Here are the notes from our meeting on July 28.

ILA Membership Committee Meeting
Alliance Library System
Thursday, July 28, 2005

Present:
Larry D’Urso
Amy Falasz-Peterson
Timothy Jarzemsky
Jocelyn Tipton
Karen Becker
Lynn Ward
Sally Duchow


Target Audiences
Lynn volunteered to use her contacts with the University of Illinois library school students to tell them about the benefits of an ILA membership.

The group felt that recruiting new members among your coworkers is a good place to start.

Amy suggested that we should target our efforts towards existing library employees.

The committee could work with the marketing committee to develop a traveling exhibit/information about the benefits of ILA membership. Create enough information to keep at each system. Perhaps this could be underwritten by a large vendor.

Encourage speakers at ILA to become members.

Karen is going to find out when SPLMI and ISPL is for 2006 so that the membership committee can do something at these conferences.

Incentives
Lynn & Tim will be working on ideas for incentives for ILA membership.

Financial incentives need to be approved by either Dianne or Bob.

Some ideas that were introduced yesterday include:

Offer membership at ½ off to first year members
Impress upon decision makers (library directors, etc.) the importance of membership in ILA
Give incentives for institutional members (work with a large vendor to offer a discount)
If an institution is a member, then an employee can join at a reduced rate (5-10% off; $5-$10 off).
Have a flat fee for all trustees.
Possible to have a contest of some sort among the systems to encourage the most new members and offer a free conference registration to the staff.
Do a raffle at the conference: free renewal next year
Redesign form so that if you refer someone to join, you get a discount on your renewal dues.

Brochure
Update 2/03 brochure to be distributed among members that emphasizes what ILA offers, not necessarily the types of libraries served.
Include what ILA does for targeted topics or projects.
Make sure people can sign up for forums on the brochure.
Stamp/barcode brochure so the committee can track the effectiveness of the piece.
FOLLOW UP when people express interest. Follow up with an email, phone call or letter.

Jocelyn will contact the marketing committee about the brochure.

Testimonial Letters
Larry is drafting a letter for Michael Gorman to sign to be mailed to the 1,000 or so members of ALA who are not ILA members.

Amy will contact him to see if he would sign the letter.

Timothy is writing his testimonial letter, emphasizing institutional memberships. He will also contact other directors to write a similar letter.

Jocelyn will do the same, targeting academic librarians. She will emphasize the individual memberships.

Amy will write one for support staff and other employees in public libraries.

Goal
The number one goal of the membership committee for the upcoming year is to increase membership.

Communication
Kim has volunteered to set up a blog.

The committee will meet during the conference. Everyone should check their calendars for available dates.