CHAPTER SESSION: Charm and Captivate With Chapter Recruitment Events

According to Marketing General Incorporated's 2015 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, the average membership association has a first-year renewal rate of about 60%. For the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, chapters have an average first-year retention rate at 50%. The need to increase the retention and acceptance rates for chapters is very large. Chapters need the larger pool of volunteers to advance their goals and objectives, as well as the renewal funds to help pay for their initiatives.

Retaining members actually starts with the recruitment phase. When a relationship is formed with the chapter, the candidate is more likely to accept and get involved right away, and therefore more likely to renew their membership. However, many nonprofit chapters - including 35% of STTI chapters - do not try to form a relationship with candidates until they are issuing an invitation to join.

Chapters need to continually generate awareness to recruit, invite, and induct eligible candidates while engaging established members in a specific way to ensure that they renew their membership each year. All of these above components will need to be in constant motion for your chapter to create a truly successful and long-lasting membership experience for its members. To help, STTI staff developed "A Chapter's Guide to Successful Recruitment," which walks through the first four phases of the Membership Lifecycle:

1. Make an Introduction
2. Recruit New Members
   
3. Induction
   
4. Orientation
   

This session will focus specifically on Phase 2 - Recruit New Members. Recruitment is the process of attracting, selecting, and orienting qualified candidates. The goal is to have well-educated candidates who are likely to accept invitations to join and become long-term honor society members. Members are the reason why organizations such as STTI exist, so inducting and keeping members truly engaged early in the relationship is critical for chapter survival.