Two features to keep in mind as you plan your membership strategy and your community group activities:
- Increased visibility: This community gives your division better visibility to the larger APA membership. Nondivision members can see division groups but cannot be added until they become a division member.
- Automated member list maintenance: Your group seamlessly adds your current (and any new) members as it is connected to the APA membership database. Therefore, there is no manual upkeep for division leaders to handle. *Note: this is only for those divisions that APA handles all membership processing for. If your division is one of the few where APA only processes your division’s APA Member renewals, these are the only members who will have access to your division’s community group.
Below are a few key ways/strategies to help membership growth and retention by using your community group:
- Welcoming and inclusive environment: Members want to remain somewhere they feel valued and regard as being positive. Remember to write welcome notes in your community and to recognize members. Options such as those noted prior assist in creating an environment where members want to stay associated with the group.
- Diverse and active engagement: Each member has a differing way they may want to participate and to what degree. It's best to offer a variety of posts such as forums, event information, or general news about your subdiscipline. As leaders, keep in mind to comment and reply to members to have active engagement.
- Member-generated content: Ask members to share current insights and information, or events they are going to be a part of. Encourage participation by posting questions or inviting members to provide feedback on a topic of interest. Peer-to-peer interaction can be one of the best ways to create community engagement that leads to higher retention rates.
If you have any questions, please contact your Division Engagement liaison.