We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Now that we're over our break, we enter Q3 2022 and undoubtedly, the toughest membership quarter of the year due to vacations, inflation, and many traditional times when NAIFA closed for business during the summer.
As we've been saying since 2019, however, NAIFA never closes! We are open all year long working together to ensure a favorable legislative and regulatory environment. This quarter gives us a few amazing opportunities to undertake outreach to new communities of prospective members and bring them in to experience NAIFA.
July and August include these great opportunities to do more with your membership's acquisition and retention:
1) The National Membership Committee met today and decided what the Q3 contest will be, who the Q2 Hard Hat Winner for Membership is, and discussed how referrals are picking up this year. The results, the updates, and more will be the topic of conversation at next week's series of Membership Chairs calls that Membership Chairs should attend. You can pick any one of the three sessions to attend to fit your schedule and if you have to miss, just contact Randy Clark, Senior Director, Membership Outreach and Engagement.
2) We are underway with one of our two new membership development programs called "Meetings on Main Street". Thanks to Charles Olson of OCI Services for being our event host and to all of our fabulous speakers that have volunteered their time and talent to get the word out about NAIFA and all we have to offer. Our aim is to have more advisors get to know NAIFA and we are taking it directly to Main Street to get more people involved and pumped up about our profession, our advocacy program, and the value of belonging to your professional association.
3) We are thrilled to, at long last, partner up with our first 100% Agency, The Fortis Agency, to hold our inaugural "Networking with NAIFA" event that is focused on recruiting non-members. Fortis is a great example because not only is every advisor a member, but every member is an IFAPAC contributor. What's even better is that many of Fortis' advisors have now answered the call to serve in leadership! Thank you Fortis! We will discuss more about the two new member development programs on tomorrow's Leaders call and in-depth on the Membership Chairs call next week.
4) Speaking of volunteer leadership, it's a great time to start succession planning and thinking about who will serve in leadership for 2023. We have begun planning the 2022 National Leadership Conference where we will swear in all boards and celebrate all of our leaders! Save the date for November 13-15, 2022 for the event!
5) It wouldn't be August without In-District Meetings with Congressional Leaders! This is a great opportunity to invite non-members, new members, and any member to get more politically active and involved through NAIFA's Grassroots Program as an Advocacy Ambassador. Chapters have been making pledges on number of members to participate, but we wanted to amplify this message to make sure that everyone knows that all members are invited and non-members can as well! If you want to get more involved, contact your Grassroots Chair and note that you can sign up to participate in In-District meetings. Space per meeting is limited, so don't delay in signing up and showing up.
6) And finally, Apex will be the week of August 15th at the Arizona Biltmore. This event is open to all advisors and has something for everyone regardless of practice area or number of years in the business. Not only is the property a 5-star resort, but we've never (in recent history) had a hotel at this low of a price reserved for a national event! Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself and join us for a great event!
Have membership questions, or want to get more involved? Have an individual, an agency or firm to refer and want to make sure you get credit? Just drop us a line and we will be happy to help!