---
title: "Membership Hack: Lifetime Members"
id: "39501"
type: "post"
slug: "membership-hack-lifetime-members"
published_at: "2017-08-25T23:11:09+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-11-09T16:16:32+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/08/25/membership-hack-lifetime-members/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/08/25/membership-hack-lifetime-members.md"
excerpt: "The International Live Events Association recently debuted a lifetime membership to honor committed and long-time members."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "community data"
  - "Member Engagement"
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
  - "Director"
  - "Manager"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
---

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 » Membership Hack: Lifetime Members

**How to hack it?**The International Live Events Association just celebrated its 30th anniversary, and it was looking for a way to honor lifelong members. So, ILEA’s staff dove deep into the membership database and discovered that there were a handful of members who had been with the organization for 25 years or more. “A couple dozen individuals had been members since almost the beginning,” says Ande Leslie, ILEA’s manager for marketing and communications. “And a lot of those individuals had been volunteers or given back significantly to the organization.” To say thanks, ILEA offered these members a special, one-time $1,500 lifetime membership deal, a price that equates to about four years of dues.

**Why does it work?** While members might sign on to lifetime membership for the value, Leslie says it’s also a way to make them feel appreciated. So far, 10 of the 22 qualified members have opted into lifetime membership. At this year’s annual meeting, ILEA recognized each recipient publicly, and it’s in the process of telling each member’s story [through online Q&A interviews (opens in a new tab)](http://experience.ileahub.com/Full-Article/legacy-member-qa-peter-berliner)
.

**What’s the bonus?**So far, ILEA’s biggest gain from offering lifetime membership has been the increased member engagement. “Some of these members are active and some are retired, but they didn’t want to leave the community,” Leslie says. “We are continuing to build a close-knit community and enable long-time members to remain active.”

(Yuri_Arcurs/DigitalVision/Getty Images Plus)

[Tim Ebner](https://associationsnow.com/author/tim-ebner/)

Tim Ebner is communications director and press secretary at the American Forest & Paper Association in Washington, DC. He is a member of ASAE’s Communication Professionals Advisory Council and a former Associations Now senior editor.

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

Tags: [#community data](https://associationsnow.com/tag/community-data/)
 [#Member Engagement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/member-engagement/)
 [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/)

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