So, you are wondering if you are offering enough membership value as an association.  That is awesome that you are even thinking about it. Having it at the top of mind is so crucial because, as you know, your members are the life blood of your organization.  You HAVE to keep them happy.

So, how do you measure the value that they receive and make sure that you are keeping them more than content?  Here are 16 ideas of things you can do to get a handle on where you are sitting in the minds of your members to make sure that you are offering enough value with your association membership.

1. Ask your members about their new business. See if the number of clients they are getting is increasing due to their membership.
2. Check the number of people that continue their membership year over year.

3. Open your next meeting with a bad joke – if you get a fair amount of laughter it’s a good sign. Maybe it’s not a bad joke, but try to stay aware of the “temperature” of the meeting. Are people generally happy?  Sitting quiet?  Sleeping?  Crying in the corner?

4. Count the number of empty chairs. If the options of where to sit are increasing meeting after meeting, there is obviously a problem.

5. Offer alcohol at the meeting or maybe some sort of upper. Are people getting social and having fun or are they using it more like medicine… like my Uncle Tom? (Don’t really offer drugs. That was a joke.  I won’t point out jokes often, but I think it was necessary in this case.)

6. Start a suggestion box.

7. Talk to them candidly after a meeting. “Hey [insert member’s name], did you catch the game last night? How would you rank the value you get from our association on a scale of 1 to 30 and why?”

8. Send out a survey over email.

9. Take note of the number of new members to your association. In many cases a large increase can be due to great word of mouth after you offer unique, valuable opportunities.

10. If you recently held a networking event, ask if any prospects were found.

11. Ask them to discuss some of the things they have learned from recent opportunities you have provided and pray that someone has something to say.

12. Open a discussion about new ideas that they have received from meetings and that they have implemented in their business.

13. Start a sing along of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” – see what happens.

14. Set up some one-on-one meetings.

15. Hidden microphones in the restrooms. (Again… jokes. Don’t really do that shit.)

16. Flat out ask them if there is any way in their eyes that you could raise the bar on the value they get. 

Value is a hard thing to measure because it is so fluid.  The opinion of it is so easily changed.  Think about how you attribute value to things.  It’s not necessarily a constant state of being.  In many ways, it is determined on a case to case basis.  The fact of the matter is that you can have one bad meeting and the sense of total value can be terribly skewed.

That is why it is so important to continually seek out and schedule meaningful opportunities for your members.  Opportunities that allow for the ways mentioned above to measure value to result in positive responses.  Find new networking opportunities to get your members in front of prospects.  Bring in fresh association speakers that offer relevant, actionable content.  The more ways that you can make sure that your offerings are staying fresh and relevant – the better.

And hey, if you really try that sing along of “If You Are Happy and You Know It”… please send us a video!