What do you think of the new action plan?

Excellent responses to date. I'll read beyond the first question in the Action Plan in a bit. It gave me pause: "Are you satisfied with this level of member non-renewal?" Sure; why shouldn't I be? In other words, where is the benchmarking? This could be a good figure or an average figure. Using some stats from institutions I am familiar with, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have very high renewal rates, high 90's. OTOH, museums, which study turnstyle attendance relentlessly, find it very, very difficult to entice once-a-year visitors to come a second or third time. Success on this metric is in the single digits percentagewise. Without benchmarking, without context, the question is pointless. In addition to benchmarking, I'd like to see 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year consistent-renewal rates. If there is a big dropoff at 3 years (the third time for anything is the psychological breakpoint), that would suggest an area to address. (BTW, I'm not sure what "annual renewal" means. Does it mean purchasing membership one year at a time versus, say, 10 years? If so, principal components analysis of the lumped figure of 35% should be useful. What part reflects stopping membership after one year, stopping membership after three years, and so on.) One suggestion: Nathan posted an inquiry about swimmers who might be interested in clinics by Megan Jendrick. There was a very favorable response, so it looks like one clinic was added: forums.usms.org/showthread.php It appears this was done without USMS facilitation other than the forums for communication, and perhaps allowing use of a pool at Nationals (I don't know where the clinic was held or even if it was held, but use of a pool at a USMS-sanctioned event likely took care of insurance issues, which was another gift, if passive, from the org). Can the org partner with its top swimmers to do more along this line? Another brief suggestion (like, anyone in the org is reading this, LOL ): An outdoor org I belong to has held the basic membership fee steady, but above that line is "basic membership plus": "Yes, I'd like to donate $10 this year to help the org continue its important conservation activities." People who don't check that first box, with the plus $10, get to feel like jerks who are personally standing in the way of conservation (that would be me). Those who do check get to feel warm and fuzzy over volunteering the cost of three lattes to saving the planet. You can bet the org in every one of its communications to members talks about conservation, and indeed it has managed, either individually or in a coalition, to buy large chunks of land as they come on the market. So the plus $10 folks feel very gratified. The USMS would have to do something concrete to ask for a donation of plus $10. Shouldn't be impossible. VB

Excellent responses to date. I'll read beyond the first question in the Action Plan in a bit. It gave me pause: "Are you satisfied with this level of member non-renewal?" Sure; why shouldn't I be? In other words, where is the benchmarking? This could be a good figure or an average figure. Using some stats from institutions I am familiar with, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have very high renewal rates, high 90's. OTOH, museums, which study turnstyle attendance relentlessly, find it very, very difficult to entice once-a-year visitors to come a second or third time. Success on this metric is in the single digits percentagewise. Without benchmarking, without context, the question is pointless. In addition to benchmarking, I'd like to see 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year consistent-renewal rates. If there is a big dropoff at 3 years (the third time for anything is the psychological breakpoint), that would suggest an area to address. (BTW, I'm not sure what "annual renewal" means. Does it mean purchasing membership one year at a time versus, say, 10 years? If so, principal components analysis of the lumped figure of 35% should be useful. What part reflects stopping membership after one year, stopping membership after three years, and so on.) One suggestion: Nathan posted an inquiry about swimmers who might be interested in clinics by Megan Jendrick. There was a very favorable response, so it looks like one clinic was added: forums.usms.org/showthread.php It appears this was done without USMS facilitation other than the forums for communication, and perhaps allowing use of a pool at Nationals (I don't know where the clinic was held or even if it was held, but use of a pool at a USMS-sanctioned event likely took care of insurance issues, which was another gift, if passive, from the org). Can the org partner with its top swimmers to do more along this line? Another brief suggestion (like, anyone in the org is reading this, LOL ): An outdoor org I belong to has held the basic membership fee steady, but above that line is "basic membership plus": "Yes, I'd like to donate $10 this year to help the org continue its important conservation activities." People who don't check that first box, with the plus $10, get to feel like jerks who are personally standing in the way of conservation (that would be me). Those who do check get to feel warm and fuzzy over volunteering the cost of three lattes to saving the planet. You can bet the org in every one of its communications to members talks about conservation, and indeed it has managed, either individually or in a coalition, to buy large chunks of land as they come on the market. So the plus $10 folks feel very gratified. The USMS would have to do something concrete to ask for a donation of plus $10. Shouldn't be impossible. VB