Chapter News

Local Chapters: Current Status and
Future Directions

By James P. Bliss, Internal Affairs Division Chair,
& Carlos de Falla, Director of Membership Services

     An important hallmark of success for any scientific organization is the degree to which it regularly engages with its members to facilitate professional networking and placement opportunities, disseminate research findings, and provide other benefits. Organizations that interact with their members regularly are usually more successful, enjoying consistent growth and a marked impact on the scientific community in general. One way in which HFES meets such needs is through its local chapters. These chapters reflect both regions (such as the Tri-State and Tennessee Valley Chapters) and particular cities (such as the Atlanta, Houston, and San Diego Chapters). As HFES has grown to include members outside the United States, chapters have been formed that represent large areas such as Europe and China.

     Over the years, local chapters have varied with regard to their health. Some chapters have successfully attracted members, have held popular events, and have been perceived as generally effective by their members. Others have struggled to maintain membership; numbers and members' interest have declined. Some have even ceased to exist because of lack of interest. In the last five years or so, the perception among some has been that an increasing number of local chapters have suffered from inactivity. This has led the HFES Executive Council to seek input from the chapters themselves about their membership and activities and the perceived viability of the local chapter concept.

     In May 2010, HFES sent a blind paper survey to presidents of each of the 23 active local chapters to help the Society understand each chapter's status. The survey included questions about membership, programs, services, and the future. In addition to helping HFES understand chapters' relative health levels, the survey also served to guide chapter leaders through a process of examining their operations, services, programs, and activities. Ultimately, chapters were encouraged to identify successful areas to bolster and challenges to address. Sixteen responses were received, representing a 70% return rate. Results of the survey are presented below.

Membership
     In the area of chapter membership, respondents answered questions about recruitment and retention success, perceptions of chapter size, and strategies used to encourage members to renew their local chapter membership. Respondents were also asked to identify types of service, support, or resources that could help their chapter increase its membership. Most responding chapters (88%, n = 15) indicated that they are not successful in member recruitment and retention. Furthermore, most chapters (65%, N = 11) believe the size of their chapter is too small. Seven chapters consider their current recruitment efforts to be successful; however, 3 chapters do not devote specific effort to member recruiting.

     Most responding chapters agreed that some form of program assistance is needed to help their membership grow. Specific services of interest included access to HFES member addresses in a certain geographic area, templates for membership marketing and needs assessment, centralized HFES assistance for signing up local members and referral, ability to host Webinars for monthly chapter meetings, and closer coordination with related organizations. Many of these strategies are currently in progress or have been considered by the HFES Executive Council.

     Most responding chapters use a variety of methods to encourage renewal of membership; only 2 chapters have no program in place for this. Those methods include marketing members-only events to nonmembers, implementing a renewal program, holding recruitment drives, reminding members about renewal through Facebook and Web page statements, and encouraging renewal at hosted events.

     Strategies identified for chapters to increase membership include closer coordination with related organizations, automatic local chapter referral upon joining HFES, and use of Webinars to reach out to interested professionals. Respondents emphasized the importance of a needs assessment to determine benefits of interest to potential members.

Programs and Events
     Respondents were asked to characterize chapter events and programs as successful or unsuccessful, to indicate the degree to which local chapters collaborated with student chapters, and to name factors that contributed to accomplishing event attendance goals.

     The vast majority of responding chapters (94%, n = 16) believe their chapters' events are successful. Most chapters also claim to meet attendance goals (63%, n = 10). However, there is no standard practice as to when or how often events are held; this ranges from monthly to annually. About 65% of chapters (n = 11) do not have an opportunity to collaborate with a student chapter; however, all those that do have the opportunity take advantage of such collaboration. The most important predictors of event success appear to be related to members' availability (time of the day, week, or month) and cost; the least important issues include specific topics or speakers featured.

Chapter Services
     Questions about chapter services revolved around perceived benefits to the chapter's members and whether those benefits were believed to be adequate. Specific items concerned the availability of an events calendar (and, more generally, a newsletter), whether a chapter Web site is maintained and what it offers, and the degree to which the chapter successfully recruits volunteers to perform necessary tasks.

     Most responding chapters do not publish an events calendar (80%, n = 12); more than half (53%; n = 8) publish no newsletter. All but one chapter maintain a Web presence linked to hfes.org. The sites are used to accomplish much of what newsletters would traditionally do: list leaders and contact information, program dates and topics, and membership renewal information. Most responding chapters (60%; n = 9) seem to lack sufficient volunteers to handle necessary work. The modal method for recruiting volunteers is personal discussion, though some chapters advertise positions or announce positions at meetings. Volunteers who serve are typically thanked publicly, but they are not compensated with awards or gifts of any kind.

     Some chapters have attempted creative solutions to increase meeting attendance and enhance chapter health, such as recruiting sponsors, inviting exhibitors to attend meetings, and accepting donations.

Future Outlook
     Perhaps the most important perspective concerns the future of local chapters. Because of the variability surrounding chapter viability and apparent success, we considered answers in this area to be important barometers of membership interest in maintaining the local chapter in its current state. We asked respondents to indicate whether the local chapter concept is viable in today's environment and whether merging local and student chapters might be an acceptable strategy to ensure chapter longevity. We also asked respondents to offer suggestions about ways in which HFES might assist local chapters.

     Interestingly, even though many chapters are finding it difficult to recruit members, the responding chapters unanimously agreed that local chapters are indeed a viable structure. They also overwhelmingly supported the idea of merging with student chapters to share resources.

     In response to the offer from the Society to provide assistance, chapters indicated that the parent organization could assist local chapters with recruitment, provide leadership development programs, give technical assistance for chapters' Web applications and tools (including hosting chapter Web sites and collecting membership fees centrally), help chapters connect with other professional organizations and corporate sponsors, and assist with officer succession.

Summary and Conclusions
     From the responses we received, several conclusions may be reached. First, although some data may suggest that chapters are generally too small and not successful with recruitment or retention, it is clear that chapters are in favor of keeping some sort of local chapter model and even merging local and student chapters if necessary. Second, the data indicate that successful chapters have tried valiantly to increase the diversity of their activities and benefits to members; however, it is difficult to find willing volunteers. Assistance from HFES would be of considerable help. Third, local chapters are relying on electronic means (Web, e-mail) to recruit and advertise. This is fairly successful but requires volunteer labor for maintenance. Fourth, hosted events are viewed as successful; lack of attendance may be attributed to member time constraints or financial limitations. Finally, local chapters would generally welcome increased central control to assist with recruiting and volunteer duties.

     At this point, the Executive Council will consider the data presented here and contemplate steps to ensure the long-term viability of chapters. We welcome additional comments from all members at jbliss@odu.edu.

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