Derek Arden, professional speaker and author and Immediate Past President of the Professional Speaking Association reflects on the organisation’s tremendous growth last year during his Presidency:

Changing times
The challenge for me on taking up the Presidency was to make positive changes which would be sustainable for the next President to take forward. And all of this was set in the context of a volunteer-led and run organisation; there was only so much time everybody could give.

So I assembled a small team of willing volunteers and made a number of changes which we felt would help make membership more attractive to new members and also removed some of the barriers to joining.

These changes included:

• Redefining our USPs and producing a marketing brochure which promoted these USPs and membership.
• Making it easier to join as an Associate, which could then be upgraded once experience and expertise in speaking had been established, rather than requiring members to demonstrate this on application.
• Encouraging the re-invigoration of some of our less active regions; we know that members value the opportunity to learn and network in person.
• Making changes to our internal systems to ensure the efficient processing of membership.
• Introducing standing orders in order to make it easier for members to continue paying their fees.

Recruitment
Like most organisations ‘recommendation’ was one of the top reasons as to why people joined the PSA. The new brochure helped us to spread the membership message. I also spent time attending regional meetings to promote membership and incentivising people to sign up on the night. A number of existing members brought contacts to these meetings with them which also helped to increase numbers.

We also offered free membership to all UK 2012 Olympic athletes, as a number of sports professionals carve out careers as speakers. This helped us raise our profile and gain some publicity.

Conclusion
I, along with everyone that helped achieve the membership growth, am very proud of what we did. It took lots of hard work and effort, but we believe that the changes mean the PSA has a solid base on which to grow going forward.

Like any volunteer-led organisation, attracting and retaining volunteers will always be a challenge for us. Amongst our members are lots of big personalities, so we need to harness their willingness to help and ensure it is directed in the right way.

We also need to ensure our internal systems and processes result in a good experience for members.

I, and all those that lead the organisation, feel really positive about the future for the association. We plan to grow the PSA to 600 members over the next 2 years and I believe we can achieve this.

If you are involved in public speaking, I would urge you to consider joining us.

How to contact the PSA
Should you be interested in joining the PSA or finding out more please visit: http://www.professionalspeaking.biz/

Sisters Jo and Karin on location with Magneto’s Gaby Jeffs.

Video is often used by traditional charities to tell stories. I often think that membership organisations could use video in this way more. Gaby Jeffs from Magneto Films, a leading producer of films for non-profits, has kindly agreed to share some of the ways that video can be used.

How can you use it in your membership organisation? If you already use it, how does it work for you? Do leave a comment below.

Using video

How do we get our message to the people we want to connect with?  How do we get them to listen and take action?

As video communication specialists we’ve found that working with real people  is the most powerful way of getting people to engage.

Increasingly sophisticated audiences screen out bland, promotional messages, but real experiences still grab attention. An authentic human story keeps people watching, absorbing messages and ultimately changing behaviour.

Here’s how it works:

1)      Peer to peer testimonial

Word of mouth or impartial peer recommendations are very powerful.  This approach avoids experts but works with authentic experiences that will resonate with our target audience.

For sheer impact no one can articulate the benefits of membership  better than a satisfied member.  So asking your members why they joined and what specific benefits and services they’ve found useful will make your case for you.  The process can often unlock new insights.

Here’s a recent film Magneto has made for the Family Friendly organisational membership scheme run by the Family and Parenting Institute – members share how membership helps them to achieve their goals.

2)      Model desired behaviour

We’re social creatures and we learn from each other.  So model the behaviour you want your audience to follow by finding real peer role models to feature in your video.

This worked very effectively for a direct response TV advert we produced for Macmillan for their World’s Biggest Coffee Morning event. We worked with a real family who hold a coffee morning every year, in remembrance of their dad who died of cancer.

The advert showed a family holding their coffee morning and talking about their motivation for raising money for Macmillan. The modelled behaviour worked so well that Macmillan reported supporters placing photos of loved ones amongst the cakes at their own coffee morning as the family had done in the ad!

Overall the ad helped take donations up from under £10m the year before to over £14m in 2012.

You can see the advert here

3)      To create behaviour change

We always suggest choosing people to feature in your video who mirror the diversity of your target audience.   We accept messages more easily  if they come from people who we perceive to be like us – especially when targeting hard to reach groups.   Peer role models can offer realistic and practical solutions. Find people who can share barriers they faced and coping strategies for overcoming them.

Here’s a low budget film we produced for the membership organisation CharityComms to encourage more people to become individual members – featuring a peer testimonial.

4)      Demonstrate impact by digital story telling

Video is great for story telling and taking people on a journey.  This is especially effective in demonstrating an organisation’s impact, such as a charity.

For example, we were asked by the Legacy Trust UK to make some films to demonstrate the impact of Cultural Olympiad arts funding. Joseph’s Story shows the difference the project has made to his life and future.

Video can tell the story of an event too, capturing the buzz, comments and feedback from people there. These can extend the life of an event so more people are able to engage online, or even be used to market the event in the future.

For more ideas on how to make real stories and video work for your organisation, have a look at our new friendly How To guides on our website or get in touch.

Contact
If you want to find out more you can contact Gaby Jeffs, Senior Producer Director, Magneto Films via gaby@magnetofilms.com @MagnetoGaby www.magnetofilms.com

Buzzwords and trends in IT come and go, but some concepts endure the test of time. The debate about best of breed versus integrated software seems to have been around ever since integrated packages and “enterprise-wide software” came onto the market. For years, IT professionals and system users alike have debated whether it is better to have a centralised database from a single vendor providing a range of functionality via various in-built software modules, or whether specialised yet discrete software applications that are known to be the best in their field are in fact preferable.

The argument usually goes as follows. A best-of-breed product has been identified as the best product of its type, and therefore provides the quality and depth of functionality required to ensure that users have the best possible experience. Somebody in the membership department, for instance, might want a specific membership package; similarly, HR might want a dedicated HR package, finance might want a particular accounting system, and an events team might have certain requirements that are only really satisfied by a specific event management system they have in mind. On the other hand, everybody recognises the value of having “joined up” data; you only have to spend a few moments at a not-for-profit technology event before somebody will invariably mention the benefits of having a “complete view” of all interactions with a contact, or the benefits of having the fundraising or event booking systems effectively “talking to” (i.e. sharing financial data) with the finance system, or any other type of issue that essentially involves sharing information between different departments/teams and the software that they use.

Purely from a functionality perspective, it is difficult to argue against the benefits of the best of breed approach. The difficulty is that best of breed increases complexity: behind the scenes, an IT department or a supplier is having to link and keep these systems together; they’re also having to manage multiple suppliers and contracts, needing to host and maintain a more diverse IT environment (with all the associated potential compatibility and upgrade issues), and potentially having additional work when it comes to diagnosing and resolving issues where systems are linked together (having a single point of accountability for support issues in a multiple-supplier set-up isn’t as common as most IT departments would like…).

Thankfully, recent developments have made the issue less difficult. Over time, integrated suites have improved and the range and depth of functionality is far better than it used to be. On the best of breed side, technology has advanced to make systems open and more easily integrated via use of common standards and protocols such as APIs, .Net, XML, and SOAP.

The decision to choose between integrated suites and best of breed software can be difficult. Inevitably there are compromises to be made – the key is ensuring that you compromise in the areas that matter least to you, and that you do not lose sight of which requirements are an essential, non negotiable part of effectively supporting your key business processes.

About Paul Sypko
Paul Sypko is a Partner at Adapta Consulting and specialises in helping not-for-profit organisations become more effective through their use of IT and digital technology. He can be contacted via paul@adaptaconsulting.co.uk

Students on internship at VCCP. Thanks to the SMF for the image.

I was very interested to find out about the Aspiring Professionals Programme run by the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), a UK charity. Raising the profile of your organisation’s profession amongst school and college students is a good way to pipeline membership in the future.

What is the Aspiring Professionals Programme?

The Aspiring Professionals Programme (APP) is a completely free of charge programme for high-achieving sixth-formers from low-income backgrounds in Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Nottingham. The programme supports them to get into university and then into their chosen profession.

Successful applicants are provided with a programme of:

• mentoring

• skills development

• tailored university visits

• university application support – with personal statements, interviews and aptitude tests

• internships – with opportunities at over 200 of the most prestigious employers in the UK

Support continues whilst the students are at university, in order to give them the best chance of entering the profession they aspire to join.

In the last 5 years, 53% of the university destinations of APP students have been Russell Group (which is an association of 24 leading research institutions) universities. The SMF is now seeing the students they first worked with gain employment at top city firms such as Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy, ‘magic circle’ law firms.

Professional body involvement

The Social Mobility Foundation is always looking to work with professional bodies, membership organisations and encourages employers to:

• Become an SMF Mentor – Mentors commit 15-30mins of their time per week to correspond with their student via emails that go through our designated and secure website. As a mentor you will receive support from the SMF through monthly e-bulletins. There are also optional meet-ups throughout the year.

• Provide an internship – An APP internship is a short 1-2 week work taster that takes place during the school summer holiday between Year 12 and Year 13 or during October half-term. They are not prescriptive over the tasks students undertake, the most important thing is that the internship is structured in order to give a real insight into the profession. Sample itineraries can be provided by the SMF to give you ideas of what your week can involve.

• Host a skill session – Hosting skill sessions early on, when the students first join the APP, enables them to get a good overview of their chosen profession that will help them in other aspects of our programme.

A skill session can be anything from a tour of your office, with some talks from key members of each department, to a presentation on a certain field of your industry followed by a related group task for the students to complete.

Contacting the SMF
The Social Mobility Foundation is particularly interested in speaking to science and engineering related professional and membership bodies. To find out more please contact Fiona.McCourt@socialmobility.org.uk, call 0207 953 4007 or visit www.socialmobility.org.uk

Deciding to increase membership fees is not something that any membership professional or board take lightly. In these austere times, we all know that an increase in fees could be the difference between a member renewing and not renewing. However, you may feel there is a good business reason to increase prices, so how do you present this to members?

I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and they recently sent through this document (pictured right also) with their renewals paperwork.

What I liked about their communications:

• Firstly, I think it was good that they were proactive and chose to anticipate any questions by producing a Q & A document.
  
• They made the document look attractive and eye-catching. As an organisation you do not want to appear to be “wasting money” on documents about price rises. However, you do need to encourage members to read the information and a plain black and white document is not the best way to engage readers.
  
• They focused on the additional value delivered and member feedback that they have used to inform their decision. This is not just about the staff or board at Head Office, they have listened to members.
  
• It is  balanced and non-apologetic in tone. I personally believe if you are making the right decision for members and the organiation, then you need to outline the facts and reasons but not be overly apologetic. Being apologetic can encourage them to think about not renewing.

I have renewed my membership of the CIM as I feel it delivers value to me, and I understand that membership rises have to take place if the organisation is to continue.

What do you think?
Do you think the CIM’s approach was the right one? What do you do about membership fee increases?

Google Alerts have been around for a number of years, but they are still a great way for membership organisations to search and monitor news information.

What is a Google Alert?

A Google Alert is a search that is performed by Google based on search criteria you have set and the results are then emailed to you. They typically search news sites and blogs. The search uses Boolean (eg using search terms like AND, OR) which enables you to hone your search down to the relevant information.

How can membership organisations use them?

1. Tracking key members. If you have important or high profile members that you want to follow, create alerts for them. You can add any intelligence gathered to their member record on your database. Or you can contact them to congratulate them on the reason they are in the news.

2. Finding potential members. If you have key potential members, creating alerts for them enables you to track their job movements and also any notable activities. You can mention these to them when you are encouraging them to join.

3. Monitoring news about your organisation. It is always worth ensuring that you pick up any news stories about your organisation. If you have a regional network or volunteers that carry out activities on your behalf you might also find stories about regional groups and activities.

4. Following news about your “competitors”. Alerts can also help you keep abreast of what your “competitors” or organisations that serve your audience are doing.

5. Monitoring news about policy issues. Finally, your policy work can be helped by using Alerts to collect information about areas of policy interest.

How to set up a Google Alert

Google Alerts are really easy to set up. Just visit – http://www.google.co.uk/alerts and start creating them. There are advanced options like exporting them etc. It is worth noting that they daily digest emails come through at the time of day that you set up the alert, so if you want them to arrive first thing, set up the alert then.

Do you use Google Alerts?

Do you Google Alerts? What for? Do you have any suggestions for others looking to use them? Do post a comment below or contact me.

I have recently read 10 Lessons for Cultivating Member Commitment by James Dalton and Monica Dignam published by ASAE, the US association for membership professionals.

The book’s recommendations are based on the findings from a survey of 16,000 membership body members in the US. This 2011 survey was a follow up to a 2006 survey, so the book also includes comparisons compared to the earlier survey. Whilst the respondents were mainly US based, the book addresses many universal membership body issues.

It is a fairly slim book (58 pages), but it is very practical, relates to the evidence of the survey results and at the end of each chapter there are a number of helpful suggestions for membership professionals.

Some of the points I found interesting were:

1. Members decide to belong or not when their first renewal notice comes along – they have already joined but deciding to belong and be part of the organisation longer term comes at this secondary point.

2. Encouraging members to belong needs to happen from the beginning. You need to find ways to make involvement appealing.

3. Members do want to know what is in for them when they are considering getting involved with your organisation. However, don’t dismiss factors like contributing to the community and working towards the great good, these are still key motivators for many.

4. Those that are involved in the organisation through volunteering (regional networks, governance etc) are more likely to recommend membership to a friend. The book suggests that as a rough rule, 1/3 of membership should be actively involved with the organisation.

5. Board/committee members need to realise that they don’t always have the same view as ‘ordinary’ members. Being part of the ‘inner workings’ of an organisation can give you a different insight to those outside. Those working for membership organisations can help their board/committee members to understand this and ensure that there are lots of channels to collect feedback from members.

Overall I felt it was a useful book with some practical ideas. My only negative was how short it was.

If you would like a copy you can purchase from ASAE here.

From my experience phone calls can present a great opportunity to persuade members to renew on the phone and/or to gain feedback.

I do know that some membership fees are so low it does not make economic sense to make a call, but if your membership fee is worth the cost of a call then I would suggest making it.

A few things that have worked for me in the past:

• Process. In my experience the key to having a successful renewals campaign it to have a well managed process. This should include:
  
  • Access to the data of those that are renewing with all the information you need at your finger tips.
  • Information about the fees due and the benefits the organisation offers.
  • A way of recording the results of the call or the need to call back.
    
• Being able to accept payment over the phone. If you have spoken to a member and they want to renew, you want to be able to take the money then and there unless they are offering to pay by Direct Debit.
  
• Encouraging all staff/trustees to get involved in the calls. Membership is not just the concern of the membership team, typically membership fees fund a lot of the organisation’s activities. You have to give the ‘renewal call team’ all the resources they need, see above. I have also organised ‘mock’ calls before to help those outside the membership team feel more comfortable about making calls.
  
• Listening to members. The calls are primarily aimed at encouraging the member to renew, however they present a great opportunity to gain direct feedback about the organisation and things that the members value and equally what they think needs to change.
  
• Collating the responses. It is likely that you will receive feedback as part of the renewals calls process. Coding and collating this feedback is really important. There could be themes that emerged; if you don’t collate the information you cannot act on them.

Even if you don’t have the resource to call all outstanding members, I would encourage you to select a group of members to call and evaluate the success of making the calls.

Do you make renewal calls?

What do you do at your organisation? Do you call members? Or just rely on other types of reminders. What tips would you share with other membership professionals? Leave a comment below or contact me.

I think that these trends will influence the way we live in 2013, which in turn could result in increased expectations from members of their membership body. Are you ready?

1. Social content will be king

Good content has always been important to help with your SEO, but with the preferential placing of Google+ pages in search results, social content is now affecting where your organisation will appear in the search rankings.

Assuming this preferential placing continues, then a Google+ account could be a good idea for your membership body.

Although it is worth noting that the Europe Union is set to challenge the search giant’s practices to exclude competitors.

2. Mobile internet use will increase thanks to 4G

Mobile internet access will become supercharged thanks to 4G, so expect mobile internet usage to increase. Facebook have just announced that more people are viewing their site via mobiles than desktops. This trend has implications for every organisation which has a website.  

Is your organisation’s mobile site optimized or do you have a mobile version? Your members could be viewing your site on a mobile; what does it look like?

3. Big data will become big news

‘Big data’ is set to become the big thing for marketeers. Big data is the compilation of large complex data sets from across the organisation and can extend to bringing in external behavioural/personal information to create a clearer picture of your customers/members behaviours and preferences.

Think supermarket loyalty cards; as the marketing around us becomes more sophisticated, members will start to expect this level of service from their membership body.

4. Website conversion rates will become more important

Marketing professionals have increasingly become focused on conversion rates on website pages. Analytics packages can help you build up a picture of website visitor behavior. But how many organisatios then tailor their websites and communications based on the results of the analytics?

Website Conversion Rates will become a standard metric. When members/potential members visit your site do they engage and purchase additional services from you? If not, could your analytics package help to work out why?

5. Visual will become vital

Instagram and Pinterest were the big social media hits of 2012. Pinterest was reported as driving more traffic than Facebook for some demographics, despite having a much smaller membership, It is clear that images are a great way of engaging with your audience. Facebook’s own research shows that images are shared 50% more than other updates.

Membership organisations can use images from their members to demonstrate their value and to tell stories. How visual is  your organisation?

The Charity Retail Association (previously the Association of Charity Shops) is the membership body that represents the interests of charity retailers. They have 350 members, who have over 7000 shops between them.

The CRA has been campaigning about potential changes to business relief for charity shops in Wales over the past months. I believe their campaign demonstrates a number of best practices for membership bodies looking to campaign and lobby.

Background
In June 2012, Professor Brian Morgan published the Business Rates Wales Review. The report recommended:

• restricting business rate relief to 50% for some charities, down from 80%

• limiting relief to just one charity in a given area or town centre

• restricting the premises charity shops could occupy

The report was focused on ways to encourage the retail economy in Wales. The Welsh Assembly opened a consultation about the proposals from November to December 2012.

The CRA’s position
Given the number of jobs and volunteering opportunities provided by the charity shop sector in Wales, the CRA recognised that the recommendations above would damage charity shops in Wales. So it needed to respond on behalf of its members and it carried out a number of actitives as outlined below.

The CRA partnered up with fellow membership bodies WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action) and Hospices Cymru to organise a cross party briefing for Assembly Members in November 2012.

Consultation response
They also submitted a detailed consultation response which offered compelling case studies from members and included lots of illustrative facts and figures.

Petition
They then started a petition and with the help of those working/volunteering in Welsh charity shops they collected over 22,000 signatures. This petition was picked up by many mainstream news outlets including BBC Wales.

The petition was considered in January 2013 by the Welsh Assembly’s Petitions Committee. In the response the Committee wrote to the Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science as well as the Minister for Finance asking for their views on the petition and calling for the results of the consultation to be reported. The outcome is not yet known.

I personally, do hope the CRA are successful in their bid to stop these proposals and wish them good luck with their campaign.

What they did right
Obviously, at the heart of this campaign is a very serious and important issue for CRA members and other Welsh charity shops. However, as a membership body, issues like this can provide a good way for you to demonstrate your impact and value in front of members and the wider world.

The things I think other membership bodies can learn from this CRA campaign are:

• Partnering up with complementary organisations . This can add to your influence and extend your network.

• Reaching out to decision makers in a way that makes it easy for them to engage. The decision by the CRA to hold the cross party briefing for Assembly Members in Ty Hywel (a building used the Welsh Assembly) with the added incentive of a drinks reception at the end surely helped attendance levels.

• Going beyond the normal process. The petition after the consultation had ended was an inspired idea. The three organisations could have chosen to just respond to the consultation. The petition enabled the CRA and partnering organisations to raise the issue in front of the public and charity shops alike. It also provided some great press coverage and photo opportunities, including this shown picture of Warren Alexander, CEO of the CRA; membership value in action!

• Acting in a timely manner. You need to ensure that you are aware of the issues that might affect your members and be in a position to respond. Collective consultation responses take time and resource to organise, you need to be ready to work within the timelines.

What do you think?
Do you think the CRA approached the campaign in the best way? What experiences or advice would you give to other membership bodies looking to lobby on behalf of members? Do post a comment below or let me know.