Majority of Associations Believe Older Members Shouldn’t Be Ignored

One of the most popular articles on the Association Adviser website this month is Bob Alexander’s guest column, Don’t Neglect Your Longest-Standing Members. While most associations devote enormous time and resources to recruiting and retaining up-and-coming members of their profession, you shouldn’t overlook your longest standing members, according to Alexander, who’s president of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC).

While many longtime members are in the final stages of their careers, Alexander believes they can be highly influential when it comes to recommending your association to others—making key introductions to industry suppliers, potential speakers, government organizations and academic institutions. Whatever you do, you don’t want to ignore them, adds Alexander.

Our readers seem to agree. According to our latest online instapoll, the majority (91 percent) of respondents to our unscientific survey said it was important to provide special services or benefits for members nearing retirement, including 55 percent who indicated that it was “Very important” to do so.

As ASAE CEO, John Graham, tells us in this month’s Corner Office profile, it’s not a matter of deciding whether younger members are more important to keep happy than older members. You have to work in parallel to keep all of your member subgroups satisfied via different tools and strategies.