As the Federation’s staff member dedicated to improving the membership experience, I am always on the lookout for new and better ways of delivering value to our membership. Last year’s member survey turned up a number of new ideas for Federation initiatives — as surveys are wont to do — including one around offering additional member learning opportunities.
And so the idea of a webinar learning series was born— focused on member priority issues, complimentary and facilitated by the Federation.
In January, we launched the new service, calling it “webinars for members.” Our first webinar was on membership recruitment and retention strategies for associations members. It attracted almost 50 registrants from across the membership and featured insight and discussion of the Canadian Sociological Association’s successful strategies for member recruitment and retention. Sherry Fox, the Executive Administrator and Conference Coordinator at the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) provided a valuable and thorough review of CSA’s strategies including: building personal connections; best practices in communication; setting membership terms and fees; and conveying the value of membership. The webinar gave Federation members a chance to join in a peer-to-peer exchange on the hot topic of membership recruitment and retention.
A star is born: This was Sherry’s first time leading a webinar and she did an incredible job. Sherry’s experience informed a lively and engaged question and answer session with the Federation’s members following the presentation. Sherry wrapped up with these final words about CSA’s experience and future plans, “The Canadian Sociological Association continually reviews our recruitment and retention strategies to improve member services. We thank the Federation for bringing associations together through the webinar to share our ideas and look forward to learning from others as well.”
We hope that this webinar has sparked an interest in our members in this new way to promote learning and exchange across the membership and we are planning for future webinars on topical issues.
Missed it? If you were unable to attend our first webinar, you can visit the webinar page to watch the full 60-minute recording or download the PowerPoint slides.
Have a topic suggestion? As the Federation’s Member Relations Officer, I’m the person to call with any topic ideas you may have for future webinars. Please be in touch.
And stay tuned for more webinars to come!