Any communications or business development leader at a membership organization will tell you that member recruitment and member retention are of the highest priority.  Think of a local chamber of commerce or the alumni association at the college in your town.  Engaging members is vital to the continuity of these organizations.

For a member organization that is entirely run by volunteers, member recruitment and retention is paramount.  I have been a proud member of the Junior League of Miami for ten years.

Last year, one of my projects as President-Elect was to create a 15-video series to reposition the organization in our market.

Our Goals:

  • Amplify that Junior League of Miami is an organization where women can build professional capacity
  • Communicate that Junior League of Miami is a place where a woman can take a risk on herself
  • Chip away at the outdated/outmoded refrain that Junior Leagues are for “ladies that lunch”

Finally, given that affiliation and achievement are two of the primary motivations for joining a member organization, we wanted to speak directly to the achievement motivation.  We felt that it was well established in our market that Junior League membership represented affiliation.

The fifteen women featured in the video series truly depicted the diversity in our membership–across age, socio-economic status, professional industry, ethnicity, and years of membership. A few of my favorite videos that really spoke to the achievement and professional accomplishment motivations included:

  • Jennifer Williams. Jenny is the President-Elect of Junior League of Miami and is using her Junior League experience to build skills in pursuit of the goal of becoming a school principal.
  • Meg DeMilia.  Meg has chaired a large fundraiser and joined Junior League to help her advance her career goal of becoming a manager at her office.
  • Amber Seidle Lazo. Amber has served in a variety of executive leadership positions at Junior League of Miami and shared how her experience has really helped her with conflict resolution and dealing with interpersonal issues.