least, to come close. By defining your objective in terms of percentage increases rather than a fixed number of total members, you do not lose focus on the process of growth.

Membership Campaign

Use every opportunity to increase memberships. Does your organization have or share a booth at the county fair? If not, look into it. Make memberships available there. Do you sponsor a popular threshermen's convention and fiddler's contest every August to which you charge a $4 admission? Be sure you set up a membership table at the event and offer a $4 discount on annual memberships "today only!" (Most organizations admit members free to their activities). You are losing nothing and gaining much by piggybacking an annual membership onto a one-day's special event admission.) Make sure that every visitor to your museum or library leaves with a membership brochure. Suggest to your present members that they give annual memberships as presents to friends and family, and then make it easy for them to do so.

Dealing With Non-Renewals

Minimize non-renewals. The most common reason cited against annual membership campaigns was the contention that new members thus attracted often failed to renew memberships in subsequent years. However, it may well be easier to attract new members than to retain them.

But the downside is more apparent than real. First, a member for one or two years is better than no member at all. Second, and more fundamentally, it is important to minimize the number of such non-renewals. The market research and constituency-broadening efforts you will have already undertaken to attract these new members will help you retain them. These people joined because they liked something that you were doing. Keep doing it.

Membership System

Offer memberships for a 12-month chronological year from date of first joining rather than any form of calendar year. The organizations surveyed were fairly evenly divided on this point, and many of the respondents offered cogent reasons for choosing a calendar membership year. "Other systems create administrative problems and member confusion " one wrote. For organizations with limited human resources, ease of administration is a vital concern. Twelve of the 19 organizations employ computers in their membership activities, and there is no doubt that computerization assists the 12-month chronological year format. However, half of the computerized organizations use the chronological year, so there is no clear-cut correlation to be inferred by use of a computer.

In spite of the difficulties that may be involved in employing the chronological year format, there are compelling reasons to do so. First, it evens cash flow from membership dues through the year, an important consideration.

We include a renewal form printed on a self-addressed envelope to make it easy to return. It is fair to say that we receive almost as many renewals from this post-final notice letter as we do from the other three notices combined. In addition, there are those who have chosen not to renew for some specific reason; their responses to our inquiry are quite helpful in analyzing our success at meeting the needs of our audience.

Third, the 12-month chronological membership year is an important tool in selling memberships the year round. It is difficult to sell a membership for the current year as the year dwindles down to a few months. There are ways to combat this--the 13-month membership and the reduced-rate membership in the last quarter of the year are two--but, more commonly, the result is that new membership purchases are funneled into January or the first month of your organization's fiscal year. By employing the 12-month chronological year, you are always offering a full year's membership at full price.

Finally, the 12-month chronological membership year avoids the hectic renewal month which in itself can be an administrative nightmare for a small organization.

Computerized Membership

If possible, gain access to a computer for membership development activities. At a time when personal computers have become nearly ubiquitous, it is likely that you can get the use of one for this purpose even if your organization does not itself own one.

Summary

With a computer or not, with a staff or not, with an already existing large number of members or not, it is possible for any organization to expand its membership base simply by making a strong institutional commitment to do so. The issues faced in grappling with membership development-how to attract new people to the organization, how to retain members, and how best to serve members within the context of the organization's mission-are all ones an institution must also address in any serious self- study and institutional planning process. Members are an organization's best friends and a true measure of the extent of its success. An institution can ignore or de-emphasize membership development only at its own peril.

The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people working in the local history field. The selection of subjects and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reference inserts are copyrighted 1992 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available; please specify volume and number. For further information, contact: