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Loved the idea, but based on some of the research about value perception and commitment when something is free, I'd tweak it a bit: (1) free for a shorter timeframe (maybe 60 days) or (2) unlimited for one year at a nominal cost that would be reasonably significant, yet not a deal-breaker.

I think the underlying concept could yield lots of additional good eyes if associations included it as a part of strategic conversations: what practices can we put into place to convert joiners into contributors and engaged members as quickly as possible?

I think this is a really great idea but would qualify that it would only be truly effective if associations are certain that their conferences and other events are in-line with member needs and that they are providing content at the events that represent value that members can't easily get elsewhere. I think this is a big challenge for many NFP's and summed up really well by Jeff Hurt in his recent post on the battle for next generation conference and membership revenue http://bit.ly/2V6A1m. I'd love to hear from an association who has tried this approach and what the outcome was.

I think this is a really great idea but would qualify that it would only be truly effective if associations are certain that their conferences and other events are in-line with member needs and that they are providing content at the events that represent value that members can't easily get elsewhere. I think this is a big challenge for many NFP's and summed up really well by Jeff Hurt in his recent post on the battle for next generation conference and membership revenue http://bit.ly/2V6A1m. I'd love to hear from an association who has tried this approach and what the outcome was.

Joe, great post! I like the idea and concept, I think our association offered a discount to new members this past year, and it was reasonbly successful---although as with any discounts, the question is; would they have attended anyway? LOL, if anyone can help me answer that question, I would be forever indebted.

I think the biggest stumbling block I would see is members who have to pay or just joined but missed the cut-off, gettin angry that some folks get a free ride...but it might be worth it, any thoughts there anyone?

From a financial standpoint, I'd want to do some really intense number crunching to make sure that I am not totally killing my margins per registration; from the books, each attendee, no matter what you charge them to come, has a per person cost associated with it, as there are costs to put the event on...I'd want to know the potential short-term impact on margins, weighed with the long term gain!

Agree with most of the other commenters... I like the idea, and think it would be a great selling point for first year members. My concern is the perception that you're willing to give the education and connections away for free to certain people, but others have to pay for the same experience.

I think a lot of people assign the value of something with its cost. By giving the experience away for free, you may inadvertently do the exact opposite of what you're trying to do with this idea.

I guess my question is: wouldn't making the registration costs lower/much more affordable for everyone (including first year members) also achieve the fact of getting more members to attend your conferences, while also still showing the first year members that there is value in what the meeting provides? If you say you are able to give away the meetings for free to all first year members, you're saying that you can afford to utilize parts of each paying registrant's registration to pay for the freebies. Why not lower everyone's costs, which might get you a larger attendance from non-first year members, and which would also show the first year members that there is value associated with the meetings of the association?

Just a different perspective...

I don't think this is a good idea at all. There is no guarantee that if first-year members attend your meetings for no cost that they will spend money on other things.

There is also the collateral damage that I believe an association would suffer by doing something like this, and it's not money.

Long-time members who have supported an organization for years would look at a sweeping "gimme" like this and be turned off. What do they get after attending meetings and spending money on products and services for ten or more years? The right to support the free attendance at meetings for someone who has not proven a commitment to the organization and may very likely walk after their free year.

We need to think more about taking care of the members who are there for the long haul and stop being distracted by the "new." We tend not to see what is right in front of us, and it's usually something wonderful.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm not surprised that the concern over long-time member backlash has come up right away; that occurred to me in writing the original post, but I left it unaddressed mainly for the sake of length. I'll get to that shortly, but first, a couple other points:

@Jeffrey: I think you've hit the nail on the head when it comes to the central goal here: "convert joiners into contributors and engaged members as quickly as possible." A lot of people argue that the 1-10-90 rule is immovable, but I believe every member who joins an association and isn't meaningfully engaged is simply a missed opportunity.

@Carol-Anne: Thanks for the link to Jeff's post. You're right that meetings have to be highly valuable. I think my entire argument in the initial post goes out the window if your association's meetings are sub-par. If you aren't giving your members a great experience, you have bigger problems to worry about.

@Brian: Indeed, you have to worry about "would they have attended anyway," but I still think that if you promote the deal well, you'll offset the "anyways" with more joiners, more new attendees, and more repeat attendees later. Of course, this is exactly where the number crunching comes in.

@Brian, Bruce, and Cecilia: OK, so drawing the ire of long-time paying members/attendees is a big problem. If there was ever a "blow it up and start over challenge, this might be one. Perhaps the only association that could actually pull off this first-year-free-attendance plan is one that has just been founded. For established associations, there has to be a way of to soothe the angry loyals, though.

Perhaps something like this: at the same time you institute first-year-free attendance, you also introduce a series of free meetings for "elite" members, which are exclusive to members who have been members for at least five years and who have attended your biggest conference or annual meeting at least twice (or however you want to define the requirements). The events are designed to be high-level meetings of the best and brightest, experienced members that you have, and you promote admittance as a reward for loyalty and commitment to the organization.

Just another idea. I'm sure you all have others. (Bruce, I liked your idea of just lowering prices across the board, too.) I just hope that upsetting long-time members wouldn't be an insurmountable hurdle, because I think increasing engagement among new members early is too important to ignore.

I just saw this post today but I think it's an idea that has worked well in the past. My first association (NAHB) decided to implement a first-timer's free registration for the Builders Show; this was not a staff recommendation but rather a Convention Committee decision based on research we conducted regarding why members were not attending at a higher rate. It did pass the internal budget review process although it was a huge loss leader--I understood it cost several million in the first year of implementation. However, average attendance rose from around 60,000 to 105,000 as well and my best guess is that it was a very effective technique for the long-term, even though systems weren't necessarily in place the first year to ensure that some weren't 'cheating' the system.

I agree with those here who say don't allow everything to be free the first year, but highly visible, symbolic "gifts" that require commitment on the part of the recipient (i.e. they still have to travel and incur expense for lodging and the opportunity cost of being away from the office) probably help more than they hurt. This sounds somewhat jaded, but what really matters is the quality of the first experience. If the new member attends a poorly-attended local chapter event as their first experience, they'll erroneously think that it was given away because it's bad and you needed to stimulate demand. Give away something visible and high-quality, and they'll go back and tell others about it, perceive clear value, and help you promote greater engagement.

When we datamine transactional files and correlate activitiy levels by the membership tenure of each individual, clearly many organizations have a proven trend of having almost NO involvement beyond a local level among their newer members. We also find in conducting membership surveys & interviews that newer members' first instinct is to decline participation because they simply don't know enough to feel that their answers are of value--but unfortunately this is often true for individuals with up to three years of membership! If engagement is highly correlated with retention, providing a push for initial engagement is a great way to eliminate the excuses and the sales objections and to ensure that more members are judging the association's value based on their own personal experiences.