NAFA CEO Phil Russo, CAE: Strengthening Your Local Resources
It is often said that NAFA’s local chapters are the "backbone" of the Association. In fact, when we ask you about what’s most important to you in your NAFA membership, the idea of "connection to a local chapter" is always near the top of the list.
On the flip side of that, however, when we ask you to rank the actual value you derive from your local chapter, the results are not always as high for every chapter. That is why NAFA has developed on the national level several strategic initiatives to increase local chapter value and ensure a consistently high level of service from every chapter.
NAFA announced one of those initiatives last month when we realigned the headquarters staff. If you missed that announcement, we now have an entire department dedicated to the "member experience," or, as I like to think of it, the care and feeding of each and every Member and Affiliate. The member experience team has two primary roles: listen and respond to current and prospective Members and Affiliates to secure their membership and involvement in the Association; and support NAFA’s chapters to ensure a consistently high level of service from every Chapter to their Members and Affiliates. (To read the complete announcement, click here.)
Creation of the membership experience team was a direct result of more than a year’s worth of work analyzing and assessing NAFA’s needs and capacities. In the case of NAFA’s chapters, my staff, along with a contracted consultant and members of the Board of Trustees, conducted extensive research into the issues chapters faced. This included interviews with chapter leaders, polling chapter members, brainstorming solutions, and benchmarking with other associations that have local chapters.
The result of this work is a new "Chapter Assistance Program" that will be implemented on a trial basis later this spring with a handful of chapters. The Chapter Assistance Program includes measurable key performance indicators (KPI); requires direct interaction between NAFA’s Regional Trustees, staff, and chapter leaders; infuses a proactive process to assist "in need" chapters; and rewards chapters for doing well.
Just as important, the Chapter Assistance Program will provide a menu of optional services available through NAFA headquarters to every chapter at no cost. This menu includes a range of options to meet the smallest, one-time need, up to regular assistance. Offering this assistance will alleviate administrative burdens on Chapters, allowing them to be more flexible and responsive and concentrate on their core functions of providing networking and education to members.
NAFA’s Chapter Assistance Program is in no way intended to supplant local chapter leadership or take over local chapters. The beauty and value of NAFA’s chapters is that very local flavor and "feel" that each chapter possesses, which we at the national level could not replicate. The program will simply provide free services to chapters that need assistance as identified by the KPI, as well as make available those free services to chapters that wish to take advantage of them.
If you are a chapter leader and would like your chapter to be considered for inclusion in the trial phase of the Chapter Assistance Program, please contact Joanne Marsh at jmarsh@nafa.org.
Sincerely,
P.S. March is one of the most active months for NAFA Chapter meetings. More than half of NAFA’s chapters are meeting this month, covering topics from DOT compliance concerns, to telematics and safety, and trips to auto shows. In fact, two chapters (Carolinas and Sunshine State) are both having multi-day mini-conferences! For a complete list of chapter meetings, please click here.