NSPE Membership Report to the NSPE House of Delegates Overall Membership Trends The total NSPE membership declined 4.32% over the period May 2012 May 2013.The decline was 4.68% for the prior 12 month period. Appendix A shows the membership numbers for each state and the % of change between May 2012 and May 2013. Some states showed growth, even if some were only incremental: California New Jersey Georgia New York Indiana Kansas Oregon Pennsylvania Maryland Puerto Rico Massachusetts Texas Mississippi Utah Montana Wisconsin Nebraska Unfortunately, any increases were offset by some double digit loses in other states. RECRUITMENT Recruitment Activity Historically, NSPE has tried to partner with state societies on recruiting new members and leverage state and national dollars and resources together to implement recruitment in order for the dollars spent to go farther. In 2013, NSPE received requests and supplied f unding to the following states for membership marketing initiatives: California Georgia Massachusetts Nebraska Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee West Virginia Recruitment Plans for 2013 2014 Consistent with the recommendations of the Race for Relevance Recruitment Task force, the NSPE board has approved additional investment in nationwide recruitment and retention efforts. Initial plans include: Continuing our established program of jointly funded national/state campaigns developed by the state societies. Increased electronic marketing to former members, individuals who have purchase NSPE products and services, and prospects. As budgets permit, we will also test
targeted postal mail based efforts directed where specific niche markets and o can be defined. Conducting a nationwide membership marketing campaign of newly licensed engineers in the Fall and Spring. Targeted social media messaging and ads to provide content, information, and show the value of three tiered membership in NSPE. The new Executive Director has made it a priority to reorganize and align staff with organizational priorities, and membership marketing is a key priority. To the extent that additional resources can be freed up or created, membership marketing activities will hopefully continue to expand throughout the year ahead. NSPE Membership staff has reached out to state associations with requests for prospect lists, particularly email lists. NSPE is interested and prepared to add to or expand its electronic marketing activities to any list states can provide. See Appendix B Membership Marketing Plan RETENTION NSPE currently provides billing services, including absorbing mailing and credit card processing fees, for all states except, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota. Georgia was handling billing for a couple of years but has returned to the services provided by NSPE. NSPE s overall retention rate is 79%. This is comparable regardless of which entity is handling the renewal process. How this retention rate compares with other associations prior to the recession: MEAN MEDIAN All associations 87% 90% Individual membership 83% 87% organization Trade associations 91% 94% Source: Policies and Procedures in Association Management (ASAE & The Center, 2006) Analysis of NSPE non renewing members suggests that roughly 1% of NSPE members do not renew because of death. In reviewing NSPE s retention rate, we looked at retention by member age group over the last 4 years with some telling results below for younger age groups. NSPE Retention by Age Group Overall 20 30 30 40 40 50 50 60 60 70 70 80 80 90 2008 85 41 75 85 91 89 93 93
2009 85 57 73 84 88 88 93 94 2010 80 30 67 78 86 84 91 92 2011 79 50 73 82 86 85 90 86 NSPE s past retention activities, for states that NSPE processes billing for, consisted of: 1. An e mail to member with renewal invoice 60 days prior to expiration (hard copy is mailed to those without e mail on file.) 2. Hard copy invoice is mailed to those that have not renewed yet at 30 days prior to expiration 3. Expiration (note membership is still intact) 4. 30 days after expiration a reminder invoice is e mailed. 5. 60 days after expiration a reminder invoice is e mailed. 6. 90 days after expiration memberships may be terminated and unpaid proforma invoices are deleted from the system. Retention Activity NSPE staff, with the support of the NSPE Race for Relevance Retention Task Force added new actions to the retention activities listed above, this spring. These activities are anticipated to increase retention of NSPE members going forward. : Notice of potential last issue of PE Magazine. NSPE staff calls to members with expired memberships. Telemarketing to members whose memberships expired December 31 and have been terminated due to non renewal. (December contains the largest bulk of memberships each year) Telemarketing to recently lapsed members continues and results to date appear to be good. After up to three call attempts, 20% were reached and renewed; 20% were reached and declined renewal; 57% were left voice mail messages; and 3% were not reachable (busy/no answer/bad number). This meets or exceeds typical telemarketing campaign standards. Financially speaking, a conservative estimate 1 of call results to date project that we will collect $4.11 in dues for every $1.00 of expense incurred by the campaign. The telemarketing campaign is also allowing us to capture marketing data, which is presented below 2. 1 Return on investment calculations includes actual dues collected by credit card and assumes that only 50% of those who pledged to renew will actually do so. 2 It is important to bear in mind, however, that while insight from recently lapsed members is a significant, the number of respondents in each case is very small.
