ARTICLE 1

Recruitment and Retention TIPS

Prospective and New Members

• Send Local Association Newsletters to non-member agencies and companies.

• Contact large agency and companies Human Resource (HR) Departments and ask them to forward via electronic mail the notice of upcoming meetings and events to their employees.

• Obtain personal quotes of support from Agency Principal and/or Company Branch Manager to be utilized in letters to potential members and/or post on your web site. Be sure the review all quotes for political correctness prior to publishing.

• Advertise upcoming Communicate With Confidence (CWC) class to the industry.

• Utilize Presenting NAIW materials and Membership Applications at all industry functions and/or co-sponsored educational classes.

• Local Associations should offer a NAIW’s gift certificate to all new members.

• Expand NAIW’s Diversity by remembering to recruit Life & Health Employees.

• Remember Membership Recruitment is an On-Going Process that should be done throughout the entire year.

• Contact Local & State Universities, Community Colleges and Trade Schools to promote and develop Student Members.

• Assign NAIW Colleagues (existing members) to each New Member to Answer Questions,

• Provide Information and to Ensure that the New Members have someone to Sit With at All Meetings.

• Remember to Listen to New Members within the Association – New Ideas should be Welcomed Not Discouraged.

• Consider Changing the Name of the Local Association to Represent the Diversification of the Membership by Removing the Word Women from the Name.

• Remember to Send a Thank You Note and Membership Information to Each Guest Who Attends a Local Meeting.

• Attend Industry Meetings and Setup a NAIW Information Booth to Promote Membership within Your Local Association.

• Hold New Member Orientation Retreats

• Conduct NAIW’s Marketing 101 Class for the Entire Membership – To Everyone Learn that they are an Important Part of Marketing the Association.

• Develop Short 30-second Commercials to Promote Your Local Association to the Industry and Prospective Members.

ARTICLE 2

Adding Value & Gaining Employer Support

• Hold monthly programs that provide relevant information that members can take back to their employers, such as industry or product knowledge or computer skills.

• Provide information to employers about the number of college and industry specific designations scholarships available to NAIW members through belonging to the association.

• Use the Presenting NAIW – Employer Kits to clearly outline the benefits of belonging and supporting the association.

• Remember to share your enthusiasm for NAIW with your employer and other colleagues in your office. When sharing the value of attending NAIW’s meetings be sure to be clear, concise and focus on the benefit to the agency or company in terms of education received and how it will assist you in doing your position more effectively, or the new potential markets contacts you have established by attending.

• Conduct “brown bag lunches” for your employer using NAIW’s programs. These are most effective if they are for one hour and approved for continuing education credit.

• Remember the “Win-Win” approach for successful employer support. Your employer must be seeing a return on their investment in both you and NAIW to continue their support.

• Promote and advertise the many great things NAIW has to offer to the industry – Outstanding Educational Opportunities; Leadership Training; Industry Focus is Cyber Crime Prevention; Community Focus is Partners in Literacy.

• Remember to always acknowledge any and all financial support provided by your employer(s).

• Invite your employer to attend meetings with relevant industry topics or when an industry representative (Insurance Commissioner, Regional Manager, Company Underwriter) is the guest speaker.

• Offer continuing education classes. If your employer is a national brokerage house or an office with locations in several states see if your local association will file the program for continuing education credit with several state insurance departments.

• Utilize all local association resources to thank your employers and industry sponsors.

• Use non-gender related name of local association.

• Send thank you letters from the local president to thank employers for their continued support.

• Utilize the President’s message in the local association newsletter to thank sponsors and VIPs. Include information on the next month’s meeting program topic and guest speaker.

• Develop press releases for agency/company newsletters about award winners; newly elected board of directors and special events.

• “Spotlight” agency owners or company sponsors in our newsletters and publications.

• Ask employers what they want, need or expect from NAIW involvement of their employees.

• Local President should send a letter to employer anytime a member earns a designation or award. (NATIONAL NAIW will script out)

• Local Association Newsletters should be industry related and professional in content. Remember to keep them short and concise since members are limited in the amount of time they have to spend reading them. Recipes should never be included in the newsletter.

• Local President should send a thank you note to the guest speaker’s employer. The thank you note if warranted should include information about the person’s knowledge of the industry and the fact that NAIW’s members are potential users of their products/services.

For more information contact:

AL Council Membership Chairman
Martha Lee Hawkins
MHawkins@McGriff.com