The election of a representative from a small rural/regional aged care facility to the Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) Board is a clear demonstration that our organisation can cater for all age service providers across the sector from the very small to the very large, according to the Chair of LASA’s Board Dr Graeme Blackman.

“Ingrid Williams is the Director and CEO of Elm Aged Living that has facilities in Safety Beach on the Mornington Peninsula and Flora Hill in Bendigo and her re-election ensures our board will continue to have unique insights into the challenges and opportunities of providing age services in regional Australia,” Dr Blackman said.

“We are also delighted to announce the election of Saranne Cooke as an Independent Director to the LASA Board who will bring substantial governance and legal experience to the table.

“Our AGM also overwhelmingly passed significant amendments to LASA’s constitution to open the door to multi-state aged care providers to seek directorship on LASA’s board.

“The constitutional changes complete the transformation of a federated organisation into a single national membership peak body representing all providers of age services across residential care, home care and retirement living,” Dr Blackman said.

“While separate state bodies are our history, our future is a nationally strong and locally relevant organisation that is better equipped to meet the needs of our members.”

Dr Blackman said LASA’s broad membership base means our organisation can speak credibly and authoritatively for all age care services.

“We represent large residential aged care providers with in excess of 3,000 beds, small and medium not-for-profit and church and charitable providers as well as organisations providing in home care and offering retirement living options for older Australians,” Dr Blackman said.

“We have over 700 members across Australia and we are seeking to grow that membership as the credible voice of aged care in Australia.”

This Media Release was originally sourced from LASA.

In the news this week, from Diesel News, Chris Melham leaves, industry connects, and North Australia and Melbourne get connected with new road plans.

The Australian Trucking Association announced its Chief Executive Officer, Chris Melham will be leaving the ATA on October 14 to take up a new role in another leading industry association.

“On behalf of the ATA, I would like to thank Chris for his five years of service to the Australian trucking industry and the ATA,” said Noelene Watson, ATA Chair. “During his tenure with the ATA, Chris made significant gains in a number of areas including, reconnecting the Tasmanian Transport Association with the ATA, which secured a truly national voice for the Australian trucking industry with membership from every jurisdiction.

“He also achieving reductions in heavy vehicle fuel taxes with the Australian government freezing the fuel tax paid by trucking operators in the 2015 budget and reducing it in the 2016 budget. He lead the national campaign to defeat the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal and in so doing, secured the livelihoods of numerous small trucking businesses. This included a highly successful truck convoy to Parliament House in Canberra, led by the ATA Safety Truck.

“Chris also secured the agreement of transport ministers to simplify and extend the scope of chain of responsibility laws, which are now before Parliament.”

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s new online Customer Portal is now the main avenue for heavy vehicle operators to apply for national access permits from today. AccessCONNECT Program Director David Carlisle said the effective roll out of the Portal had seen 2200 vehicle configurations created in the first two months.

“The Portal is saving more than 1400 businesses valuable time and money through a more efficient application process,” said Carlisle. “The Customer Portal is improving the way heavy vehicle permits are lodged, assessed and issued across the country with a new online permit solution and digital innovations.”

The Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association has welcomed the establishment of the $360 million Northern Australian Road Programme. The Programme is an 80/20 funding partnership between the Federal Government and the Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory Governments.

ALRTA National President Kevin Keenan said the new Programme will help support further economic development of the rural sector in northern Australia.

“Improved road transport connectivity is the key to developing the northern areas of Australia. Our communities in this part of our vast country rely more heavily on primary industries such as agriculture because there are so few other viable options’, said Keenan.

The Victorian Transport Association has welcomed independent advisory body Infrastructure Victoria’s designation of the missing North East Link connection as the priority road infrastructure project for Victoria.

In its draft 30 year infrastructure plan for the state released this week, Infrastructure Victoria has prioritised the North East Link ahead of other mooted projects, saying it would generate returns of between $1.40 and $2.10 for every $1 invested, and that it therefore ‘provides the greatest benefit for the cost’.

