A question on many people’s minds, as evidenced by a popular thread on ASAE’s Collaborate network [ASAE member login required], is whether now is a good time to raise dues. An even better question might be: Do I even need to raise dues?
For instance, a membership restructure can raise revenue without the need to raise dues, which is one way to get past a thorny issue. Christine Gardner, executive director of the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education (Ohio CTE), noticed not a lot of teachers were joining the group, which she thought was odd because it represents career educators and has lots of teacher-focused benefits like professional development and special interest groups. However, Ohio CTE did have lots of members who were administrators.
Update Categories
After spending time thinking about it and talking to lots of people, a teacher finally told Gardner that when she looked at Ohio CTE’s membership category called “professional” she thought it only meant administrators. “They weren’t recognizing themselves on our membership application,” Gardner said.
People join associations to be among like-minded people, and if they don’t see themselves in the member category, they don’t join. So, Ohio ACTE changed its categories to include a teacher membership along with the administrator membership.
Gardner recommends asking a simple question: Are the titles of your membership categories still relevant, or are they too generic?
“Make sure someone can go on and recognize themselves,” she said.