{"id":661,"date":"2013-01-03T21:28:57","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T21:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.naylornet.com\/associationadvisor\/?p=661"},"modified":"2013-01-03T21:28:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T21:28:57","slug":"taking-the-90-day-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/taking-the-90-day-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking &#8220;The 90 Day Challenge&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.naylornet.com\/associationadvisor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/01\/Elsbeth-Russell-headshot1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-667\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px;\" title=\"Elsbeth Russell headshot\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.naylornet.com\/associationadvisor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/01\/Elsbeth-Russell-headshot1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"119\" \/><\/a>By Elsbeth W. Russell<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Want to know what your members want? Just ask them.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the approach the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsae.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Society of Association Executives (TSAE)<\/a>\u00a0took in an effort to find out the key issues its members are facing and to help them tackle those issues by providing support and solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Called &#8220;The 90 Day Challenge,&#8221; this effort began with some inspiration from a presentation by Sarah Sladek, the author of the book,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.xyzuniversity.com\/2011\/08\/theendofmembership\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;The End of Membership as We Know It.&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/takeaways.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 5px; border: 1px solid black; background-color: #dcdcdc;\" width=\"\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"3\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; letter-spacing: 0px; word-spacing: 0px; border: 1px solid black;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Associations can stay relevant by offering outcome-based member benefits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Experts suggest checking in with members every 90 days to monitor their changing needs. Member surveys and focus groups are good techniques for doing so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It\u2019s important to keep members informed regularly\u2014but do so in digestible pieces. Don\u2019t overwhelm them with lists they might not have time to review.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We as a staff don\u2019t always know what our members want, so we need to ask them,&#8221; explained TSAE President Beth Brooks, CAE.<\/p>\n<p>In Sladek\u2019s book, readers learn that the way for associations to stay relevant is by offering outcome-based member benefits. She suggests frequently and consistently evaluating your member benefits by surveying members or by hosting focus groups every 90 days to monitor their changing needs.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reader note: Check out Beth\u2019s review of Sarah\u2019s book\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsae.org\/associations\/4468\/files\/The%20End%20of%20Membership%20Recap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Brooks took Sladek\u2019s suggestions and added a TSAE twist, issuing a simple, open-ended question, via email, to about 250 TSAE CEO members that asked: &#8220;What is your biggest challenge?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The members took the question to heart, and Brooks soon had about 75 responses, ranging from membership to human resources to technology challenges.<\/p>\n<p>TSAE staff reviewed the answers and identified the issues cited most frequently by members. Then the staff began to examine their resources. Their goal is to provide one original resource, four or five existing resources and one educational course for each topic identified.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can go back to our members and say, \u2018You said A, B, C were your top issues, and here\u2019s what we have to help you,\u2019&#8221; Brooks explained.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with membership\u2014the top challenge cited by survey respondents\u2014the staff is addressing a different issue every 90 days as they work their way through the list they\u2019ve compiled.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping members informed about TSAE resources through regular communication, and in her monthly, President\u2019s Update email newsletter, Brooks says it\u2019s important to offer members the information in digestible pieces, rather than in overwhelming lists they might not have time to review.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s not clear yet what kind of impact this will have on membership, Brooks says she could see TSAE\u2019s version of Sladek\u2019s &#8220;90 Day Challenge&#8221; becoming an annual event, allowing TSAE to better evaluate member needs and analyze potential patterns in issues that arise for associations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The beauty of [Sladek\u2019s] idea\u2014whichever way you take it\u2014is that you\u2019re asking your members, and then you\u2019re turning around in 60-90 days and saying, \u2018This is what we have for you,\u2019&#8221; Brooks says.<\/p>\n<p><em>Elsbeth W. Russell, editor at Naylor, LLC, works with association executive clients to produce content-targeted print and online publications. Contact her at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:erussell@naylor.com?subject=December%202012%20Association%20Adviser%20story\">erussell@naylor.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to satisfying members, you don&#8217;t get if you don&#8217;t ask.<br \/>\n<em>By Elsbeth W. Russell<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[127,128,129,82],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-beth-brooks","tag-sarah-sladek","tag-texas-society-of-association-executives","tag-tsae"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Taking &quot;The 90 Day Challenge&quot; - Association Adviser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/taking-the-90-day-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taking &quot;The 90 Day Challenge&quot; - Association Adviser\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to satisfying members, you don&#039;t get if you don&#039;t ask. 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