“The North East Link has been the VTA’s priority road project for Victoria and this independent report certainly validates our long-held view that connecting the M80 with the Eastern Freeway or Eastlink, and finally completing the Metropolitan Ring Road, must be the priority for governments,” said VTA CEO, Peter Anderson.

This Media Release was originally sourced from Diesel News.

AMA President, Dr Michael Gannon, said today that the AMA welcomes the Government’s decision to replace the IT system that delivers Medicare and related payments.

Dr Gannon said that replacing the system is modernisation, not privatisation.

“The AMA made it very clear during the election campaign that replacing the backroom payment system for Medicare does not equate to the privatisation of Medicare,” Dr Gannon said.

“The current payment system is 30 years old. It is clunky and inefficient. Its many faults create inefficiency and inconvenience for doctors and patients.

“Medical practices have now taken on much of the work of processing Medicare payments on behalf of the Government, and this can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

“It is critical the AMA is closely involved in the design of the new system to ensure it meets the needs of doctors and patients.

“Medical practices must be properly supported by the Government to incorporate and implement new equipment and technologies to benefit patients,” Dr Gannon said.

This Media Release was originally sourced from AMA.

Rural patients miss out in new healthcare training fund

The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is calling for the Federal Government to extend its Integrated Rural Training Pipeline for Medicine to the physiotherapy workforce to strengthen rural healthcare.

The narrow focus of the scheme on supporting the training of medical professionals means patients in non-metropolitan areas will continue to endure sub-par healthcare, with gaps across the physiotherapy, nursing and allied health workforces.

Chair of the APA’s Rural Members’ group, Daniel Mahony, said a whole-of-workforce approach is the only way of improving health outcomes in regional, rural and remote Australia.

"The Integrated Regional Training Hub initiative has nothing integrated about it and misses the reality of healthcare encompassing a range of health professionals not limited to doctors."

Data from the National Rural Health Alliance shows that physiotherapy, along with other allied health, has a funding deficit of between $260 and $345 million per year in rural and remote areas, which prevents many patients from receiving early intervention care and rehabilitation services.

Residents in these areas are at higher risk of death from heart disease, circulatory diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Physiotherapists provide care alongside doctors in treating many of these diseases in cost-effective ways that avoid surgery.

While the APA strongly supports the government’s focus on regional health and applauds the announcement of a new National Rural Health Commissioner, the allocation of funding to solely support medical students to train and remain in rural areas is a missed opportunity to improve patient outcomes.

“Rural Australians currently have less access to physiotherapists than Australians who live in cities. If the government is serious about addressing patient outcomes and health workforce shortages in rural and remote Australia, they need to be looking at the workforce as a whole,” Mr Mahony said.

“Should further limits and lower payment thresholds be introduced, this will ultimately cost jobs in the health and aged-care services. We’ve seen the early market signals over the past week, since the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 was passed, and we fear more jobs may go,” he said.

Physiotherapy graduates who choose to take positions outside non-metropolitan areas do not currently have access to a national scheme that offers funding or in-kind support, such as housing, to ease the move from city to country.

“There are significant incentives already in place for medical students, while none exist for physiotherapists considering a rural career. Both professions face the same issues in transitioning to life outside the city, so it makes sense to have a more holistic scheme in place,” Mr Mahony said.

“Without more support for rural physiotherapy positions, the effect will be isolated GPs unable to manage the complexity and multitude of issues their patients have.”

Key points: • The Integrated Rural Training Pipeline focuses solely on training future doctors in regional Australia, without addressing the other health workforce issues that affect patient outcomes • Multi-disciplinary care is needed to address the higher prevalence of chronic disease among rural and remote Australians • Physiotherapists are present in urban areas at rates 2.5 to 1.5 times higher than rural and remote areas per 100,000 population • More support is needed for physiotherapy graduates to pursue careers in rural areas, in line with the significant incentives already available for medical graduates

This Media Release was originally sourced from APA.

How did you first become involved with AMINZ?

As a lawyer, I’ve always had a natural interest in communication. This enthusiasm continued in my work as a managing director of the iconic Wellington business Photography by Woolf. I vividly remember a situation we had involving a disgruntled client. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t seem to make her happy. And this led to a bit of professional soul-searching. Was I in fact too adversarial in my style? Or was it something else? Was I lacking the intellectual or emotional tools to settle these kinds of situations?

These questions spurred me to study dispute resolution—in particular mediation—in order to fine-tune what business skills I already had as an MD. At the time I was also on the government’s small business advisory group—an independent body that advises on issues that affect small and medium-sized businesses—and this also played a part in my decision in 2008 to accept the position of executive director of AMINZ, which at the time had a number of interesting challenges.

I love the satisfaction of finding alternative ways to solve disputes. The courts are crucial to our justice system and our democracy, of course, but other ways to solve disputes, particularly mediation and arbitration, are important too. I’ve always wanted to see these grow and to give the public more and better services.

Truth be told, I expected to be in the role 3-5 years, but the Institute has been on a phenomenal growth path. The challenges remain—and meeting those challenges remains unusually satisfying. I know it’s a cliché, but I really am being paid to do what I love.

Can you share how the organisation came about and the benefits it presents to its members, and the public?

The Institute has an interesting history. It began as a branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a highly respected UK-based, international organisation. Later, it merged with mediation organisations, and quickly took its place as the only local organisation representing all of dispute resolution.

Professionalism is the key. We certify dispute resolvers. We provide education relating to all kinds of disagreements (relationships, rural, building, you name it) to members, not-for-profits, government agencies and corporates. We also advocate for more and better use of dispute resolution and provide a range of member services. And we are a go-to agency for anyone looking to find the top people for solving disputes—something that can be of critical importance to the public. Another thing the public and organisations can benefit from is our tailored in-house training programmes.

What exciting projects are underway at AMINZ?

What a good time to be asking that question. An ongoing project that has really come of age of late is AMINZ International. The aim here is to establish New Zealand as a global centre of dispute resolution, in much the same way that Singapore has been promoting itself for some time. A glittering example of this drive has been our success in co-hosting of the world’s most prestigious and largest arbitration conference in Sydney, with a follow-on event here in New Zealand in 2018.

Right now we are also involved in diversity project to widen the bandwidth of our membership and bring in more and more people from different groups, as well as refining and promoting a number of dispute resolution schemes.

What would you say to someone starting out in the not-for-profit sector with a view to become a future leader?

Well, if you are a membership organisation, always remember that you are there to serve the members. That’s not to say the customer is always right—but the customer is certainly always crucial.

I think working - I mean really working - with others is critical, and that includes members and one’s board alike. This means seeking out those who not only agree with you but those who don’t. How else do we improve ourselves in life? It’s certainly doesn’t happen by cruising along.

Deborah Hart 

Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand Inc. (AMINZ)

www.aminz.org.nz

This year’s edition of a key governance document for corporate boards recommends, for the first time, that diversity be made a priority to bring new perspectives and backgrounds to the boardroom.

The latest edition of the Business Roundtable’s Principles of Corporate Governance makes one particular principle much more fundamental than it was in the previous edition of the guide.

That principle is diversity, a hot topic in the association world. In a key section of the report, the Roundtable emphasizes that a board should encompass in its members a variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

“The composition of a board should reflect a diversity of thought, backgrounds, skills, experiences, and expertise and a range of tenures that are appropriate given the company’s current and anticipated circumstances and that, collectively, enable the board to perform its oversight function effectively,” the report stated.

John Hayes, head of Ball Corporation and chair of the Business Roundtable’s corporate governance committee, in a post on Medium, tied increasing diversity to better business results.

“The diversity of thought and perspective within our society accounts for much of its resilience and strength — and it adds to the abundance of good decision-making,” Hayes wrote. “Differing perspectives and maintaining respect for the individual enable Americans, as well as American corporations, to prosper.”

Although research shows that organizations have made progress diversifying their boards, board demographics generally still lag behind the makeup of the overall population. Earlier this year, research from the executive firm Heidrick & Struggles found that Hispanics made up just 4 percent of all new board directors added to Fortune 500 companies last year, while that group constitutes 17 percent of the population. Women, meanwhile, made up less than 30 percent of all new board members.

Michael W. Peregine, a partner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, praised the Business Roundtable’s expanded emphasis in an op-ed for the New York Times‘ Dealbook blog:

By correlating diverse boards with greater board effectiveness and the promotion of long-term value creation, the association’s recommendation transcends public policy debates and moral imperatives.

It is the most prominent acknowledgment of diversity as a governance principle, and a standard that nominating committees are advised to adopt. It does not retreat from principles of competency-based governance as much as it recasts concepts of competency in a more inclusive manner—one that attributes new value to skills, experience, and expertise that is reflective of the broader range of society. And its merits are as applicable to private companies and large nonprofit organizations as they are to public companies.

The full Principles of Corporate Governance report is available on the Business Roundtable website.

This article was originally sourced from Association Now and written by Ernie Smith. 

Which is more valuable to your organization?

A) One new member?

B) One retained member?

The answer is definitely B.

According to Amy Gallo of the Harvard Business Review, “acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.”

That’s because it costs more to find and convince a new member to join than to keep your current members engaged.

Of course, keeping members engaged can be difficult at times, so here are 12 ways to keep member engagement going.

1) Discover why they joined and do more of it

The top two reasons people join an organization are because they want to:

• Network with others in their field
  
• Access specialized and/or current information
  

While perhaps 2/3rds of your members joined for these two reasons, what about the rest? You could be losing people if you’re not delivering the value they expected when they joined.

Imagine you’re a fishing club and someone joined because they love to fish, but all your events are about how to craft lures? This person may become disappointed and end up lapsing.

The sad thing is that 90% of the organizations I talk to do not track the reasons why members joined. Knowing this information and delivering on it is one of the most influential ways to engage your members and keep them from lapsing.

There are two ways to collect this information from your members:

• Ask them in your new member application form.
  
• Survey all current members (often member expectations change from year to year)
  

To collect this information in your new membership application form, simple add a field called, “Why did you join?” and include a checklist of your benefits with an additional open ended option.

If you use online application forms, this information will go right into your database and allow you to quickly see the reasons why people are attracted to your organization.

Then, focus on the benefits your new members want.

But, don’t forget about your current members. The benefits they seek may have changed since they joined. Once a year, survey your current members to make sure you always know what they want. Use any of the free online survey platforms like SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms.

Here are some sample questions you can use for your current members:

1. What are 3 things that our organization should continue doing
   
2. What are 3 thing that our organization should stop doing?
   
3. Which benefits do you take the most advantage of? (check all that apply)
   
4. Would you recommend our organization to a friend? (1- no, 10- definitely)
   
5. Why did you give that rating in question 4?
   

Collecting this information from new and current members will ensure you’re on the right track to engaging and retaining your members the best you can.

2) Refresh your members’ memories of the benefits you offer

What I’ve seen happen in some organizations is that they don’t put enough importance into onboarding and many members aren’t even aware of their total benefits.

I’m part of a writing association that didn’t send me any onboarding materials. As a result, I only accessed the benefits I could find on their website.

It was only after speaking with one of their admins that I discovered they had a mentorship program and a series of writing workshops. I’d been a member for nearly a year and never accessed any of these benefits!

How many of your members might be in the same situation, and may lapse because they don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth?

A simple email, or mention in your newsletter with a list of all benefits can easily take care of this.

But, as a proactive measure, make sure you’ve got a scalable and consistent onboarding process for all new members so they're aware of all your benefits right away.

The easiest way to do this is to send your onboarding materials in your new member confirmation email, which leads me to my next point...

3) Scale your onboarding in a consistent way

“A robust, vibrant welcome stream is one of the strongest investments an organization can make in keeping its members,” says Lowell Aplebaum, the Senior Director of Membership for The Society for Neuroscience.

It’s essential to onboard your members as a proactive measure to retain them. At first they don’t know anything about your organization or how to access its benefits, so you’ll need to hold their hands through their first few encounters.

The most popular method of onboarding is through email communication. That’s because it’s easy to personalize emails and scale them to every single member in a consistent way.

