---
title: "More on Membership for Volunteer Leaders"
id: "27072"
type: "post"
slug: "more-on-membership-for-volunteer-leaders"
published_at: "2015-02-01T12:10:39+00:00"
modified_at: "2015-02-01T12:10:39+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/02/01/more-on-membership-for-volunteer-leaders/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/02/01/more-on-membership-for-volunteer-leaders.md"
excerpt: "Resources for volunteer leaders to bone up on their membership knowledge."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "Membership"
  - "volunteers"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
---

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## Resources for volunteer leaders to bone up on their membership knowledge.

ASAE’s 2007 study *[The Decision to Join (opens in a new tab)](https://mystuff.asaecenter.org/ebusiness/publications/publicationproduct?id=102404)* is, eight years later, still a go-to resource for association leaders to understand the fundamental reasons why people affiliate with groups and join associations (or not). A 54-page companion guide, *[Supporting the Decision to Join: What Association Boards Should Know and Do About Membership and Affiliation (opens in a new tab)](https://mystuff.asaecenter.org/ebusiness/publications/publicationproduct?id=105225)*, outlines five key points for volunteer leaders, adapted below:

1. **Focus more on the collective benefits of membership,** less on the personal benefits. Most professionals appreciate that association membership helps them advance the common good of their profession.
2. **Define, encourage, and measure member involvement.** Performing one task, on one occasion, is all it takes to change a member’s disposition toward the value of membership.
3. **Don’t assume that elected leaders can correctly** identify the priorities of rank-and-file members. Leaders have access to unique information that puts considerable distance between conclusions they reach and assumptions under which rank-and-file members operate.
4. **Stop worrying so much about the younger generation.** They may be masters at social networking, texting, and blogging, but that doesn’t mean they don’t value many aspects of association membership.
5. **If the association plans to go global,** first square up with domestic members. Launching a global strategy without fully analyzing motives or objectives can alienate domestic members.

For these resources and more, visit [the ASAE Bookstore (opens in a new tab)](http://www.asaecenter.org/bookstore)
 and search “membership.”

(iStock/Thinkstock)

[Joe Rominiecki](https://associationsnow.com/author/joe-rominiecki/)

Joe Rominiecki is a contributing editor to Associations Now.

[More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/joe-rominiecki/)

Tags: [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/)
 [#volunteers](https://associationsnow.com/tag/volunteers/)

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