The only town open for business these days is crazy town, but, hopefully, your chapters are open for business too. In our last post, we discussed how to help chapters with virtual governance during the COVID-19 crisis so they can continue to serve and support members. Since everything is topsy-turvy right now, find ways to keep the lines of communication open with your chapter leaders.
Check in with chapter leaders regularly, perhaps weekly, until conditions change for the better—further down, we share how some associations are doing that.
Find the right balance. If your inbox is anything like mine, you and your chapter leaders have seen a surge in emails. You don’t want to become an additional burden. Depending on your industry and/or their situation at home, they may have a lot more going on than usual—or they could have more time on their hands.
Be concise. These busy volunteers are stretched in all kinds of directions right now. Make it easy for them to skim or quickly read your emails.
With so many unknowns right now, transparency is comforting. You don’t want chapter leaders to question, doubt, or hesitate. Make everything you say and do as clear as possible and try to make yourself even more available than usual.
During a virtual idea swap for CRPs hosted by Peggy Hoffman and Peter Houstle from Mariner Management, Ann Dorough, CAE, director of component development at The American Institute of Architects, shared a story about transparency. AIA’s CEO attended a virtual idea swap for their chapter leaders. He admitted that the AIA team were all learning and didn’t have all the answers. Ann said their chapter leaders seemed reassured by his honesty.
Remind chapter leaders that you’re in it together. Having a meaningful role to play helps when everything seems out of control. You’re all fortunate that you can serve others while fulfilling your personal, professional, and organizational missions.
Gather chapter leaders together for a virtual town hall, open house, or idea swap. Diana Tucker, CAE, Diana M.L. has a account vice president for membership and chapter relations at NAIOP, invited several department heads to their virtual town hall with chapter leaders. The participation of these staff leaders at NAIOP shows the association’s commitment to their chapters and helps chapter leaders put faces to names.
NAIOP’s vice president of business development shared ideas for working with sponsors so chapters don’t lose sponsorship revenue. The vice president of marketing/communications described best practices for crisis communications. The meetings director provided advice on contract clauses.
During the town hall, they talked about the education most needed by members and the types of content that NAIOP could share with chapters. Ann said they plan to schedule weekly meetings for now.
ASIS International held a chapter leaders open house, according to Alyson Freitas, volunteer engagement manager at ASIS. The vice president of meetings shared advice on contracts and the IT director reviewed web-conferencing and other virtual meeting options.
If you plan a virtual town hall, send out critical information beforehand so time together can be dedicated to questions and idea sharing. Request questions ahead of time. Address member and chapter leader needs, for example, guidance on virtual meetings, online education, marketing, and member online engagement.
Post a recording of the town hall on your chapter leader website. Add a brief description and topic timeline so leaders can quickly forward to the information they need. Display a schedule of upcoming chapter leader meetings with an option to add the meeting and reminders to their calendar. Post a form that chapter leaders can use to submit questions, ideas, and success stories.
If your town hall attracts an unwieldy, large group, add regional virtual meetups to the schedule. In these smaller meetups, chapter leaders can swap ideas and you can provide the latest updates on association news and resources.
Be mindful of not overscheduling them. Find out how often they want to meet. Since this is their second “job,” they’re the ones with schedule concerns, especially if they’re dealing with kids and work at home, or if they’re in an industry that only allows them enough time for work and sleep right now.
You won’t run short of material for conversation, that’s for sure. Describe the support and resources you’re offering, for example, guidelines and verbiage on postponing/cancelling meetings, sponsorship strategies, member engagement options, and virtual meeting technology recommendations and tips.
Suggest topics for their board’s agenda. You may alert them to issues they haven’t considered.
Most importantly, listen. Ask them about concerns and problems. What do they want you to focus on? What do they need right now—and down the road? Explain how to give that feedback to you. Put HQ staff contact information on the chapter leader website so they know whom to call about different topics.
Reduce redundant calls and emails from chapter leaders by putting everything related to COVID-19 on one page of your chapter leader website. The chapter webpage at the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists is a great example.
Include:
Organize information by topic, for example, governance, events/contracts, sponsorships, virtual meetings, virtual events/online education, marketing, communication, etc.
If some chapter leaders have no time for you because they’re on the frontlines of this crisis, find a few members to step up in the interim, perhaps retired or supplier members who aren’t as busy.
Make yourself available for private calls and virtual meetings. Chapter leaders need a friend more than anything right now. Imagine how much they’re trying to juggle. Be there for them and connect them with other leaders whom you think could provide the right kind of support.