The best email to deliver your onboarding materials in is your new member confirmation email. We at Wild Apricot find this email has the highest open rate of any email we send - 56%. That’s over 200% higher than our industry average.

And, if you’re looking for a way to automate your confirmation emails, you can use software like Membership Management Software to take care of all of this for you.

4) Identify who isn’t engaging and send them a “win-back” email

If you can’t identify which of your members aren’t engaged, you can’t do anything to win them back before they end up lapsing.

Your member database should be organized in a way that allows you to easily identify who these people are.

Once you identify these people, send them a “win-back” email - a special offer designed to re-engage someone with your organization.

Take this example of Starbucks’ “win-back” email here. 

These emails work. And organizations that are successful at member retention have a plan in place to send these emails out to unengaged members on a regular basis.

The value you offer can be a discount like Starbucks is doing, an invitation to a special event, or simply a request to chat on the phone.

To identify unengaged members, simply filter your database for “Triggers” which may indicate they are unengaged.

Here are some examples of Triggers you can look for:

• Any member who hasn’t attended the last 3 events
  
• Any member who hasn’t updated their profile in the last year
  
• Any member who hasn’t read any of your emails in the last 3 months
  

If you’re using Wild Apricot, you can easily set up Triggers in the advanced search function of your contact database to identify unengaged members and email them.

5) Conduct exit interviews with lapsed members

Have you ever moved on from a job and had to do an exit interview with Human Resources?

The reason is to collect information on how the company can improve its management to reduce turnover.

In the same way, an “exit interview” for every lapsing member can give you a lot of insight on some well needed changes that your organization may need to make.

Sharlyn Lauby of HRBartender suggests to “...include in the process a solid plan to review and act on those results. With solid information, you can incorporate positive change and, hopefully, reduce the need for exit interviews.”

Every time a member lapses, ask them to take fifteen minutes to speak with you on the phone about their experience with your organization. Then, make a plan to change how your organization operates if necessary to prevent more members from lapsing in the same way.

6) Pick up the phone and start creating personal connections

Nothing engages a member more than a personal connection. It’s a smart strategy that a lot of membership organizations have also used to grow. In fact, Sarah Rintamaki, the Founder and Executive Director of Connecting for Kids used personal connections to help grow her organization over 300% in just the first year.

“Personal contacts are invaluable. Nobody joins our organization without getting a personal phone call from me,” says Sarah, “and I don’t think that will ever change. Whether it’s business, or nonprofit, or whatever, everything truly is a personal relationship. Whether its a donor, or a family, or a professional, they need to have a conversation with somebody.”

Sarah’s organization has well over 1,000 members now and each one of them received a personal phone call from her. This may sound daunting, but it’s worked.

If it works for new members, try it with unengaged members too. I bet they’d love a phone call, or at the least a personalized email. It may be the thing that keeps them engaged so that they don't lapse.

Give it a try. Make a commitment to reach out to one unengaged or even lost member every single week. Put it in your calendar right now. Friday afternoon at 3pm, schedule your first call.

7) Begin facilitating online participation

Events are one of the best ways to engage your members. But, events aren’t for everyone.

Some of your members have never come to an event and you’ve never spoken personally with them. You’re not even sure if they’re reading your emails (unless you’re using Wild Apricot *wink*). To you, they’re just a name in your database.

So how are you supposed to engage these people?

The first place to start with these members is online. Back in 2012, we wrote a comprehensive guide on how to increase membership engagement online and a lot of what we said still rings true:

• Engage members through your website by committing to creating fresh content
  
• Enable two-way communication and alert members of your content in online communities (blog, forum, social media)
  
• Use Social Media as a tool to talk with your members and share your latest work and benefits
  

Even if these people don’t come out to your events, you’re still creating a way for them to participate in the community of your organization.

Plus, encouraging online participation will increase engagement with all your members, so really it’s a win-win scenario.

8) Ask lapsers to rejoin with an appreciation letter

Patty Foley, the past membership chair of Friends of Lucy Robbins Welles Library created a mail campaign to lapsing members that gained her organization a retention rate of over 90%.

Every September, she identified a list of members that had lapsed. She then sent these people an envelop in the mail, which included:

• Their renewal statement
  
• A letter explaining how their contributions made an impact on the organization with a request to renew their membership
  
• A return envelope to make it easier for these people to send in their dues.
  

From those that still didn’t renew, she sent them another letter to arrive on the first of December.

“The letter is key,” says Patty. “We enjoyed at the peak a 90+% renewal.”

As Patty’s story shows, sometimes an extra nudge with a letter in the mail is all that’s needed to win back a member.

9) Diversify your events

I’m part of a writing association with many senior member, some of them are in their 80’s.

The first event I attended was a workshop on transferring the copyrights of your work to a successor in your will.

I’m 28. And a will is the last thing on my mind. I don’t even have any copyrights yet to transfer!

I’m looking to network with new writers and learn about how to get my first agent. But those types of events wouldn’t attract an older crowd.

So who should my writing association create events for? The older generation, or the younger one? How about both?

If your organization has a diverse membership, you’ll need to hold diverse events. Doing this will help increase engagement with your members and prevent some from lapsing.

You can easily find out what types of events your members want simply by asking them. Just like in tip number one, email your members with a survey using any of the free online platforms like SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms.

10) Trash your paper renewal forms and automate renewals online

No one likes completing paperwork and payments by check is drastically decreasing.

People like simple processes and automated online renewals are the simplest. That’s why recurring online payments have risen in the last few years.

Members simply enter their payment information once and never have to worry about it again. And neither do you.

Not only will automating renewals save you a ton of administrative work, but you’ll also experience increased cash flow from your on-time payments and the percent of members you retain will go up.

11) Send automated reminders

One of the top five reasons why people don’t renew their memberships is because they forgot.

How ridiculous is that? All that hard work you put into obtaining and engaging a member and they don’t renew, because they forgot?

Reminders are mandatory for every member who doesn’t have automated renewals set up.

But, figuring out whose dues are coming up and sending each of these people a reminder can be a lot of manual work.

With a Membership Management Software like Wild Apricot, you can easily set up 3 personalized email reminders to be sent out automatically before each member’s dues are due, regardless of when they’re due (I bet you never read a sentence with so many dues in it).

12) Realize it's okay

There can be a million different reasons why someone doesn’t renew and sometimes there’s just nothing you can do about it. In fact, you can’t do anything about three of the top five reasons why people don’t renew (bolded below):

• Left the field, industry, profession
  
• Employer stopped paying dues
  
• Lack of engagement
  
• Can’t justify cost
  
• Forgot
  

(well, maybe you can change the cost)

And there are many other reasons you can't do anything about: they left the city, they don’t have the time anymore, their interests change.

Whatever the reason, just realizing that it’s okay is all that’s needed.

Make sure that every person leaves your organization with a good impression. You never know who they may recommend your organization to, or if they may become a member again in the future.

One simple thing you can do every time you part with a member is to send them a thank you letter personally signed by you for being part of your organization.

Doing this may not have any immediate impact on your membership, but it can help in the long run.

This article was originally sourced from Association Universe and written by Terry Ibele. 

Leverage the importance of word of mouth by encouraging your members to volunteer their voices. Also: Dreamforce is big this year. Really big.

Coordinated member marketing may be big and flashy, but the word-of-mouth variety still has its role.

And if you can convince members to do this job for you, it can be a massive leg up. Tony Rossell, senior vice president of Marketing General, highlights the value of treating your most fervent supporters as volunteers who can help market your association’s membership in a more formalized way.

“Some members may be more than happy to focus on engagement—helping new members get involved in the association,” Rossell writes on the Membership Marketing Blog. “Other members might be great at following up with their friends and colleagues to get them to renew.”

Of course, the hard part of this might be answering why they should be involved in this way, but Rossell’s piece smartly highlights this point as well—by suggesting it’s important to focus on the value that the association has brought to the member, or, as he puts it, help them “get in touch with their own story of how membership has influenced their life and success.”

Read Rossell’s post for more insights.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and was written by Ernie Smith. 

