Creating a Stellar Chapter Development Plan

Editor's Notes

• #2 New format this week…we’ll provide and walk through a template.
• #3 What does BH do? Work with chapter-based associations to simplify the operations and financial complexities of having chapters.
• #4 Don’t forget to mention that we’re now CAE Certified! All LIVE webinars qualify…
• #5 What are you hoping to get out of this session? Take a few minutes to write down why YOU need a chapter development plan. Be honest. These are just a few of the benefits you can recognize from creating a chapter development plan: Identify and track to goals. Increase visibility Create a single version of the truth Address the state of chapters Identify what’s working well Identify specific areas of improvement
• #6 Just 8% of people actually achieve their goals. We're only 1 month into 2017. There's still time to create a chapter development plan to increase your odds with a road map to success. Shout out to Claudia for giving us a template! Really drill in that this was based off the process a real CRP went through. In this actionable webinar, you'll learn: -What a successful chapter development plan looks like -Why it's important to have one -How to create your own chapter development plan using a provided template from a fellow CRP 
• #7 Let’s use this slide to tell Claudia’s story. Her association’s goal was to focus on chapters. She needed to paint a picture to her senior leadership team and show where the chapter initiatives fall. Started by listening to webinars, doing research and then conducted a survey with her chapter leaders. To collect data, she conducted a series of phone calls and did a SWOT analysis with different chapters. This led to the creation of her ‘Chapter in a Box’ idea. Kyle advised to survey chapters to start
• #8 We sent out the template via email beforehand, but if you didn’t receive it, we’ll drop the link now. I’ll give you a minute to print it in case you didn’t already...it will be helpful to follow along as we go through this.
• #9 This is going to help you get started. Do you have an idea/what’s the first thing that came to mind? Chat in…
• #10 This is going to help you get started. Do you have an idea/what’s the first thing that came to mind? Chat in…
• #11 Reference page 2 (in case people are following along –the pages are numbered at the top right) List out the landscape and state of your chapters. Consider the following questions as thought-starters: How many chapters do you currently have? Who runs each chapter (volunteers, staff, or members)? How often do chapter leaders meet?
• #12 Reference page 2-3 List your top 3 goals along with 5-10 tactics for each goal you need to accomplish in 2017. Use your chapters’ strengths and weaknesses to create your goals. Tie your tactics to overall organizational goals Goal examples: Grow and strengthen the chapters – tie a certain membership growth percentage to it Develop chapter leadership Tactic Ideas: post chapter events on a calendar add chapter activities to social media develop a quarterly newsletter highlight one chapter per month that's doing something well ask senior staff & board to attend chapter meetings help chapters find speakers find place to store chapter templates and resources develop a survey for chapter leaders
• #13 Reference page 4 What general support do you provide to your chapters? List out all tasks/services and tools that national assists with or provides. Ideas: This could range from financial compensation, to providing a member database/ list, website creation and maintenance, setting up leadership meetings, creating bank accounts, providing resources/templates, filing taxes, etc.
• #14 Reference page 4 Ask the question below and ask them to chat in/share…group therapy session…I’m sure everyone can commiserate. Be frank here. What drives you nuts about your chapters? What should they be doing, but aren’t? Maybe it’s the number of events they’re conducting. Maybe they’re not properly recording who attends these events.
• #15 Reference page 5 This should be your wake up call to get out into the field! CRP Tough Love…Maybe you don’t have enough info to get started. Attend a conference or chapter event. Conduct some research, get some stats. A good place to start would be by researching websites of other associations, calling chapter leaders in your industry, attending a webinar, consulting with your current chapter leaders, board and staff members, and collecting industry statistics or data. Find 3 facts to get you started.
• #16 We included a few key resources to pull industry statistics out of. Plug the knowledge bank. We’ve compiled all chapter-based resources from us and other industry thought-leaders
• #17 Reference page 5-10 This is the time for it to get real. This isn’t going to be easy…depending on how many chapters you have, it will be tedious, challenging and time consuming. If have automatic way to get data from chapters, this will be easier for you. If not, surveying or finding the stats is the first place to start. This is where you’ll list out all of your chapters. Yes, every single one. Provide at least one strength, weakness and opportunity/recommendation per chapter. Ask yourself: How long has this chapter been around? Have they collaborated with any other organizations to host events? Is chapter leadership engaged? Is chapter leadership young or have they been in the position for a while? Is there a lot of turnover in the leadership team? Is membership growing or declining? Do they have a top event that draws the largest member turnout? How many events do they host per year? How many members attend meetings? Is it low or high compared to other chapters? Where are the members coming from to attend the meetings? Does it only draw members from one city/area? How do you engage the whole state? How well does chapter leadership communicate with national?
• #18 Before wrapping it all up, revisit your initial goals. If you’re struggling/a team of one and want someone to walk through this with you, feel free to share it with us. We’ll be your sounding board and provide support. This template is obviously just one example of a chapter development plan to get you started. There are many variations, so you’ll need to tailor it to what you need.
• #19 To set the scene, these are from a great book…I highly recommend it. In fact, I recommend my team reads it. The Three Tasks of Leadership Worldly Wisdom for Pastoral Leaders Eric O. Jacobsen  Define Reality First you need to paint the picture of the current state of your chapters. The good, the bad and the ugly. Put it all out on the table. What you leave out will ultimately come back to haunt you. Become a servant and a debtor Serve those who serve you. Find out how you can best help the chapters that are struggling and enhance those that are doing well already. Say thank you Be grateful to those who are already doing well. You don’t know who is doing well without doing a full
• #20 Before wrapping it all up, revisit your initial goals. If you’re struggling/a team of one and want someone to walk through this with you, feel free to share it with us. We’ll be your sounding board and provide support. This template is obviously just one example of a chapter development plan to get you started. There are many variations, so you’ll need to tailor it to what you need.
• #21 Love our webinars, but looking for a face-to-face conversation? Let me introduce our Billhighway Road Show. We’re coming to a city near you! If not in this area and interested, let us know and we’ll accommodate. Potential for Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC too! 1.5 CAE credits for attending. What’s the Billhighway Road Show, you ask? It’s a gathering of liked-minded folks from chapter-based associations that all face similar challenges. We’ll be discussing ideas and solutions around the following topics: Measuring and increasing the health of chapters and how it can be done Best practices for chapter operations (volunteer tools, processes, etc.) How to get the right statistics which will help prevent members, at both the national and chapter level, from leaving We’ve heard consistent feedback that those in the chapter community want and need a place to network with other component relations professionals. The idea is to make this a collaborative jam session with real-life solutions and resources provided as takeaways. Our current schedule includes: Wednesday, Feb 8th in Chicago (Illinois) 7:30-9:00AM Wednesday, Feb 22nd in Reston (Virginia) 7:30-9:00AM If you’re interested in attending one of these sessions you can reach out to my marketing team or click on the slide link to register. If you don’t reside in these areas or can not attend, tell us where you’d like us to continue our road show and come to your town!