Vice President in charge of Virtual Development Carolien Demey sits down with Isobel Smith, SIGBI Director of Organisation Development, who, along with Sally Higgins, SIGBI Membership and Website Officer, launched Associate Membership within their own Federation. Isobel offers her experience and insight into how the associate membership came to be, its benefits and her advice for SIE.
CD: When did you launch this type of Membership?
IS: It was launched in May 2016, after being passed at our General Meeting October 2015.
CD: Why did your Federation decide to do it at the time?
A: We identified a number of our members who were time poor and unable to attend Club Meetings due to work commitments, family commitments etc. They wanted to remain associated with Soroptimism and our programme work; a digital membership was our solution. As we want to increase our membership we offered this to members and advertised it externally to attract new members. We have 89 Associates.
CD: How would you define your Associate Membership?
IS: It is a digital membership with the option of attending Regional Meetings and local Club Meetings or social events (at the Club’s invitation).
CD: Why did you choose the term “Associate Members”?
IS: The dictionary definition of associate means ‘A person with limited or subordinate membership of an organisation’. Our Associate members pay the same dues as a Club member and are full members in the same way as a Club member; the limitation is that they cannot vote nor hold office.
CD: What were the results after the launch of the Associate (Virtual) Membership?
IS: We had Club members transferring to Associate membership, we had new members join as a result of our Social Media campaign and some Clubs offered Associate Memberships to some of the women they had in their membership pipeline that could not give the time commitment to Club Membership at this time in their lives.
CD: How do the Associate (Virtual) Members communicate and/or interact with your members/Clubs/Unions/Federation?
IS: – Can attend regional meetings
– Can attend Club meetings and social events by invitation of the Club (the Club is given the contact details of Associates in their area (if the Associate has given permission)
– Can attend the Federation Conference
CD: What platform do they use?
IS: – Closed Facebook group
– Associate section on our website
CD: What are the most positive aspects of such a Membership?
IS: For the member:
Involved in Programme Action, communicating with like-minded women, remote membership to match their lifestyle and free time, can have the option to have face to face interaction with other Soroptimists throughout Region, Club and Conference attendance.
For SIGBI Federation:
Associate Membership has remained steady in the high 80s. We accept that Associates can transfer from Clubs (some of which have closed) and transfer back to other Clubs when they have decided which Club they want to join. This is a good way of keeping Members that otherwise may have to leave and then may not re-join another Club once they have spent some time without being a Member.
CD: Would you have any advice for SIE preliminary to the implementation of such a Membership?
IS: – One that is still work in progress for SIGBI is to make Associates feel a meaningful part of SIGBI. Some members see Associates as not ‘proper’ members and we are working on changing this limiting belief
– Engage them in Programme Action
– Communicate regularly to the existing membership on Associate Membership and its successes
To learn more about Virtual Membership, please click here.