4 job training programs that will deliver more value to your association members.How long does it take you to get up to speed at a new job?

Think about the terminology you have to learn, the names of colleagues that you have to memorize, and the campaigns you need to become familiar with. What about company policies and goals? There may even be a few new skills to learn, too.

It’s a lot of work and can be challenging to say the least, even for those of us who have been in an industry for years. Just imagine how difficult it is for new college graduates (many of whom are millennials and their successors, gen z) who have little to no real-life experience. That’s if they get a job at all, which is nowhere near guaranteed. Because let’s face it, colleges don’t always teach the skills that today’s workplace needs.

That’s a major disadvantage for new jobseekers, but a huge opportunity for associations. Want to provide more value for younger members? Give them the job training they didn’t get in college and help them get a career-boosting job.

An insightful new whitepaper, The 2016 Association Role in the New Education Paradigm, coauthored by Elizabeth Weaver Engel and Shelly Alcorn, explores this subject in detail. It even identifies job training as one of the biggest opportunities for associations today.

Associations and the Job Skills Gap

The whitepaper describes the opportunity as a skills gap between education and employment. The gap stems in part from the fact that most of today’s college degree programs focus on abstract abilities like “critical thinking” instead of the actionable job skills that employers want. As a result, large portions of new graduates are having trouble landing jobs.

For millennials and gen z, your current and future audiences, this skills gap is a major problem that your association can solve. You have access to your industry and its top employers. You know exactly what skills and technical competencies companies and managers are looking for. If you can bridge the skills gap by providing applicable job training that helps new graduates successfully break into your industry, then you’ll gain your next generation of members.

Here are four ways you can deliver value to your members through job training.

4 Ways Associations Can Deliver Value by Bridging the Skills Gap

Method #1) Develop a Certification Program

Certification programs qualify someone to perform a job or task. Most associations develop and implement certification programs based on their industry knowledge. According to the whitepaper, certification programs are also typically more flexible than traditional postsecondary degrees. This is because associations understand that members don’t want to put their lives on hold for education, so they design programs around members’ full-time positions to make participation easier.

Additionally, certifications need to be flexible so they can be regularly updated to reflect current industry standards and professional skills, which are constantly changing. This is one of your association’s competitive advantages. You can adapt your programs faster than a university can.

One association featured in the whitepaper, the National Association of Licensed Practical Nurses (NALPN), has developed just this type of program. NALPN created multiple certificate programs to fit different nursing fields, including IV Therapy and Gerontology. Each program helps members advance their careers in that specific field. NALPN’s certification programs fill a need for both associations and members.

As stated in the Alcorn’s whitepaper, “Industry-based certifications address several problems that postsecondary credentials currently face: relevance, accountability, consistency, and portability.” Develop your own certification program using the same principles and ensure that it meets your members’ needs by teaching the skills they need to succeed in your industry.

Method #2) Create a Precertification Program

According to Engel and Alcorn’s whitepaper, in additional to certifications associations can create precertification programs to help develop their members’ professional abilities. Usually, these precertification courses determine your members’ eligibility to get a full certification and teach the skills necessary for that certification.

Some exams, certificates, and programs require precertification. For example, before you can become a community association manager (a professional who manages a homeowners association or condominium complex), you have to complete the Community Manager Preparation Course. Only after the precertification are you eligible to earn the Community Management Preparation Certificate.

You can develop your association’s precertification program to more accurately prepare candidates for a formal certification. You can even provide the option for members to work with a one-on-one certification expert so they receive a personalized experience focusing on their specific strengths and weaknesses.

Method #3) Implement an Educational Program

Educational programs are a form of professional development that teach your members the skills they need to perform better at work. Often, they fulfill specific needs that universities don’t address, such as industry software competencies. For example, an accountant might come to an association for a deep dive into Excel so they can use the program to complete job tasks more efficiently.

Educational programs should be run by people who understand what abilities are needed in your field and should provide excellent experiences that help your members grow and advance their careers. Specific learning areas can consist of learning and understanding anything from individual skills like SEO optimization or EXCEL to developing organization-wide strategies.