For non renewing members, the reasons expressed for not renewing are presented in the graph. Confusion or unhappiness with the change from three tier to state only membership was occasionally mentioned. It is interesting to note that, although choosing not to renew, 75% of these former members stated that NSPE met or exceeded their expectations. Only 10% said the society failed to meet expectations and 15% were undecided. For renewing members, 38% cited networking and access to interaction with their peers as the member benefit they valued most; 14% cited continuing education; 7% cited state or local chapter networking. The remainder (41%) identified publications, discounts or cited no specific benefit,. 75% of renewing members had no suggestions for improving the value of member services. Of those renewing members who did offer suggestions for improvement, they expressed a desire for more meetings that were locally accessible, state and national joining back together 3, lowering the cost of membership, and catering to younger engineers. 16% 2013 NSPE MEMBERSHIP DATA APPENDICES A. Appendix A NSPE Membership Change May 2012 May 2013 B. 2013 Membership Marketing Plan What was the primary reason you chose not to renew? 10% 3% 19% 26% 26% Financial reasons Retired Other Company won't pay Did not use Still deciding 3 One renewing member told the caller that he had not previously renewed his national membership because the billing invoice from his state association had labeled state only membership as mandatory and national membership as an optional add on.
Appendix A NSPE MEMBERSHIP CHANGE MAY 2012-May 2013 State # of total membership as of 05/31/2013 (all categories) # of total membership as of 05/31/2012 (all categories) Percentage Membership Change AK 181 185-2.16% AL 302 343-11.95% AR 330 397-16.88% AZ 202 213-5.16% CA 1,184 1,178 0.51% CO 385 391-1.53% CT 235 243-3.29% DC 106 109-2.75% DE 119 123-3.25% FL 3,228 3,567-9.50% GA 447 394 13.45% GU 38 45-15.56% HI 135 147-8.16% IA 296 388-23.71% ID 243 245-0.82% IL 1,201 1,372-12.46% IN 614 598 2.68% KS 472 471 0.21% KY 557 718-22.42% LA 1,096 1,165-5.92% MA 346 333 3.90% MD 632 616 2.60% ME 113 116-2.59% MI 1,158 1,232-6.01% MN 762 882-13.61% MO 1,076 1,193-9.81% MS 788 716 10.06% MT 89 87 2.30% NC 816 1,290-36.74% ND 289 337-14.24% NE 489 471 3.82% NH 151 154-1.95% NJ 1,034 974 6.16% NM 264 285-7.37% NV 258 244 5.74% NY 1,946 1,919 1.41%
Appendix A State # of total membership as of 05/31/2013 (all categories) # of total membership as of 05/31/2012 (all categories) Percentage Membership Change OH 1,340 1,377-2.69% OK 564 593-4.89% OR 236 224 5.36% PA 1,941 1,816 6.88% PR 552 394 40.10% RI 90 92-2.17% SC 410 416-1.44% SD 313 316-0.95% TN 954 960-0.63% TX 3,155 3,148 0.22% UT 124 117 5.98% VA 940 1,005-6.47% VT 54 65-16.92% WA 263 265-0.75% WI 530 519 2.12% WV 140 141-0.71% WY 97 106-8.49% International 265 325-18.46% National Only 413 474-12.87% TOTALS 33,963 35,496-4.32%
Appendix B NSPE 2013 MEMBERSHIP MARKETING PLAN OBJECTIVE The objective of the NSPE 2013 Membership Marketing Plan is to increase membership by using uniform campaigns, conducted by national, to recruit licensed engineers in all states. GOALS Increase membership by 2% overall. STRATEGIES 2013 Membership Marketing will be a 5 part program consisting of: A Continue established program of jointly funded national/state campaigns developed by the state societies. In addition to membership development, this creates opportunities to test the effectiveness of different marketing messages and incentives. B Continue to e mail former members and purchasers in the NSPE database on a quarterly (or more frequent) basis. Messages will include items such as advocacy activities and products & services such as EJCDC, 15 free webinars, etc. We will continue to investigate the availability of outside lists; however, properly qualified lists have been difficult to identify. As budgets permit, we will also test targeted postal mail based efforts directed where specific niche markets and offerings can be defined. C Conduct a nationwide membership marketing campaign of newly licensed engineers. One piece fits all and funds the entire project. This option would generate the largest economy of scale. (This was the recommendation of the RFR task force.) States that are able would help acquire the list of targets, for others national staff will acquire the lists.. D State societies provide ground level membership outreach through members, activities and events, utilizing national s resources for projects on an as needed basis. E Continue targeted social media messaging and ads to provide content, information, and show the value of NSPE. TARGET AUDIENCES In order to bring in younger engineers who can be engaged for a longer period of time, the direct mail marketing campaign will target newly licensed engineers who have passed the fall 2012 and spring 2013 PE exams. The electronic marketing will continue to target former members, purchasers and any potential member lists with e mails we can acquire. MESSAGING Branding Advocacy Value at all 3 tiers/the whole is greater than the sum of the parts Access to Knowledge o Competence
Appendix B o Licensure o Ethics o Education A Network of Peers Leadership Outreach TACTICS Promotional piece to include: Window Envelope Personalized Letter Brochure Application (as found in pdf on NSPE.org join page) TIMELINE When What Who June 10 June 30 Acquire lists from state licensing boards of those Natahnya McKinney/State Society Executives who have passed Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 exams June 20 July 10 Work with designer to Branding Team review concepts July 10 July 20 Review design and offer Granados/ Membership concepts Committee/ SSEC July 10 Send lists along with NSPE Natahnya McKinney member list to mail house to begin de duping process JULY 26 Launch Print/Mail