Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm hopeful that I can drive some meaningful change to this particular professional association after some tenure. It seems like a pretty small team and fully government funded. From my understanding, they don't create standards nut they advise on federal legislature (with industry feedback) so they have some political influence / lobbying.
I may have jumped the gun as they didn't really provide me with much information until I asked for roles and responsibilities, which they said that the meeting is primarily an intro meeting to see if our expectations align. I'm not sure how they would align if I know nothing about what this job entails but ok... guess I'll find out in 10 hours LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eff-1
From my experience, member relations is essentially a sales role. The goal of every B2B business association, say from the Vancouver Board of Trade all the way down to the your local Crackerjacks Association, is to generate membership dues and maintain renewals.
Something to keep in mind that selling these memberships isn't easy. The dues can be high, and in a bad economy (like now) this is very much a discretionary business expense that is at the top of the list of something to cut (unless the business is paying the dues for politcal reasons, etc).
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The (rough - it's not a posted job and it looks like it's from their notes) roles are responsibilities are:
- onboard new members
- follow up with existing members
- familiarize yourself with the online member directory + assist in the development
- organize activities - sometimes online - between members and potential buyers, by identifying members or other relevant ecosystem players
- work to list universities active in [industry] and onboard their faculties, research Centers or research Chairs
- report to [company] management
I'm feeling relatively confident with this role.. as I have quite a bit of experience in making connections (ie. entrepreneur needs start up accounting, capital funding, marketing, I have made all of those connects). However this is a completely brand new industry to me so I foresee needing quite a bit of time to learn the industry.
In regards to the sales component of it, the ultimate goal is to convince other businesses to join this professional association for the global access to customers. Big fingers crossed as I'm excited to travel across Canada to various conferences (not necessarily in industry) to grow member value.