Youth Movement

Heidi Salati was hired
to bring more young people
into the American Society
for Public Administration.

The Washington, D.C.-based American Society for Public Administration doesn’t get a lot of young faces at its meetings. Currently, only about 15 percent of ASPA’s members are under 40. There’s a strong contingent of students, but they aren’t necessarily spring chickens; many are middle managers aiming for advanced degrees.    The problem is, the association’s target demographic is the middle- to high-level manager in public administration, and until recently, younger people couldn’t benefit from the programming.
    A few years ago, the outgoing president realized if something wasn’t changed soon to bring in younger people, ASPA’s membership tally was going to drop. A wave of members was planning on retiring, and new prospects were looking slim. From 2001 to 2004, membership declined by nearly 10 percent, from 9,940 to 9,123. Heidi Salati, 37 years old, was hired in March to reverse that trend.
    “At a point when your membership comes to a certain age and retires, a lot of them will drop their association membership,” notes Salati, the association’s first senior director for professional development, who has been tasked with creating programs geared toward a younger audience. “By recruiting younger members who are new in the field, you’re going to keep those people for quite some time. They bring a lot of new fresh ideas as well, and help us keep our pulse on the industry.”
    Associations value young members but often do not understand how to plan a meeting that will attract and retain them. It’s not just about making them feel comfortable, either; it’s about understanding the needs of young professionals and taking action to meet those needs.
    “It takes a lot more work to integrate the X and Y generations and get them to see the value of the trade association,” says Richard Lerman, Cranbury, N.J.-based president of the New Jersey chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, based in Arlington, Va. “We are forced, therefore, to have world-class programs that our members must take the time to participate in.”

“It takes a lot more work
to integrate the X and Y generations&”
Richard Lerman,
Associated Builders and Contractors

Fresh blood
At ASPA’s annual conference, a new professionals’ workshop has been offered for a few years; at the next one, in Denver in April, Salati will add development courses for students going for various types of degrees, who hear about the conference mostly by word of mouth from their professors. Student courses will be focused into one day at the conference; the leadership at ASPA hopes to use feedback from the programming as a launchpad for future younger-slanted seminars.
    As to the topics to be offered, young professionals usually want the same things, she says, given her experience in similar roles at the Design-Build Institute of America and at the Brookings Institution, both based in Washington, D.C. “They always have questions about ‘What now?’ and ‘What can I expect in my field?’” Programming, therefore, will focus on career pathways in public administration. Salati also will plan outings that bring young professionals together with the experienced members for a sort of field trip, a setting that encourages mingling.
    ASPA isn’t alone in the need to address such issues. Rotary International faces a similar conundrum as it passes its 100th anniversary. Traditionally, only business owners and distinguished professionals have been permitted to join the service organization, part of the reason why only about one in five members is under 50.
    “Frankly, a lot of our members are dying off,” admits Sam Greene, the Westlake Village, Calif.-based chairman of the membership development and retention committee for the Evanston, Ill.-based association. For the past four years, he notes, Rotary International has put a premium on drawing younger members by designing special clubs and meetings just for them.

Who are these people?
Attracting young people to the membership rolls requires first understanding how their needs differ from those who have been in the ranks for years.
    “Younger professionals are really savvy consumers and are really selective in what groups they participate in. They’re looking for a more tangible return on investment for their time,” says Cindy Kuhn, senior vice president of marketing and communications services for the Chicago-based association management company SmithBucklin. “Baby boomers, on the other hand, have more of a propensity to join national organizations and to demonstrate competencies and skills in a broader venue.”

“We make sure we take
care of the folks who
have been coming for years.”
Sharon Collins, CMP,
The Kellen Company

    Here are a few more traits of young professionals to keep in mind when designing a program.
    They’re not loyal. In the past, professionals identified with an association to show support for their profession, but no longer. “If you were a widget manufacturer, you had to be a member of the widget manufacturers’ association,” says Lerman. “These days, associations are evaluated by the members, who either get something specific that’s valuable or they don’t.”
    They want to help themselves. “They’re called the ‘me’ generation for a reason,” quips Diane Bruhl, director of the membership and marketing division of the Chicago-based American Bar Association. Younger attendees come to meetings for personal advancement more than community building, so present the meeting as, “Here’s how we can help you.”
    They have very little time. Whereas older association members might want to spend time absorbing information or developing relationships, young people want to get in, get done and get out, observes Sharon Collins, CMP, director of meetings for the Kellen Company, an association management firm based in Atlanta. “An old-timer might be good with regular coffee, but the younger ones live on espresso,” she says.

“It would be nice if
something was set up
for young people to meet other
young planners.”
Kerrie Cave, Courtesy Associates

A younger meeting
Kerrie Cave, the 29-year-old senior meetings and events planner for Courtesy Associates, an association management firm in Washington, D.C., dreads walking into a meetings industry event. All the older planners seem to know everybody else, which makes it difficult to meet anybody. Cave ends up feeling overwhelmed.
    “You kind of look for that one friend you can talk to,” she says. “It would be nice if something was set up for young people to meet other young planners.”
    “It’s easy to lose track of the folks who have just walked in the door,” says John Larkin, marketing and communications manager for the American Society for Public Administration. “It’s a question of being mindful and saying, ‘What was it like when I first walked in?’”
    Plenty can be done to make young people feel at home during the meeting. It’s not just the newbies who will appreciate the changes, either. Many of the following suggestions will benefit attendees of all ages.
    Make them comfortable. When Kerrie Cave works with the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Meeting Professionals, one of Courtesy Associates’ clients, Cave is more than welcoming to new members, given her own experience at industry meetings. She plans an annual function specifically for recent joiners to meet each other. At other AMPs functions, new members get a yellow ribbon, which gets people talking to them. This is a common tactic, and one used at many meetings industry events.
    Get them involved. Put simply, new members will stay if they’re involved in the association. To facilitate involvement, convince them to join a planning committee. At the Kellen Company, younger folks are given designated spots on committees. A full quarter of meeting attendees come because they were asked to get involved, according to Lisa Rand, a New York City-based account executive for the firm.
    But getting involved can be more than just sitting on a committee. A number of associations SmithBucklin manages have gotten rid of standing committees in favor of short term, project-based task forces, which are more attractive to time-strapped young professionals.

“Younger members want
the opportunity to
shape the discussion.”
Susan Sarfati, CAE,
The Center for Association Leadership

Let them succeed. Young people want to make a palpable difference. Both the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership offer ways for new members to be fast-tracked to leadership roles, by setting aside positions on the board for young members, instituting an “emerging leaders” online community and holding seminars for young leaders. Topics include “How to Create a Career Strategy” and “How to Lead From the Middle.”
    “They don’t want to be sitting at a committee meeting, hearing staff reports or rubber-stamping things,” says Susan Sarfati, CAE, president and CEO of the Center for Association Leadership and executive vice president of the American Society of Association Executives, both based in Washington, D.C. “They want to be making an impact and making a difference.”
    Give them a mentor. Connect new and longtime members before the meeting commences.
    Pump up the networking. Young people consistently say they join associations to meet new people. The conference should have multiple opportunities for mingling. Try creating an activity that encourages networking (a scavenger hunt within a cocktail party for new members to collect all the board members’ signatures, for example), or taking small groups on outings. Also, don’t schedule the major networking reception for the final night, when some attendees might have left the meeting to head home early.
    For a large association, a new member reception at the annual meeting is a must. At the Kellen Company, planners invite the association leadership and seat them per a lottery, to disperse the veteran members among the newbies.
    Pick sensible topics. Young professionals generally are compelled by educational topics on engineering a career, how to work together in the corporate environment, how to better network at a cocktail party, how to talk to your boss about flextime and climbing the career ladder, says Rand, age 26.
    More experienced members won’t mind having some basic education in the mix, as long as they’re given a clear indication that it’s not for them. “If they’re expecting more advanced material and you don’t give it to them, you’ll get an earful,” says ASPA’s Heidi Salati. “It’s almost like taking a class that you took a couple of weeks ago.”
    Make learning interactive. Any meeting could benefit from education that teaches in innovative ways, but the younger generation will be even more turned off by talking heads than older members, who are used to the lecture format, says Sarfati. “Younger members want the opportunity to contribute their own ideas and to shape the discussion,” she says. “Have some fun with it.”
    Sarfati suggests dividing sessions into small groups, and giving each group the opportunity to make a presentation.
    Snazz it up. “We’ve grown up in the era of advertising and marketing,” says Rand. “A boring flyer that’s not well done isn’t going to get anywhere with our age group.” Young people also will get excited about a party that really pops or food more creative than the usual chicken dish.
    Leave a quiet area. “We make sure we take care of the folks who have been coming for years,” says Collins. “If you have a high-energy band playing, have a quiet area, a place to talk when the music cranks up.”
Call the high school. Arlene Farber Sirkin, president of the Washington Resource Consulting Group Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., pushes her association clients to cultivate interest at the high school level. Invite interested students to the meeting, and when they enter the work force, they will be more likely to join your association.
    Discount registration. Young professionals often are afraid to ask their bosses to fund professional education, says Sarfati. The Center for Association Leadership has gotten around this issue by offering a so-called Circle Club membership, which allows associations to send up to 10 employees to CAL programming over an entire season. It’s easier to ask for permission to attend if the association has already bought a certain number of seats.
    When one of the Kellen Company’s groups, New York Women in Communications, noticed a scarcity in young members, two new membership categories were created, one for students and one for “young professionals,” women within two years of college graduation. Membership and registration were discounted, and a newsletter and a workshop series were devoted to them.
    Lisa Rand, who is a member and whose colleague manages the association, says the number of younger members has grown substantially because of the new categories. “I think they’re there to stay,” she adds.
Cindy Kuhn notes that meetings are in place partly to generate revenue, and steep discounts in registration might not be as wise as offering, say, a one-day pass for students, which would be affordable but not detrimental to the bottom line.
    Use the Internet. It goes without saying that young people take more easily to technology. They’ll demand online registration, e-directories, cyber cafés and webinars for when they can’t make it to the meeting. This is not to say older members aren’t web-savvy, notes L.J. Williams, manager of international meetings for Rotary International. “It’s sort of fun to go by the cyber café and see them all lined up,” he says.
    The flip side of such a cyber-facility is young attendees won’t be able to justify going to the meeting if they can get the same experience in a webinar. “You have to give them a reason to show up,” Sirkin warns.
Dress them down. Business casual is the trend, so make sure attendees know they can pack comfortable khakis and a pullover. Collins often will tell them to “leave the tie at home.”
    Consider their schedules. One of Rotary International’s most successful ploys to bring in young members was to move to a morning meeting. “People starting their careers couldn’t make a noon meeting,” says Sam Greene. Clubs began meeting at 7:30 a.m. (or after work, in some cases), and the membership demographic changed overnight.
    Make time for them. “It’s very important we are sensitive that, while they’re attending the meeting, their whole other life is going on,” says Sharon Collins. Leave a little unscheduled time in the morning and afternoon for conference calls and checking e-mail.
    Put things in perspective. Don’t forget that your primary audience  probably remains the baby boomers, Kuhn advises. “You’ve got to lay the pipeline, to reach out to those who are interested, but there is a balance there. Do a lot of things that include the younger members, but don’t sell the whole farm.”