Do you send out welcome packets to new members or new medical families in the community?

According to a recent membership marketing benchmarking report, new members who receive welcoming information have a higher rate of retention than those who don’t. Here are some ideas from the Membership Marketing Advisory Committee on items to include in the packets or other welcome activities.

Welcome Activities

• Plan on two activities per year. It’s a great strategy to encourage ongoing recruitment activity.

• In the fall, if your area has a historic shopping area, contact the merchants about setting up a Christmas/holiday shopping day.

• In the winter, usually February to hit the big March membership push, we invite the school superintendent to address the Alliance about our public schools. These two meetings usually draw members that don’t usually come especially if there are changes in the works that will affect their children.

• In our state, our districts host a new member luncheon in one of their homes. To help our potential members from becoming overwhelmed we only invite the committee chairs and the spouses of the practice they have joined. Each committee chair gives a short talk about their committee and at the end of the luncheon we send home packets with information from each committee. The luncheons are hosted once in the fall and once in the spring. These meet-and-greet luncheons have worked well for us. They help us connect with the new members and allow the spouses of the practice the opportunity to get to know each other. By the end of the luncheon, most of the potential members are now members and have signed up to work on a committee.

Welcome Packets

• Map of the local area with special places highlighted (could be attained from local chamber of commerce)

• List of places of worship

• Ask your members to put together a list of recommended restaurants for occasions like best place for an anniversary dinner, best place to get a margarita, where to take the kids when your spouse is on call, etc.

• Parks and recreation information

• Discount coupons from local merchants (if feasible to obtain)

• School calendar with teacher workdays and holidays clearly marked

• Brochure from arts culture/arts scene — theatre, symphony, galleries

• Information on local universities that offer continuing education

• List of Alliance contacts (president, president-elect, membership chair, etc)

• Chocolate — that would make anyone feel welcome!
 

 

The Board of Directors and President Nancy Kyler will be hosting a series of optional conference calls with state presidents, presidents-elect and staff executives starting in January. The purpose of the calls is two-fold — to provide the most up-to-date information from National and to hear about what is going on in states and counties. In addition, from time to time, national leaders plan on having outside experts on the calls to talk about life balance, medical relationships, making sense out of health headlines and other topics offered from the AMA Alliance that support our members and leaders.

These calls will be short, informal, informational and are not mandatory by any means. The calls are meant as a way for the AMA Alliance to better connect and serve our membership. The schedule for the calls follows:

• Friday, January 15, 2010, 11AM CST, 5 PM CST
• Friday, February 19, 2010, 11AM CST
• Friday, March 19, 2010, 11AM CST, 7 PM CST
• Friday, April 16, 2010, 11AM CST
• Friday, May 14, 2010, 11AM CST, 5 PM CST

The conferencing service will only allow for 20 callers at a time, so please RSVP to Nancy Battaglia (nancy.battaglia@ama-assn.org) with the date and time you would like to participate. Nancy will then contact you with the dial in number for the call.

 

 

State leaders may request a Speakers Bureau Conference Call to complement their scheduled state or county Board meeting or conference. Up to 15 local leaders that are AMA Alliance members may be included in such conference sessions of up 30 minutes.

 

 

Ever wonder what the differences among tax exempt organizations and how your alliance figures in? Here’s some information from the IRS:

 

IRS LIST OF COMMON TAX LAW RESTRICTIONS FOR EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS

	501(c)(3)	501(c)(4)	501(c)(5)	501(c)(6)	527
Receive tax-deductible charitable contributions	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO
Receive contributions or fees deductible as a business expense	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Substantially related income exempt from federal income tax	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Investment income exempt from federal income tax	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Engage in legislative advocacy	LTD	YES	YES	YES	LTD
Engage in candidate election advocacy	NO	LTD	LTD	LTD	YES
Engage in public advocacy not related to legislation or election of candidates	YES	YES	YES	YES	LTD