---
title: "Membership Hack: Easier Transitions for Student Members"
id: "48976"
type: "post"
slug: "membership-hack-easier-transitions-for-student-members"
published_at: "2020-01-10T21:44:59+00:00"
modified_at: "2020-01-10T21:44:59+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2020/01/10/membership-hack-easier-transitions-for-student-members/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2020/01/10/membership-hack-easier-transitions-for-student-members.md"
excerpt: "Students can get lost in the membership shuffle, especially as they move from school into careers. Here’s how the Society for Personality and Social Psychology retains young members during that transition."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "donor retention"
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Manager"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
---

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 » Membership Hack: Easier Transitions for Student Members

**How to hack it?**Many associations struggle to retain students after they graduate from school. At the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, one contributing factor was surprisingly mundane.

“One of the reasons why we lost students after graduation was because they used their university emails with us,” says SPSP’s Chad Rummel, CAE. “Then, after graduation, they switched to another email.”

To remedy this situation, SPSP now asks students to provide their intended graduation date on the membership application. When graduation nears, the team checks in with each student by email, encouraging them to update their member profile and contact information. They also extend a free membership upgrade that advances students to the [early-career category (opens in a new tab)](https://www.spsp.org/membership/categories)
 at no additional cost.

**Why does it work?** In a word: simplicity. “They just have to reply to the email, and we make the switch to their membership account,” Rummel says. “That also ensures that future communications are relevant.”

**What’s the bonus?**SPSP also routinely delivers content tailored to career-stage needs. For members transitioning from school to work, [an early-career resources portal (opens in a new tab)](https://www.spsp.org/resources/earlycareer)
 helps prepare them for the profession.

(MissTuni/iStock/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: [#donor retention](https://associationsnow.com/tag/donor-retention/)
 [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/)

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