Your association can administer these programs at your own events or by using your membership management software. To make your educational programs more widespread you can also partner with third parties such as universities or businesses to train students or staff. For example, The American Heart Association partners with schools to teach students how to perform CPR.

Method #4) Establish Credentialing Programs

Credentialing programs, another job training tool mentioned in the whitepaper, vary between industries and organizations. Typically, they provide the individual skills your members need to be successful and may also seek to instill a deep understanding of the abilities needed in your members’ career path.

Some credentialing programs are designed to meet licensing requirements and determine competencies, others may ensure that professionals understand industry regulations. A few examples of professional credentials include everything from academic credentials like a degree and to the mastery of a specific skill.

Credentials can also be stepping stones to full certifications. You could have your members complete three separate credentials to earn a certificate, for example. The HR Certification Institute (HRCI) used this technique. They have a certification path that “includes a total of seven credentials designed to fit different types of experiences, career stages, and locations around the world.”

Your credentialing programs should provide value to members and show future employers that your members have the skills needed to succeed. If your association uses credentials as part of a larger certification program, then you can also consider giving self-motivated learners the ability to create their own educational pathway by completing credentials in any order.

Providing Value to Members Through Job Training Takeaway

Your association has the power to revolutionize the gap between education and employers by providing graduates with the valuable skills and certifications that companies are seeking.

Your main advantage is that you’re already a part of the world of employers. You know what they’re looking for in new hires. This allows you to directly address the employment gap by identifying the specific skills new professionals in your industry need. You can then develop programs that provide value by teaching members the top job skills they need to enter the workforce.

By creating these types of professional development programs, you help millennials and gen z start successful careers. That, in turn, demonstrates your association’s value and motivates younger members to join.

This article was originally sourced from Association Universe and was written by Julie Dietz.

The benefits from volunteering are mutual, with new research highlighting that volunteering in middle age and senior years is linked to enhanced mental health, writes Sharyn Broer.

We’ve known for a very long time just how valuable volunteering is and I’m delighted to see this anecdotal feedback being mirrored in the findings of a recently published study.

The longitudinal research published by the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) found there was a positive association between volunteering and good mental health and emotional wellbeing, particularly for volunteers over the age of 40.

The BMJ study examined data relating to questions asked annually of 5,000 British households between 1991 and 2008, and the answers people gave about volunteering, happiness and their general wellbeing.

What was interesting is that while everyone who volunteered scored better on a mental wellbeing scale, it was from the age of 40 that mental health and wellbeing improved significantly and then went on to peak at the age of 76 to 80.

We often think of people turning to volunteering as they transition between employment and retirement – normally in their late fifties and sixties – but I was pleased to see that the academic research highlighted the benefits for people in a younger age bracket.

Recently published research that was conducted on behalf of our national organisation, the Australian Meals on Wheels Association (AMOWA), also found that volunteering contributed significantly to a person’s health and wellbeing.

More than 600 people contributed to that study and reported that volunteering gave them ‘a sense of belonging’, ‘a sense of purpose’ and that it fostered friendships.

They were also very keen to tell us how they see volunteering with Meals on Wheels as a ‘two way street’ with the overwhelming majority saying they would remember the many positive experiences of their volunteering for a very long time.

Some of the less obvious benefits they talked about were around picking up new skills, either in the kitchen, in their work in the administration of the organisation or in dealing with customer engagement.

As one of our volunteers said: “Volunteer work opened the door to paid work. I learned new skills, upgraded existing ones and learnt to socialise in an office again … my confidence returned.”

They also understood and really appreciated the difference that they make in allowing someone to remain as independent as they can be in their own homes, for as long as they can be.

Our volunteers also reported being very proud of the link they are able to provide in keeping a friendly eye on a client’s welfare and letting family or caregivers know if a little more support might be required.

Quite apart from the altruistic benefits, our volunteers say being part of the Meals on Wheels team is genuinely engaging and they never really know what life story is behind the next door.

“I have met many interesting people who keep me motivated and remind me that age is not a barrier to enjoying life and that much can still be achieved,” said one volunteer.

This article was originally sourced from Community Care Review.