“Society or human society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations such as social status, roles, and social networks. Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language or hierarchical organization.”-Wikipedia
If the above statement seems a little different for my newsletter article, you are not mistaken. The board and I have been discussing membership a lot lately and it got me questioning, “What is membership and why is it important?” Which led to “We are a society……what does that mean?” So I checked with the highly reliable (okay…work with me here) Wikipedia and the above is the official definition.
So why is membership and being a society important to us? In my opinion what makes SESHRM so great is two-fold- 1) we are part of a larger “society” – SHRM and there are many perks to that and 2) our local group is very dedicated to the profession, to networking together, and we work together on solutions to our everyday issues.
As a board member, we are concerned that we have been losing members the last couple of years. Between the economic downturn and career changes of our members, we have been experiencing a decline, a small decline, but never the less….a decline.
Members are what keep our society healthy and strong. The more members we have, the better our programming can be and the more benefits we can offer to those members. To lose even one, is an absolute shame. We have been asking ourselves these questions: 1) Why are they leaving? 2) What can we do to prevent it? and 3) How can we recruit new members?
This is where I need your help. The board would like to form a committee to help us answer these questions and develop techniques to keep our society strong and healthy. I would estimate this being a 2 to 3 month commitment. It will be a great opportunity to work with other SESHRM members, learn more about the perks and benefits of being a SESHRM member, and be instrumental in developing a path for our society that will keep us improving year after year. This is a great way to participate in our chapter without a long commitment.
I would love to have you on this team and we will have more to report on this soon. Send me an email if you are interested at kjhubers@lgeverist.com.