StarChapter: 

How to Allow New Members to Get More Involved?

The Montgomery chapter of the Association of Government Accountants successfully exceeded their goals this year. They took advantage of the different functionality StarChapter offers such as advertising and communicating with members.

"Thanks to StarChapter we have exceeded our goal of 400 members! StarChapter allowed us to stay connected with members and non-members. Using the registration feature for an event and making the email field required, we substantially increased the records of prospects interested in joining our organization, and reduced costs associated with organizing events. "

• LaTaya Lucas, President, AGA Montgomery Chapter

Challenges, Solutions & Results

Getting new members more involved in the chapter was always a challenge, but since using StarChapter, the Montgomery board engaged new members by asking them to only take on tasks that took a short time. Once they were involved and realized they could complete tasks with little energy (thanks to communicating through StarChapter), new members pitched in and volunteered even more. The board sent mass emails about all activities, including free events, meeting registrations, luncheons, and professional development. The graphics and adaptability of StarChapter to customize announcements helped engage members even further.

The board reached a record number of 275 attendees in the Fall Professional Development Training event. The solution was advertising concurrent sessions and have everyone register in advance on their StarChapter website, ensuring that each session was well attended with a fairly even amount of participants. This helped save costs and increased attendance.

For the first time, AGA Montgomery was able to plan and organize based on registration data while saving costs.

Advice from the Board

The real secret is advanced preparation. Meet your committees well in advance to discuss the needs of the chapter. Once determined, use StarChapter to maintain goals, mission and annual plans for the each committee. This will keep members informed of chapter events, activities, training, etc. We never procrastinate. The key is to advertise early as possible to reach max attendance at each event, and with StarChapter we have multiple tools to do just that.