Annual Report (2001)
Membership Committee, ARLIS NA

Submitted by: Leslie Preston, Chair
Leslie.preston@metmuseum.org
212-650-2317

The Committee was chaired this year by Leslie Preston who will continue as Chair for 2002. EB liaison: Carole Goldsmith  Members: Tamara Fultz, Gladys Markoff-Sotomayor, Melissa McDonald,  Irene Puchalski, Sandra Rothenberg

Activities:

Our main focus for 2001 has been growing number of non-renewals in the Society. The committee decided to proceed with a phone tree to promote renewal, find out why our members have dropped off, and determine our strengths and weaknesses. The Chair received a list of over 500 non-renewals, sorted them by zip code, and sent them to the regional reps to make follow-up phone calls.   We created an "exit interview" for the Regional Representatives with a set of 10 questions to gather statistics on those leaving the Society.  The "exit interview" included a short script, basic statistical questions as well as open-ended questions on the effectiveness of ARLIS/NA. Unfortunately, some of the Regional Reps found errors or inconsistencies with the membership data.  In some cases, e-mail addresses or mailing addresses did not match and people who had renewed were still on the list.  The inaccuracy of the membership database has been a problem for the past few years and Headquarters has been working on cleaning up the database.  The EB made the decision to delay the project.  We are hoping to proceed with the calling in 2002.

Other Accomplishments:

Honorary Life Members were identified and letters were sent to them announcing honorary life membership to ARLIS/NA. The membership form/renewal form was reworked for the 2nd time in a two-year period.  We made the address area larger, the logo smaller, moved some of the categories around.  We also added clarification and a check box for forwarding information to the local chapters.

Business Meeting March 31, 2001 and Status of Action Points

Membership DB and issue of non-renewals:

a.        Database needs cleanup, using data from 2 years ago.  Errors are being ironed out and the database is in much better shape, only to get better. Clarke needs to know what kind of reports needs to be generated for the membership committee.  Ongoing

b.       Renewal mailings: December, February and after the conference.   Complete

c.        At time of conference we had 539 non-renewals, as compared with 100-200 in previous years.  However, renewals are still coming in, and many people renewed at the conference. Ongoing 882 renewals since April, 104 new members (as of 2/02)

d.       Ted Goodman suggests that list of non-renewals be sent to him and phone calls divided among the EB ; later the EB decided to give this to the Regional Reps  Incomplete

Non-renewals:

1.        Clarke will send Preston examples of exit interviews to track why people are not renewing.   Complete

2.        The committee will create an exit interview  Complete

3.       Updated list of non-renewals will be sent to regional representatives for phone call follow-up and exit survey by summer 2001.  Incomplete

4.       If mailings/phone calls are not successful, names will be removed from the membership DB by September.  Incomplete

Online membership form/renewal form:

a.   HQ is working on the future of online membership forms (form-fill-in) Ongoing

b.   Clarke is negotiating with a large company who has the capabilities of linking the  

      membership DB with an online form at an affordable rate  Ongoing

 

 

Revised membership form--form is better we still need to make a few changes:

a.        create more space for name and address area  Complete

b.       reinstate the list of other organizations in which members belong (CAA, ALA, etc.) to track overlap of ARLIS/NA members  Complete

c.        chapter affiliation--change wording? Member selects chapter affiliation but are we to assume that the member actually belongs to the selected chapter or do they wish for HQ to notify the selected chapter?  Complete

Revised membership brochure:

a.         Language was revised and new HQ address updated  Complete

b.        New color or two-tone graphic will be explored. HQ will send sample. 

Honorary life membership--By-law change: Charter members and Distinguished Service Award winners.

a.           Draft of letter to those who qualify to announce their honorary membership  Complete

b.          Must finalize the list of members based on the 2000-2001 handbook  Complete

c.           Send out letter to Honorary Life Members  Complete

Pending discussion:

Recruiting and Networking: VRA/CAA, schools mailings  Incomplete

Cultural diversity  Incomplete

Submitted by Leslie Preston, Chair
Feb 15, 2002