Membership Recruitment

Developing a Recruitment Strategy

It is important for chapters to develop and implement a clearly defined and quantifiable recruitment and retention strategy. When a strategic plan for recruitment and retention is clearly defined with goals, chapter officers and councilors are more likely to be engaged to make sure that the plan is put into action. Chapters should consider the following when developing a recruitment and retention strategy:

Review the Chapter’s Membership Categories and Dues

Refer to the ACS Membership Fees and Dues for details on how ACS categorizes members.
After reviewing the ACS Membership Fees and Dues, decide whether the membership categories in your chapter need to be revised.

“How Many Members Are in Our Chapter?”

A chapter should define how members of the chapter are counted and should regularly compare those numbers to the total number of ACS members that are living in the chapter area. To do this, chapters should use the member list that can be downloaded from the Find a Chapter web page. Appropriate permission and login information is required from Chapter Services.
From the list of ACS members in a chapter area, chapters should use column Q, which states whether the member is a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Resident, etc., and column R, which identifies the members status (Senior, Retired, etc.)
Chapters should monitor membership in each category and compare those numbers to the ACS membership in a given chapter territory.
Develop a plan on how to increase membership in given categories rather than a “one size fits all” strategy. Reference the example below to help with this exercise.

Develop Quantifiable Goals

Increase dues paying members in the Fellow (practicing) category by 5%–7% over three years
Have 50% of new Initiates in the chapter area join the chapter within six months of convocation
Implement a donations strategy and increase donations to the chapter by Fellows who are dues exempt (ex. Retired, Senior) by 3%–5%. Donations may be used to support awards/scholarships for residents to attend Clinical Congress, Leadership & Advocacy Summit, etc.
Increase resident participation by 15% by offering free or significantly discounted dues and meeting registration fees.

Track Membership Data

How have membership numbers compared year over year? Are they trending up or down?
How many new members are recruited each year? Is this number increasing or decreasing?
What past activities were effective for recruiting new members?
Define the specific activities that you will undertake to attract new members in all membership categories.

Recruitment Strategies and Templates

Chapter Services has developed several template letters to help chapters with recruitment initiatives. Chapter should send personal emails/letters from a member of the chapter’s leadership. It is recommended that chapters tailor membership benefits as specifically as possible in the letter to each prospect’s interest. Enclose/attach an application for chapter membership and/or provide instructions on how to join online. Provide a schedule of upcoming chapter meetings/events and advocacy updates. For recruitment templates, contact acschapters@facs.org.