AIA Continental Europe Membership Report
20 February 2007
Looking for a consistent sign in membership growth is difficult to ascertain. Since 2004, tweaking chapter records has been of paramount concern, in an effort to expunge distorted totals and learn better who is paying and who is not. While this seems obvious and easy, rest assured it has been challenging.
A great deal of confusion was wrestled out of the hands of the three-tiered TIMSS system in Washington (duplicates, misaligned members, improperly designated members. To this day, errors are still being found.) The results are undoubtedly mixed; members have been lost due to frustrations in communication and understanding. A question hovered: is any real growth occurring?
2004 involved gleaning active members from phantoms. The result was an apparently drastic reduction in memberships. That September, the chapter counted 171 members to be billed for renewal in 2005. 126 (115 paying) of those were members in both our local and the national organization of the AIA (at times cryptically described as three-tier members). By 2005 this had been revised upward to 135 with a chapter-wide “known total to over 200 members”.
By February of 2006, the count increased to 211. Some of this growth is attributed to the “discovery” of members who should have been assigned to our chapter through the Institute in Washington. (This year, some of these may well not renew.)
Last October counted 197 members. A 28 March update earlier in the year recognized that the 211 total was unrealistically high yet the current count is now 217. This winter, we have billed 206 members; we have 11 non-paying members. Of that total 166 represent our chapter’s “count” within the institute and 50 members are affiliated or “unassigned” (belonging to another chapter of the AIA).
To date, 57% of members billed through the Institute in Washington have renewed memberships for 2007. Of those billed through the chapter, 50% have renewed. (The total renewal rate stands at 55%; 119 of 206. Additionally, the chapter has 11 members renewing without payment.)
The low renewal rate is not surprising. The true drop-dead date for payment is 31 March, when memberships are noted as “lapsed”. A lapsed membership forfeits the goods and services awarded with membership and, most significantly, represents a break in consecutive years with the Institute, resulting in a disruption in one of the paths to emeritus status.
Membership will ebb and flow throughout the year. Some who joined for the Udine conference will not renew; some will join for the Brussels conference. Already this year, one person joined for the privilege to display work at the wildly successful Milan Expo. With the help of judicious reminders and more directed efforts similar to last year’s (by section directors and the Chair of the Membership Committee), the chapter should anticipate doing as well as recent years, with paying members at 210, ±10.
—Richard Anderson, AIA, AIACE Chapter SecretaryMembership report archive
¹ That the archive of reports starts in 2004 reflects the secretary’s consecutive tenure as web editor from 2004. Holding the keys to the chapter server aids searches: everything on the chapter’s server is mirrored on a local hard drive.
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