Hi Champs,

It was great meeting you all yesterday!

As I am still thinking about the question "How might we work together to increase membership?" I though it would be helpful to post some ideas that could foster membership and engagement in the network! Here are some of my ideas:

• We need to get a personal touch with members while pointing out ‘Here is the value we got. Here is why you want to hang with us.’
• New members need to recognize the value of their membership. Perhaps we can distribute roles! We can have a historian, a graphic guru, a people connector, a photography editor, a librarian etc.. this way we show how valuable the members’ roles are
• A calendar for CoP events on the discussion groups
• A calendar for international and national events (youth day, women’s month, labor day, pride, etc)
• Champions can sell their association, we shouldn't be too focused on our roles only
• Twitter Q&A relevant to our mission or service, or even a Facebook or Instagram Live event.
• For all the youth CoP's: keep it trendy and fun. The youth need to know that we have a future here! Try hot topics and interesting hooks for your content
• Create a #Hashtag_Campaign: Challenge your members to a contest (photography, writing, etc), and require that all entries use the same branded hashtag
• Curate Anticipation Plan: send email reminders leading to the next event, so everyone has a chance to mark their calendars. Keep the emails as short as possible while maintaining the plan of the meeting!
• A virtual group photo of the CoP members during meetings holding signs of a hashtag/discussion topic; an opportunity to make some memories and a marketing material that we can post on our social media accounts!
• Collaborate with the local association next-door if possible
• Keep in mind that people want to talk about their own people, what’s going on in their local chapters… Try to capture stories, ask participants to share anything that comes to their minds especially personal experiences
• We can create a ‘share your story’ tool in the CoP’s