Tell me if you’ve seen this before: in an attempt to attract younger members, someone in your association suggests, “let’s start tweeting our member benefits!” and everyone halfheartedly nods in agreement. All millennials tweet, so this should work, right?
Not exactly.
Simply communicating your member benefits through a “younger” channel won’t prove your association’s worth to the younger generation if your current benefits don’t appeal to them.
To remain (or become) relevant to the next generation of members, you may need to change what your association offers.
While your association’s current benefits likely meet the needs of your older members, your younger members may have different problems that require innovative solutions.
When you form a group of younger members within your association, you essentially create a resource that you can tap into to research what the next generation of your membership needs and how your association can help. Feedback from this group can help you determine if your current member benefits will appeal to the next generation, or if you need to expand your benefits to include offerings that better appeal to them.
Figuring out how to communicate with your emerging leaders should be step two. Step one should be making sure they will respond to what you communicate.
So how do you set up a group like this to help guide your association? Reach out to your current student or younger members and invite them to participate on a task force with the goal of maintaining the association’s relevance for future generations. As new professionals, they will likely be excited about the opportunity for involvement. (Keep in mind that a task force may appeal to younger members more than a longer term committee appointment, as research suggests the next generation prefers “micro-volunteering” over huge time commitments.)