And what about you? CRPs need their association friends too, especially now. Keep an eye on our Events page so you can join our next webinar, CRP virtual meetup, subscribe to updates, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. We’re always here for you.
Chapters have always had one advantage over their HQ associations—regular opportunities for members to get together in person to:
Remember those good old days? With social distancing, what we took for granted is no longer possible. “Social distancing” is the wrong phrase for this new way of life. We should really call it “physical distancing” because social connections are needed now more than ever. Chapters can help alleviate the isolation that everyone is feeling.
During the first weeks of this crisis, you’ve probably been communicating regularly with chapter leaders and helping them adapt to virtual governance. Once you have that going, help them use online platforms to facilitate social connections for members.
Even members who haven’t been that active are probably craving connection right now. This is a good opportunity to deepen every member’s connection to their chapter and other chapter members.
Many chapters host monthly, bimonthly or quarterly education programs. You can still host these meetings and lunches—just take them online.
Ann Dorough, CAE, director of component development at The American Institute of Architects, explained in a recent Collaborate discussion how one of their components “came up with a clever way to combat the professional and personal isolation members are experiencing due to coronavirus.”
The Mississippi chapter (AIA-MS) launched “a weekly noontime series called In Lieu of Lunch. Using a virtual meeting app, member firms talk about what they’re doing and post discussion questions to the group. Guests are asked to each get takeout from a local restaurant, and the component posts the logos on their social channels to let local businesses know architects are supporting them.”
Along with humorous, upbeat copy on their lunch website, AIA-MS posts discussion questions too. Think of ways you could use web conferencing platforms to host meetings like this or mentoring, coaching, mastermind, or “pick your brain” sessions.
Still stuck on which meeting app to use? AIA-MS has you covered. Their site has a list of meeting apps along with the pros, cons, and costs for each.
If only we had bought stock in Zoom before all this happened! You’ve probably seen Zoom happy hours mentioned all over the place. The Japanese even coined a term for them: “on-nomi,” which means “drinking online with friends.”
Encourage chapters to host virtual happy hours, coffee breaks, breakfasts, or lunches. AIA-MS has it right: members would love a “dose of optimism as [they] break bread together (virtually).”
Other virtual hangout ideas we’ve seen:
Kristin Bailey, senior manager of chapter development at LPGA Amateur Golf Association, put together a tip sheet full of virtual meetup ideas for her chapters: Helping to Keep Members Connected.
Virtual meetings and meetups might be new territory for many members so suggest chapters adopt “Rules of Virtual Engagement.” These guidelines help create the right conditions for interaction and community-building, for example:
Provide technical tips or requirements before virtual meetings so no one has to deal with speaker phone echo or listen to someone chewing their food or yelling at their dog. Advise members on the best web-conferencing set up—webcam position, audio preferences, best lighting, etc.
Every virtual event should have a leader, facilitator, or host—someone who can keep the conversation moving, ask people to mute their microphones, and get quiet participants involved in the conversation. It also helps to have someone behind the scenes who can deal with technical issues. Adrian Segar, founder of Conferences That Work, shared advice for supporting a community online during COVID-19 and tips for hosting virtual meetups.
When marketing these events, stress the importance of networking in an uncertain economic climate. It’s a good time for members to deepen and extend professional networks.
Talk to supplier members about sponsorship opportunities. How can they leverage these virtual meetups and meetings to achieve their marketing goals?
The extent of technology assistance you provide to chapters may depend on their relationship with your association—independent or subsidiary. Even if you can’t subsidize or share technology, you can do the legwork for them and suggest some options.
In an online community, chapter members can discuss hot topics, ask questions, give advice, share resources, and chat about anything else on their minds. The American Institute of Graphic Arts uses Slack for its chapters but many other options are geared to the association market. Higher Logic is perhaps the most well-known, but there’s also Breezio, Mighty Network, Mobilize, and many more.
Think about your goals before choosing technology. You could use one platform for educational events if you expect a large crowd, and another for smaller virtual meetups.
Zoom seems to be the most popular choice right now, but it’s not the only choice. You also have Microsoft Teams, Slack, GoToMeeting or Webinar, Adobe Connect, and Houseparty—a popular app in Canada, Australia, and the UK.
The web has exploded with articles about web-conferencing platforms. Here are some that caught our eye.
In social meetups, it’s best to see people’s faces. A voice without a face doesn’t convey a sense of connection. Depending on your event goals, you may want a platform that offers breakout rooms, chat feature, polling, whiteboards, and/or screen sharing.
Before the event, help members learn how to use the platform. These days, you can find all kinds of how-to articles for the most popular platforms, but a few brief training videos with screenshots might be more effective.
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