Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS eRobins

[gary white <in2iris@yahoo.com>]

Dear Rita, Jeanne, Clarence, and all,

This discussion is very interesting to me.  I agree
that significant increases in AIS membership would
arise from new affiliates.  The problem, of course, is
in founding those new affiliates.  I also agree with
Rita's comments about the need to involve RVPs and
membership chairs in the process.  But, I also think
that the MGCP, working with the RVP etc, would most
probably have to target likely areas in which to focus
efforts toward starting new affiliates.  In our last
regional bulletin, I put out a general call to our
membership (in the RVP message) for AIS members not
belonging to a local affiliate to contact me if they
were interested in forming a club in their area.  I
received exactly zero responses.  So, my next effort
is to target certain areas where there are a few AIS
members located, and contact them directly and attempt
to build enough interest in forming a local affiliate.
 Our region is very large geographically (about 14
hours driving time east to west and 12 hours north to
south)and mostly very rural.  And, there are vast
areas without local affiliate representation. 
Interestingly, there are also several more populated
areas with several AIS members but no local affiliate.
My first attempt toward founding a new affiliate in
Region 21 will be the Ames, Iowa area.  And there are
several other areas in Iowa which are prime candidates
for new affiliates.    

I would, however, welcome the assistance of some
Membership Growth Crazy Person (MGCP), as Clarence put
it, to offer ideas, direction, etc.  And, I think that
an e-robin focused on this problem and possible
solutions would be very beneficial.  I am looking
forward to more discussion about this.

Gary White
Lincoln, Nebraska  
RVP Region 21


Rita Gormley wrote:
> The MGCP would also need to work with the RVPs and
> their Membership Chair for 
> the following reason:
> 
> AIS MemSec sends quarterly to each RVP and its
> Membership Chair a complete 
> AIS Membership list for their Region.  By cross
> checking the AIS list with the 
> Region's complete Membership list (hopefully kept by
> each Region from their 
> Affiliate Reports), it is easy to identify which AIS
> members DO NOT belong to an 
> Affiliate!  For 2004, this number was close to 18%
> of the total Region 18 
> Membership (the second largest AIS Region). 
> Granted, some of these 
> "non-Affilates" are Libraries, elderly not able to
> attend meetings, etc. but there is a 
> resource of names from which to solicit areas
> needing a new 
> Affiliate/representation.
> 
> So I think an article in the Bulletin, as Clarence
> suggested, would be a good 
> idea. The RVP rep could initially present a
> "Checklist of things to do to 
> establish new Affiliates" to the RVPs.  Sharing
> "Crazy Ideas" would be valuable 
> to all!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS Secretary
aissecjill@earthlink.net.