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Sharing Best Practices
You may want to try some of these best practices from various chapters to improve or enhance your chapter’s operation:
- Hold recruitment events. Develop at least one activity each year that is dedicated to attracting and recruiting members. Examples include an informal social at a café or at someone’s home, or a more formal membership reception. A monthly happy hour can be a good way to encourage both current and potential members to renew or create memberships. For example, the D.C. Chapter has two membership socials each year.
- Partner with complementary organizations. Partnering and pooling resources with like-minded associations in planning, promoting, and hosting events can help to grow your chapter. For example, the New York chapter recently partnered with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce on an event. Partnerships can be created with other organizations for other purposes, too. For example, OWIT-Nairobi sits on the boards of the Federation of W.E. Associations and FEWA SACCO (a savings and credit co-op agency).
- Find target audiences. Lawyers, international consultants, trade, IT, and education professionals are the top vocations attracted to OWIT membership. Target international companies; law firms; consulting companies; international governmental organizations; embassies, consulates, and trade offices; international business or relations departments in educational institutions as places to promote events, and to find partners and hosts for events.
- Recruit them young. Attract young professionals by providing resources that can assist them in their job search and careers. Partner with university business schools and talk to them about discounted rates for top students (like N.E. Ohio). Devote a section of your website to professional development (like Washington, D.C.). Host an activity such as a mentor café (like OWIT Toronto) that incorporates outreach and assistance to young professionals.
- Replicate success. What was it that attracted you to join OWIT? When and why did you join? What attracted your current membership? Build on success by providing similar opportunities to interest and recruit new members.
- Offer rewards. Current members are your best recruiting tools. Offer incentives such as a coupon for free or discounted entry to a future program to encourage them to recruit new members. A Member of the Month program is an example of this that is being started at the Geneva Chapter.
- Leverage chapter website. Have a dedicated page or section on membership (like Washington, D.C.) that highlights the benefits of membership like access to OWIT resources and the ability to participate in any OWIT chapter anywhere in the world. Provide an online membership application and payment options.
- Send eblasts. Give monthly updates and share partner events to members via eblasts to keep them informed of what is going in within your chapter such as events and benefits (like WIT-Northern California).
- Share and re-apply. Work with another chapter to develop your first membership social. Pull ideas from their websites. Your mentor chapters are resources in this area.
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