AACE Releases Membership Recruitment Presentation and New Member-Get-A-Member Promotion
February 7, 2011
As US President Teddy Roosevelt prepared for his famous charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba, he took the precaution of sewing several pairs of eyeglasses into the lining of his uniform in case his glasses broke during the assault. Roosevelt's fear was that his severe nearsightedness would leave him helpless on the battlefield. While Roosevelt may have been physically nearsighted, he possessed a powerful vision of the future that shaped North and South America's history more than any world leader of his era. A man of strong opinions and no reticence to express them, Roosevelt famously observed: "Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere."
Both Roosevelt's rhetorical style and sentiment sometimes feels a bit dated in an era where "what's in it for me" often trumps a sense of professional obligation. Successful associations in today's competitive marketplace for time, money and commitment understand that they must provide a compelling value proposition to attract and retain new members.
With that end in mind, AACE International recently unveiled a new membership recruitment presentation highlighting the benefits of belonging to the Association. The highly engaging presentation uses vivid graphics and music to reinforce our core vision and mission. It can be viewed at http://www.aacei.org/mbr/presentation/.
In addition to this new membership recruitment video, AACE has completely redesigned the Cost Engineering Journal with a greater emphasis on practical, transferable ideas and more contemporary layout and graphics. We also have completely redesigned our website, making it more intuitive to navigate and giving it more interactive features and fresher content. In 2011, AACE has also introduced enhancements to our career center,
plan to offer a state of the art mentoring program and will be adding monthly online educational programs as part of the membership later this year. These additions make the investment in AACE dues an even greater value in 2011.
As compelling as all these benefits may be, most individuals will join AACE in the next year because an existing member took the time to ask them to join. No presentation, brochure or website, can replace the power of one professional explaining to another that being a member can make a real difference in their career. In survey after survey, one of the most important factors cited by members as a benefit of belonging to AACE continues to be networking. Those individual stories about how you solved a problem, cut through red tape or found a resource from another member cannot be readily captured in a brochure. That personal testimony can only be expressed the old-fashioned way -one member to another.
To encourage members to recruit new members, AACE International has announced a major Member Get-A-Member program in 2011. Individuals who sponsor a new member before December 31, 2011, will be placed in a drawing and the winner of the drawing will receive round trip airfare, hotel accommodations and complimentary registration to attend the 2012 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, plus $500 for incidentals. In addition, AACE will have a quarterly drawing during the year for $250 in credit for AACE logo items from the new Lands' End store featuring AACE merchandise. For more information on AACE membership, go to http://www.aacei.org/mbr/.
