Who’s in the Room in 10 Years? Two Association CEOs on Growing Membership and Engaging Young Professionals

On a recent train from Boston to New York, Christine Shaw, CEO and President of Naylor Association Solutions, fell into conversation with the woman beside her. She was in her mid-70s, dressed for a gardening association’s annual meeting, and had been a member, as she put it, forever. Years earlier, she told Shaw, a chapter leader had asked members if they would leave the association something in their wills, whether $10, $100, or $1,000. A surprising number said yes. 

Shaw shared that story during a recent Naylor webinar, “Who’s in the Room in 10 Years? A CEO Conversation on Membership Growth.” It set up the hour’s central question about how associations can grow membership and engage young professionals. “How can we instill that into the next generation,” Shaw asked, “and how do we secure the future membership base?” 

Her guests were Hester Ndoja, CAE, President and CEO of the Florida Society of Association Executives (FSAE), and Sheree Anne Kelly, President and CEO of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). FSAE serves Florida’s association professionals, and ACCE serves chamber of commerce executives, so both CEOs work on the same membership questions their members face. 

The discussion drew on findings from Association Adviser’s 2026 Association Benchmarking Report. Fifty-one percent of associations say they could do more to communicate membership value, 43% say identifying and engaging young professionals is a challenge, and 38% struggle to understand member needs. Here are a few of the ideas Kelly and Ndoja shared. 

How Can Associations Communicate Membership Value More Clearly? 

Every renewal notice prompts the same question: Is this still worth it? Kelly thinks associations often answer it with the wrong numbers. 

“A lot of times we have a tendency to measure inputs and outputs,” she said. “I refer to these as busyness measures. How many newsletters did we put out? How many events did we have? How many bums in seats?” 

ACCE is shifting to outcomes, meaning whether its programs made members’ work easier or their results stronger. “If we are solving the greatest problems that our members face, that’s a value proposition that’s hard to argue with,” Kelly said. Both ACCE and FSAE are also running storytelling campaigns that put members front and center. 

Ask Often, and Tell Members What You Heard 

FSAE learns what members need by asking often, in small doses. For a year, it sent a weekly one-question poll with prompts like “What’s keeping you up at night?” and shared the results alongside the next week’s question. When attendance at its regional luncheons slipped, those answers pointed FSAE toward the change members wanted. 

Ndoja’s advice for associations without a research budget is to pick up the phone. Stay interviews and informal town halls cost almost nothing. “Just start talking to your members and ask them the good, the bad, and the ugly,” she said. 

Shaw’s rule: “Don’t be a focus group of one.” Once you ask, she added, tell members what you’ll act on and what you can’t. 

How Can Associations Engage Young Professionals? 

Ndoja pushed back on a line she hears often. “Everyone keeps saying Gen Z is the future, but they’re really not,” she said. “They are [right] now.” 

The young and emerging professionals she works with “really have a servant’s heart,” she said, and FSAE has seen them show up for service projects like food bank shifts and beach cleanups. Formal leadership is a harder sell. Kelly noted that only 6% of Gen Z name a leadership position as their ultimate career goal. Both CEOs favor what Ndoja called “leadership light” roles, like a spot on a panel or a turn as guest moderator. 

Kelly was up front about what doesn’t work. “If you just stick a keg of beer in the corner and think that’s going to do it, that’s not gonna work,” she said. She pointed instead to Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, whose young professionals tackled the local cost of living and then took their ideas to state policymakers. 

Is It Time to Rethink the Membership Model? 

Kelly sees promise in freemium and other new models, with a caveat: The free tier has to stay minimal, with a clear reason to upgrade. ACCE has built its own low-cost entry point for small, volunteer-run chambers, and Kelly explained how it brings members in without adding staff work. 

Her larger point was about what membership has to offer now. “The next generation is not looking for a club,” Kelly said. “They want action, they want results, they want to see what the impact is.” 

Ndoja is wary of growth that’s all breadth. “Bigger isn’t always better,” she said. “You can be a mile wide and an inch deep.” That isn’t sustainable, she said, because it doesn’t build real engagement. So once an association joins FSAE, staff work to educate and recruit people throughout that organization, not just its CEO. 

More in the Full Conversation 

The panelists also covered: 

• How ACCE is auditing every program, event, and task force, including a criterion Kelly calls the “headache factor” 

• The time split behind ACCE’s agile strategic plan, and how it let the association respond quickly to a troubling trend among chamber CEOs 

• The scheduling detail that changed how FSAE engages CEOs and meeting planners 

• Audience questions, including how to engage members who are too busy to volunteer 

Who Will Be in the Room 

Shaw’s seatmate has belonged to her association for decades and was still excited to get to the annual meeting. Ndoja believes that kind of loyalty comes from the people in the room. “AI is not going anywhere,” she said. “However, the human side of connection just cannot be replaced.” 

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