--- title: "Not All Members Are the Same; Lessons From Texas Senator Wendy Davis" id: "18125" type: "post" slug: "not-all-members-are-the-same-lessons-from-texas-senator-wendy-davis" published_at: "2013-06-27T17:09:28+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T19:03:20+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2013/06/27/not-all-members-are-the-same-lessons-from-texas-senator-wendy-davis/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2013/06/27/not-all-members-are-the-same-lessons-from-texas-senator-wendy-davis.md" excerpt: "Why you shouldn’t treat all your members the same. Also: Leadership lessons from Texas Senator Wendy Davis’ 11-hour filibuster." taxonomy_category: - "Membership" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "labor organization" - "Member Engagement" - "Membership" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Association CEO / Executive Director" - "Director" - "Manager" - "VP" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Not All Members Are the Same; Lessons From Texas Senator Wendy Davis Members engage with your organization in different ways. That’s why it’s important to consider their engagement type. That, and more, in today’s Lunchtime Links: **Engaging ways:** Just because a member doesn’t go to meetings doesn’t mean he or she isn’t engaging with your organization. Tom Morrison, CEO of the Metal Treating Institute, identifies [three member segments (opens in a new tab)](http://tommorrison.blogspot.com/2013/06/tracking-your-membership-engagement-its.html) , based on engagement style: informational, transactional, and emotional. Consider these segments when approaching your members. “Having members broken out by engagement segment will give us a marketing advantage because now we can thank and reward those who are really engaged and encourage those who are not,” Morrison writes on his blog. **The eleventh hour:** Texas Sen. Wendy Davis had one goal on Tuesday: filibuster SB 5, a bill in the state senate that would significantly restrict abortions. Wearing a pair of pink tennis shoes, Davis stood and spoke for 11 straight hours with no breaks. Her filibuster was interrupted when Republican challengers argued that she had gone off topic. But a raucous crowd kept lawmakers from casting their votes until time expired, essentially tabling the bill. Writing for *Fast Company*, [Miles Kohrman highlights a few leadership lessons learned from the senator’s fight (opens in a new tab)](http://www.fastcompany.com/3013501/leadership-now/what-wendy-daviss-dramatic-filibuster-teaches-us-about-tenacious-leadership) . Among them: Don’t give in. “In March 2012, a bag stuffed with six Molotov cocktails was left outside Davis’ office in [Fort] Worth. The resulting fire caused damage to her office, but was extinguished by several alert staffers,” Kohrman reports. In the wake of the incident, Davis [told the Dallas Observer (opens in a new tab)](http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/03/homeless_man_arrested_for_molo.php) , “We have an open door and we will continue to have an open door. And I’ll continue to talk about the things I’ve been talking about. I don’t intend to change my public positions on those issues or to be quiet going forward.” **Data crunch:** Big data is all the rage. But are organizations effectively using the information they collect? A [report from McKinsey Global Institute (opens in a new tab)](http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation) estimates that the U.S. economy needs an additional 1.5 million data-savvy managers to make sense of the data companies collect daily. “Too many managers are, with the help of their analyst colleagues, simply compiling vast databases of information that never see the light of day, or that only get disseminated in auto-generated business intelligence reports,” Thomas H. Davenport, research fellow at the MIT Center for Digital Business, [writes on HBR.com (opens in a new tab)](http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/06/data_is_worthless_if_you_dont.html) . “As a manager, it’s not your job to crunch the numbers…it is your job to communicate them. Never make the mistake of assuming that the results will speak for themselves.” Davenport writes more about these issues with coauthor Jinho Kim in the book *Keeping Up With the Quants*. What does your association do to make good use of the data it collects? What are you reading today? Let us know in the comment section below. (photo by Incase/Flickr) [Anita Ferrer](https://associationsnow.com/author/anita-ferrer/) Anita Ferrer is a contributor to Associations Now. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/anita-ferrer/) Tags: [#labor organization](https://associationsnow.com/tag/labor-organization/) [#Member Engagement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/member-engagement/) [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Tech Stack: How AI Is Changing the Association PlaybookOctober 29, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/10/29/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-tech-stack-how-ai-is-changing-the-association-playbook/) - [TemplateMembers onlyMember Onboarding ToolkitNovember 5, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/11/05/member-onboarding-toolkit/) - [VideoThe Career Moves Every Association Leader Needs Right NowSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/the-career-moves-every-association-leader-needs-right-now/) - [VideoNCRA: Safeguarding Cancer Surveillance: An Advocacy Response to FY26 Budget ThreatsSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/ncra-safeguarding-cancer-surveillance-an-advocacy-response-to-fy26-budget-threats/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2013%2F06%2F27%2Fnot-all-members-are-the-same-lessons-from-texas-senator-wendy-davis%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !