Membership Committee

Mission Statement

To grow and nurture the membership by establishing a personal presence with our members.

Membership Chair responsibilities

1. Collect New Memberships (via FargoStuff.com)
2. Update Existing Memberships (via direct contact with members)
3. Encourage Membership Renewals (by directly contacting lapsed and soon-to-be expiring members)
4. Encourage and Provide Member Feedback to the Board (via direct conversations, phone calls, emails, online contact form and online feedback form)
5. Provide Member Names and Websites to the fmva.us Webmaster for inclusion on the website

Schedule and Approximate Time Commitment

Monthly – (3-4 hours)

• Update the Board on current status of Membership Committee (5 minutes @ board meeting, 1-2 hours total board meeting time)
• Update the OMMS with the Word Doc from FargoStuff.com (1 hour)
• Contact Members with Soon-to-be Expiring and Lapsed Memberships (1 hour)

As Necessary (1-2 hours per month)

• Respond to membership-related questions from members via email, phone or in-person
• Engage with the membership regarding ways to improve the membership experience

Procedures

1. New Memberships
As they are added – FargoStuff.com will collect new and renewal memberships and send a Word Doc a minimum of once per month to the Membership Chair. The Membership Chair will use the Word Doc to update the Online Master Membership Spreadsheet (OMMS).

2. Updating Memberships
See above procedure, and, for those updating their information (i.e. changing a maiden name to a married name or updating contact info), the Membership Chair will collect these contacts and update the OMMS as edits are requested.

3. Encourage Renewals
Once per month or less – The Membership Chair will contact Members whose Membership is due within the next month, and those whose Membership has lapsed. This can be done via Email first, then Phone, then, as a last resort, snail mail. If a member does not respond and their membership lapses more than 3 months, they are put on the Lapsed list until they contact us again. (As a suggestion, create email templates [signatures] with some general wording and blanks to fill in with specific member information each time it’s sent to cut down on repetition or forgetting to include some important info, and to streamline the process and maximize your time.)

4. Encourage Feedback
Talk with members, especially those who’s membership has lapsed and ask for their feedback. What do they think about the organization? Are they happy with their membership? Are there ways the organization can improve? The Contact Form on the Website, direct conversation and email are great tools for this. Everything pertinent should be brought to the board monthly as it comes up.

5. Give Member Names and Websites to the fmva.us Webmaster
No action necessary, as long as A. the OMMS is kept up to date, and B. the fmva.us Webmaster uses the OMMS to update the website a minimum of once per month.