5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Professional Association Membership

Your renewal notice for annual dues shows up and you find yourself questioning the value you received from your professional membership this past year. You spend a few minutes wondering if it’s worth the money to pay for another year. If it was valuable then you will most likely renew. But if you're still questioning, you may decide to send the invoice back and say you are not renewing or it can be even easier to not pay it and let the final notice go without a response. How expensive is membership compared to what you spend much more on for items that have no Return on Investment (ROI)?

In my first month as Director of Membership for World Millwork Alliance, I have seen and heard a few of our members opt not to renew, and several shared with me, “We realize we only get out of it what we put into it.” There you have it. The ROI on your membership isn’t something you get from writing a check. It comes from making the effort to get engaged and not expect the value to simply appear at your doorstep. Just like everything in life, you get the most out of the opportunities your professional association has to offer. It may not always be intuitive so I'd like to share some ideas of how you can get the most out of your professional memberships in the hope that it will spark you. So, let’s look at five ways you can produce the most ROI from your professional association membership. 

1. Build Relationships and Grow Your Community

This may sound simple, but almost every professional association brings people and companies together with shared interests. Many of these are potential customers, vendors, and industry peers. What better way to build relationships in order to build your business and grow your brand than to use the association’s member site to find people you want to connect with? Don’t just look them up and add them to an email list. Pick up the phone and call people who you want to get to know better. Let them know you share the same professional interests through the association by sending them a personal email seeing and asking to set up a time to talk. If you live in the same area or if you plan to attend the same event, reach out and suggest a meeting. 

2. Volunteer

When I first started networking and building my community, I volunteered out of necessity. I didn’t have a lot of resources and I wasn’t working for a company with an expense account, so when I found an event I wanted to attend I would reach out as see if I could volunteer. What I soon learned after I did, was volunteering gave me access to the organizers that I wouldn’t have had as an attendee. It also got me in front of more of the attendees, speakers, and key contacts, depending on the volunteer position. All this helped me build relationships with the people I wanted to meet in the first place, and in a much quicker way than working a room, piecing together who knew who, and hoping to finally get to the people I wanted to connect with. Ask yourself how you can get involved in the association as a volunteer. Some ideas include: joining a committee, asking what volunteers the association needs, or determining what the path is to become a board member. The key is simply to start.

3. Learn

Every professional association has resources available for you as a member. Take time to learn what they are about and what programs they offer. Some associations are good at overwhelming you with everything they have as soon as you join. Chances are you may forget or miss new offerings they introduce over time. Contact someone in member services or check the association's website and get acquainted with their offerings. Do they have safety, compliance, or code information that you can use, or will they be an advocate for you when it comes to industry standards? You can also look for educational resources they offer you or your employees. Sign up to receive industry news you want to stay on top of. Bonus Tip – when you see news about a prospect or existing customer, share it with them via email, social media, or a phone call. The association does the work and you get the credit for sharing the information with your client.

4. Share

Professional associations may have individual or company memberships. Either way, if you are a member, or the primary contact, who else in your organization can benefit from the resources that the association offers? Sales may not know anything about safety and compliance. Accounting may not know about education and training. Marketing may not know about the networking and professional development opportunities. Take full advantage of your membership by getting all departments in your company involved when it makes sense. Your training manager, safety manager, marketing manager, and salespeople will all thank you, and the value of being a member will increase substantially. 

5. Participate

We can do a lot with technology including video calls, webinars, phone calls, emails, text messages, social media, membership portal on the website, and the list goes on. None of these will ever take the place of meeting in person. When you join any professional association, consider the events they host that you can gain the most value from attending. This will help you factor these benefits into the overall value of your membership, not just an additional cost when registration opens. Attending association events in person will help you make new connections and strengthen existing ones. It will help renew your excitement about what you do. It will spark new ideas and new ways of thinking. It will keep you abreast of the latest developments and innovations in your industry. Most of all, participating in events allows you to get away from the daily distractions at the office and enjoy time with colleagues in a fun way that provides lasting value. 

When it comes to getting the most from your professional association membership, or just about anything you do in life, participation and engagement are key factors in finding the greatest value. Understanding that it is your choice to participate and engage puts the ROI of your professional membership under your control. One of World Millwork Alliance's board members sums it up as, "Dues are inexpensive compared to the value you receive."

In life, we give attention to what adds value to us. How will you invest in yourself in the coming new year?