A Note from Sheree Anne

A NOTE FROM SHEREE ANNE

What’s your most valued metric?

Sheree Anne Kelly

President & CEO, ACCE

From day one, I’ve been amazed by our industry’s passion. Chamber professionals want to build strong and vibrant communities, advance critical issues and solve a range of societal and regional problems.

When that passion is applied to the chamber profession, it manifests as interest in advancing the chamber industry, elevating the capabilities of all chamber leaders, and perhaps the most valuable attribute, chamber professionals want to give back.

Engagement has long been touted as the key to HR success. Countless studies show that employee engagement builds loyalty, increases productivity, improves satisfaction rankings, lowers the number of sick days used, among other positive results.

Engaging Chamber Members

The same goes for chambers of commerce and other membership organizations. In its 10th Annual Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, Marketing General, Inc. surveyed 689 association executives on membership trends. When asked the leading reasons participants believe members don’t renew, the most common answer from business association leaders was members’ lack of engagement in the organization.

Another 2018 survey from Advanced Solutions International benchmarked professionals from 425 membership organizations around the world. The results point to the inextricable link between engagement and retention, and there’s a growing trend to intentionally address that connection. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they have a formal member engagement plan, up from 28% in 2017. Participants with engagement plans highlight organizational benefits ranging from member renewals to increased event attendance, online engagement, non-dues revenue and other assets.

50% of business association executives cite LACK OF ENGAGEMENT as the top issue impacting membership renewals

Marketing General, Inc. Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, 2018

Engaging You

I firmly believe that engagement is one of the most important metrics for ACCE. We have an exciting new strategic plan that was built for you, by you. We gathered extensive feedback from chamber professionals to ensure your association is focused on you, the future of our industry and the future of our world.

We want to do a better job of engaging you—our passionate members. Please take a brief moment to complete our member engagement survey, www.ACCE.org/engagement so we can begin to build our future together.

There are many ways to plug into ACCE, and there will be even more engagement opportunities created during this threeyear plan. Member engagement takes many forms. Gideon Rosenblatt created an engagement pyramid that includes six levels of engagement, each building on the previous, until a member reaches the pinnacle, leadership. We have opportunities at all levels.

The list you see in the engagement form isn’t finite. Do you have other ways you’d like to contribute? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me—I’d love to hear your thoughts. And as always, we’re looking for even more examples of your success stories, both big and small, so please share those too.

I’m grateful for all that you do for your communities and for ACCE. I can’t wait to see where we go together in the years to come.

ACCE has samples of successful, modern engagement plans and strategies you can leverage for your members. Visit www.acce.org/strategies to access more information.