New Blogging Capability Helps You Stay Connected With Chapter Members More Than Ever Before
- Without Spending A Dime On Surveys, Research, or Mail
You've seen board members working long hours. They put in the time, but despite their efforts, chapter involvement is waning, and growth is non-existent.
What's the cause of problem?
Of course there isn't a single cause of declining membership involvement, but one of the main culprits of what makes a chapter sputter and wheeze is the tendency for board members to function separately from the organization's general members; without meaning to, they fall into administrative roles that create a false sense of progress. Sure, they complete tasks and note their activities in the official minutes. But aside from the occasional board member, who really reads board meeting minutes, anyway? Honestly... who has the time?
What Can Bring About High Levels of Participation and Growth? Believe It Or Not, It Has Nothing To Do With Your Latest Board Meeting Minutes.
So, if you're in a position of influence in your chapter, you have to decide how to measure success: is it based on meetings and protocol, or do you measure success by purposeful activity and increasing influence?
StarChapter now comes with "Blogpower" - the power to put the lifeblood of steady interaction and communication back into your chapter.
Why is Blogging a big deal?
The real fuel behind the strongest, most active chapters is awareness. Not just general awareness of activities and events, but a "I know what the lifeblood of my organization has on their mind, what resources I can call on, and what is expected from this chapter" kind of awareness that, until now, has been nearly impossible to achieve.
StarChapter's blog system is a best of both worlds scenario that combines the real-time involvement and power of a traditional blog with the administrative controls of a community forum.
An exchange can be simple - but it allows for an unmatched level of communication with your membership base:
Board: As the board plans the conference on November 15th, we want to hear your ideas about what worked last year, and what ways we can make the event better. Like last year, we are bringing back the "open mike" Q & A from our panel of experts, the optional group lunch at McKady's Grill (a big hit last year), and by popular demand, we are offering an informal social hour at the Hotel beginning at 8:30 PM the evening of the 15th.
Member 352: - We're excited to have the chance to ask the experts questions. That was a big help last year. How many questions can we ask? There might be a lot of questions. What if there are too many to cover? Should we maybe submit questions ahead of time?
Board: We are not going to require that questions for the expert panel be submitted ahead of time, but (appropriate) questions submitted ahead of time online will either be addressed by the experts in their breakout sessions, or will be given priority in the Q&A session.
Member 501: I'm glad we're doing the social hour at the hotel. I would love to spend time with the group, but by the end of the day, I just want to kick up my feet and I don't feel like traveling anywhere. Do they have a restaurant? And can we get some Karaoke?
Board: The hotel actually has a good menu and a good variety of items to choose from. We are looking into Karaoke!
The blog can be controlled by multiple users. For example, board members can oversee the conversation strings and can approve or deny any comment based on appropriateness.
Best of all - StarChapter now comes with Blog capability free of charge. If you already have a StarChapter account and want to add Blog capability to your current account, simply email support@StarChapter.com.
*For those chapters that do not wish to use blogging, the StarChapter Blog can be disabled. |
