Membership Committee Update

by Tammy Inglis-Drew, