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Membership Committee Initiatives
The GWSCSW Membership Committee has
launched several initiatives in order to increase membership, to welcome new
members, and to link members to benefits and to committees of potential
interest. These included special New Member Teas, heightened Society visibility
at our programs, outreach to the universities, and review of our Society
brochures and other materials. , and, perhaps most significantly, a Lapsed
Member Drive.
A Lapsed Member Drive in early 2004 has provided the basis for our committee's
direction. We took on the Drive quite reluctantly: we knew it would be a lot of
work. But a contest proposed by the Membership Committee of the Clinical Social
Work Federation (now the Clinical Social Work Association - CSWA) offered a
prize of $500 to the Society with most new members from December 2003 to May
2004, and that was just enough to get our competitive juices flowing.
The logistics of the Drive involved contacting (first by letter, then by phone) thirty-six former members who had dropped out of the Society in the past eighteen months. Our goal was not to convince them to rejoin, but rather to find out what we could be doing better or differently, what might have kept them interested.
Maurya Brenneman, Melinda Salzman, and Shirley Scribner made the phone calls and took notes for a final report. In most instances lapsed members were grateful to hear from the Society, and a number rejoined. Others had moved out of town or retired. A few mentioned the number of professional associations competing for their time and their dues. A few mentioned the cost as the only issue. An annoying administrative hassle drove one away.
The Importance of the Interpersonal Connection
All in all we learned a great deal from these conversations. What came through loudest and clearest was that those who didn’t feel interpersonally connected – whether or not they appreciated the legislative work, the programs, the Newsletter and Directory, and so on – found it easy to drop out.
The corollary, we think, is that members are more likely to stay members, and more likely to convince colleagues to become members, if they feel a personal connection to others in the Society.
While the Society’s board will be looking at other issues such as cost and administrative glitches, the Membership Committee is initiating the Ambassador Program, as a reflection of our sense of the importance of the interpersonal connection, of personal involvement to make membership meaningful.
To learn more about the Ambassador Program, or to volunteer, contact Membership Chair MelindaSalzman at 301-588-3225 salzmanmsw@starpower.net.