Chapter Consultation

Staff in the Division of Chapter and District Relations provide consultation to chapters on a number of organizational and structural issues. Roughly 2,000 requests/calls from members are fielded per year by the six staff persons within the division.

Outreach Visits
In order to strengthen the partnership between chapters and the national office and to help strengthen chapter structure, national staff attend selected chapter meetings as “ambassadors”, inviting chapters to identify areas for which they need national office assistance. Staff conduct on-site focus groups and work with the chapters to identify/develop recruitment goals, educational programs, and strategies for engaging members in chapter activities. These site visits have proven extremely valuable to the chapters, as they have expressed their appreciation for the national Academy’s interest in grassroots input and truly value the staff’s presence at the chapter meetings. Additionally, the chapters have often commented that the focus group reports have often gleaned data about a chapter’s membership base that even they were unaware of.

Chapter Recruitment
The national office realizes that the success of a chapter depends largely upon the strength and support of its membership. Staff in the Division of Chapter and District Relations work with chapter leaders and executive directors in their recruitment and retention efforts and have developed the Chapter Membership Handbook. This publication provides specific recruitment and retention tips, as well as information on basic memebership policies and procedures. Staff is available to assist chapters with specific recruitment/retention strategies on an as-needed basis, and can work with them to design personalized recruitment campaigns.