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This morning, I attended Dale Paulson's session "Increasing First-Year Retention with Target Marketing." I got some very interesting ideas from this session, but I would have liked to discuss more about new members. I'll get to that in a moment.

Some of the takeaways are very helpful for overall recruitment and retention. I appreciated Dale's statement about the importance of creating resonance in communications, and how we, as association staff, need to ask our members what they want from us, rather than just assuming we know what their membership expectations are. Sometimes, during the recruitment process, we're lucky enough to have extended conversations with our members, so we know what the specific ROI will be, and we can service them accordingly. But what about the impromptu and proactive joiners? They may need just as much customized service as the members we worked weeks to recruit. Find out what they want and how they want it.

As I mentioned above, I would have loved to hear more about what you need to do in the first year to ensure you have a lifelong member. Making sure you are delivering on benefits and communicating in a targeted fashion is indeed crucial. But what steps should you take to make your newest members engaged, satisfied, and active from the moment they make the decision to join? How do you move them from signing a check to an active user and volunteer? Granted, those who have worked with me know that this is one of my favorite tasks as a membership director. I touched on this a bit in the Engaging Young Professionals presentation I participated in at the 2008 Marketing and Membership Conference. Does your organization have a welcome message to new members that they get within 24 hours of joining? Is there a new member welcome section on your website? Do you facilitate small group interactions between new members and member leaders at your meetings? Do you have special materials designed to orient your newest members to volunteer oppportunities? Do you have a schedule for outreach efforts so that new members receive content and value prior to that first renewal notice?

Capitalize on the positive momentum a member starts with the action of joining. As Dale said, once a member renews for the first year, they will most likely remain a member for the next three to four. Ensuring that new members renew at their anniversary is essential. Getting that same new member to be a passionate advocate for your association is essential as well. You're not going to make everyone a champion, but by reaching out to all of your new members when they're excited and eager about membership, you'll find champions who might otherwise get lost in the shuffle. Do everything you can to keep that first year member, and do everything you can to make them a positive voice for your association and the industry.