Membership Committee (Ruth Cochran)

Public Relations Committee (Barbara Greever)

Linnea Marshall (new faculty member at UI)

Recognize long term members:

- Read roster of members (10, 20, 25, 30 yrs., over 30 yrs.?) at the ILA annual conference membership meeting. Or ask those present in those categories to stand up (and introduce themselves?), thus allowing those who wish to remain anonymous to do so.

- Send out certificates of recognition to those who have been members for certain numbers of years.

Place an upper limit on personal membership dues.

Be a paying personal member for x number of years, get one year free.

Create a category/categories where people can buy a 5 year, 10 year, or life membership. (Currently, life members are only those who have been made so on an honorary basis by the Board? If so, do we want to use different terminology?).

Offer prizes for members who recruit other (new or reinstated – we’d have to define reinstated) members (see ALA "Member get a member" attachment). Offer 1 year "free" membership, free conference registration, a free meal at a conference, or other prizes.

Create an award for Member of the Year.

Use e-mail or telephone calls to retain members. What should be the time frame, and who should do the following upon non-renewals?

First year free, or first year at a reduced rate for first time personal members. (By definition, you can only be a first time member once.)

Hold a new members breakfast or orientation at annual conference. (Regional conferences too?)

Assign a conference "mentor" to each new member (annual? regional?).

Since not everyone attends a conference, have a "pen pal" mentor for each new member – someone from a similar size/type library in the same general geographic region. The relationship could either focus on ILA-related matters, or be much broader, relating to many aspects of the profession and Idaho.

Create something like a New Members Roundtable. (Where would it fit into the organization, and what exactly would it do?)

List new members in the Idaho Librarian, welcoming them to ILA. Also list on the web site? The disadvantage is that some might not wish to be so listed – could it be optional?

Somehow "mark" the name badges of new members, first-time conference attendees, and non-members. Encourage current members to be friendly and inclusive, so that no new person feels "shut out" at a conference. (It seems to some newcomers that everyone else already knows everyone else, and are so busy "catching up" with friends that newcomers are ignored.) Would it be workable to have printed ribbons for "New ILA Member," "First-Time Conference Attendee," "Non-Member" available at registration, so that people could self-identify if they wanted to? Or have some more subtle mark on the badges, so that members "in the know" could pick up on it, and be welcoming?

Have a more visible membership drive at the regional conferences. Require that someone talk about ILA (the conference’s sponsor) and its benefits at the luncheon, and have membership forms easily available (including a way to indicate interest in serving on ILA committees). Consider putting a membership form in each conference packet. To facilitate joining, offer to collect peoples’ checks and application forms at the end of the conference, bundle them all up, and send them to the ILA treasurer.

Have a more visible membership drive at the annual conference:

- Give non-members a membership form when they register?

- Require non-members to join if they want to attend the conference?

- Include as part of the (higher) non-member annual conference registration fee a member ship for the remainder of that year? That way, people would be members for "free" October-December, and receive one issue of the Idaho Librarian.

Enlist library directors and Board chairs to:

- Strongly encourage new hires/members to join ILA or

- Pass along the names of new hires/members to (Membership Committee? Division Chair? ILA President?) so that they can be contacted in a timely manner.

 

What benefits can you only get if you’re a member? In other words, why should you join?

- You can work on a team, and develop a role where you can "shine."

- Resume-builder.

- If ILA puts the Idaho Librarian on the web page, isn’t that just one more reason not to join?

 

When ILA determines what it offers that would attract trustees, incorporate it into an information packet, and send it to public library directors. Encourage them to use it to "sell" their Board members on ILA membership. Encourage public libraries to include funding for trustee memberships to ILA (at least for Board chairs) in their annual budget.

Continue conference registration discount (regional and annual) for members.

Should we include a section on the membership application saying something like:

I am interested in serving on an ILA committee.

_____ I am interested in the following committee (s) ______________________

_____ I am interested in serving on any committee, please contact me to discuss the possibilities.

Survey members who have chosen not to renew their membership to see why they made that decision. This is a touchy subject. It is also NOT to be confused with contacting non-renewals to entice them back. If we do one, we should probably not do the other the same year.

Re-do the fact sheet on ILA (what it does), and circulate it more widely. Have a separate sheet detailing the specific benefits of membership, or is this adequately covered on the new membership renewal form? Who can help Ruth and Barbara with this?

Send an information packet to each library in the state so that they have it on hand? (To some extent this already happens, since the membership forms are sent to each library in the state. That isn’t the same as an information packet, though.)

Be sure the Division chairs know that membership is a priority, and ask them for advice on how to appeal to their constituencies.