As the ARMA board member in charge of membership, you should feel good to know that membership isn't just your job - it's the job of each board member.

That said, you're leading the membership effort. The plans, programs and procedures you put in place will shape the membership picture for your chapter for years to come. The first thing to understand is that membership is broken into two components: Retention and Recruitment.

Recruitment
Recruiting members is an active job. And it requires the help of a good committee. One membership director will be hard pressed to personally contact non-member luncheon guests. But a committee can help think about (and execute) plans to work cooperatively with other organizations for membership prospecting. A committee can continually follow up on new opportunities to attract vendor and peripheral groups who may be able to benefit from an ARMA International membership and local programming. And a committee can coordinate members and board volunteers to contact prospects during membership campaign drives.

Retention
The metaphor we always use is that of a "leaky bucket." You recruit more members to fill up the bucket as some of your existing members leak out. Members move. They leave their jobs. And sometimes, they don't feel their ARMA membership is what they're looking for.

To combat those elements we can prevent, great membership directors must help to clearly communicate membership benefits to new prospects and reinforce membership benefits to current members. The only way to do that is to be in contact with your members and know what they want.

First-year members are the most promising for retention. The faster you can encourage these members to volunteer and become involved, the easier it is to retain them throughout their careers.