I Fought the Mosquito
Posted on July 27th, 2010 by Cynthia D'Amour
And the mosquito won.
I was getting ready for a dinner meeting.
- In the bathroom.
- Touching up my makeup.
- Running just a little late.
A baby mosquito was in there too.
- Dive bombing me.
- Gunning for my hand.
- And my face.
I tried to shoo it away.
- It stuck like glue.
- I swatted at it.
- Sort of haphazardly.
The mosquito was small - but determined.
- It dodged my attacks.
- And kept coming back.
- My sweet blood calling its name.
I got focused.
- One big swat on the little blood sucker.
- It went flying to the floor.
- Finally!
The little mosquito had the last laugh.
- Time was crunching.
- I shifted my position.
- And stepped on the dying mosquito.
Its stinger got me right in the arch of my foot!
- ARGH!
- Oh the pain.
- And itching right away.
I was miserable - and beaten by the baby mosquito.
Makes me think of chapter leaders…How do you make sure you don’t underestimate the potential of your younger members?
Filed under: Getting More Members Involved, Rants
Cynthia, great analogy! So many associations are struggling with their succession strategy. They have an aging membership. We were talking the other day with an association about the importance of having an awesome onboarding plan. If you can receive and get those new members active in the first year or two, the chances of retaining them for life go way up.
Morning Dave! As usual I agree with you. Cashing a new member’s check is not a great on-boarding experience.
I don’t expect all folks to stay for life any more - depends on focus of association. So many are jumping careers it doesn’t make sense.
However, a shorter “lifetime” means the on boarding is even more important to slow does the revolving door!