The group met 1 time this reporting period.
Recent Activities
First Activity
The group was formed in August of last year and our liaison sent the first group of new PLA members. We divided the list of 430 new members up among the committee members and I created a template of a welcoming email for committee members to send to their assigned new members. This was completed in October and the emails were sent out. I received several emails back from those I sent emails to thanking us for the personal welcome.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence
Second Activity
The group received a second list of 410 new members in November and followed the same procedure. The template was revised and the emails were sent.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence
Third Activity
We received a list of 430 new members in February and followed the same procedure. Each of the new members received a personalize email welcoming them to PLA.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence
Fourth Activity
Four of the committee members, plus our liaison, were able to meet on Feb 25 @ 3:30 at the PLA conference.
Attendance: Helen Rigdon (chair), Trisha Burns, Kim DeNero-Ackroyd, Nicole Wilhelms, Samantha Lopez (PLA staff liaison)
Helen started off the meeting discussing the member welcome emails.
Response to welcome emails is low (5-10%), but those who do respond seem appreciative.
The group agrees that welcome emails should continue, but need to have updated talking points to stay relevant. Helen will get from Samantha, and Helen will update the templates when sending out the email assignments.
The group discussed continual emails with same new member assignments, but after discussing how a manual drip campaign would work, it was determined it would be too time-consuming, hard to track, and new committee members would be left with residual emails from committee members cycling off.
Samantha presented limitations with manual email drip marketing campaigns. Have been trying to launch since 2018. ALA is going through an email software clean-up Spring 2020, and is hoping to launch automated drip campaigns once completed.
Challenges of committee cycles means limitations with consistency and continuity with work.
The group proposed chair should have 1 more year to term to help transition new chair.
Group asked where is the value of the membership committee if there's no investment in membership within ALA/PLA tech, etc.?
The group voiced frustration with ideas not going anywhere, and limitations of PLA/ALA
The group should only tackle tasks or ask questions of members where action can really be taken
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence
What will your group be working on for the next six months?
We will be setting up a post-conference conference call with the committee to discuss our ideas from the meeting. Some of those are listed below.
The group brainstormed engagement topics for post-PLA Conference:
Non-conference year discounts? "Bridge rate" or 2-year discount
Increasing PLA presence at ALA Annual
Barriers include limited number of program slots for hundreds of PLA proposals
Financial limitations
Post-conference survey for new members â what can we do to get you coming back? Emphasis should be on engagement/what they want from the committee (more communications? Etc) and not what do they want from PLA (assumption is free, or discounts)
Follow-up email linking to membership videos? Where will those live?
PLA will post on website, Samantha to follow up
Where do small libraries fit in? Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL)?
PLA and ALA have had a long history of not being able to reach or recruit small and rural libraries
PLA supports ARSL Conference (exhibitor & sponsor), emphasizes free products and services they can utilize
Overall, hard to reach population and assumption is they can't afford ALA+PLA membership
How to target non-members who attended conference?
About 60% of regular conference attendees are members
List is easy to pull for non-members
Curating content that's a member perk for people who couldn't make it to conference
Question should be – Is PLA actually offering things that engage members?
Should the committee also serve as ambassadors of PLA?
Previously, this committee would go to local conferences to promote PLA
How can committee members use their own networks to be ambassadors for PLA?
State conferences?
PLA ads in library state or association conferences?
ALA's New Member Round Table â ask them what they do that works for them? Best practices?
Follow-up from conference â contact last 6-months, "did you know PLA does/hasâ¦", ask how we can better support them?
Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Group asked where is the value of the membership committee if there's no investment in membership within ALA/PLA tech, etc.?
The group voiced frustration with ideas not going anywhere, and limitations of PLA/ALA. We feel that we cannot make promises to new members without there being definite follow through from ALA/PLA.
Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
PLA and ALA have had a long history of not being able to reach or recruit small and rural libraries
PLA supports ARSL Conference (exhibitor & sponsor), emphasizes free products and services they can utilize
Overall, hard to reach population and assumption is they can't afford ALA+PLA membership. We would like to see some more outreach with smaller public libraries, if possible.
Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
New Member Round-Table
Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
Yes (if yes, PLA will contact you for more information)
Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
More information for first-time committee members on hos this all worked – that we would be in a big room. Also there was no signage for our committee.
Submitted by Helen Rigdon on 03/11/2020