We Have Always Done It That Way

The next big wave of employees is entering the workforce. They are technology savvy and are the first full generation to be exposed to education technology in both high school and college. Yet they have similar needs that previous generations have had. They want to network, learn about their profession, and become highly valuable workers. Many associations are not sure how to attract the youngest members of our organizations. How do we get them to come to conferences? Engage the association?

My best advice…simply ask them. Get them involved. Empower them to participate and plan. A few years ago I was at an ASAE Annual conference and talked with a young Executive Director of a smaller association. During the cocktail reception he was telling me about his organization’s issues around attracting and retaining younger members and specifically, around new graduates. His solution was to use his current volunteer leadership to identify two dozen or so young professionals across the country. On the association’s dime, he had them all come to the headquarters for a weekend retreat. In essence he locked them in and gave them a simple directive. Design a program that would bring together young professionals in the industry. Something that was fun and engaging for their peers.

At the end of the weekend the group designed a parallel conference to the national conference, just for young professionals. They chose that design to be able to pull from industry experts that would already be at the national conference, but gave themselves their own learning space to deal with their unique issues. The Executive Director got vendors to sponsor the young professionals program as well as offsetting the registration fees. The group of 25 or so managed a word-of-mouth campaign and brought in over 300 of their peers to the first event. The association was thrilled with the turn out and the sponsors were thrilled at the exposure they got with these young professionals.

Tags: Professional Development //