Membership Affairs

The Membership Affairs Committee (MAC) recognizes that retention of current members is even more important than recruitment of new younger members. To learn how to better serve existing members, the Retention, Benefits & Services Subcommittee is collecting information from the ACS Member Services call center to learn the nature of member inquiries about society programs, complaints, comments, and feedback.

The committee received the report of the Board-Presidential Task Force on Society Services & Associated Dues Pricing Models and is pursuing a phased approach to the many recommendations. The recommendations generally fall into four categories: membership dues, benefits of membership, communication of the value of membership, and member input or feedback.

The first phase will involve developing a method for market testing in these areas. The Recruitment & Admissions Subcommittee of MAC has recommended that the society conduct tests to gather data before changing benefits, dues, or membership categories. Because our bylaws have been interpreted to preclude such testing in some circumstances, we are working with the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws to develop a petition to change the bylaws for this purpose.

A new Task Force on Member Insights was created that will focus on gathering input from various member groups across the society, as well as nonmembers or recently nonrenewed members. A series of face-to-face focus groups will provide a forum for this activity. MAC will work with other committees and staff resources to initiate these focus groups by the end of 2011.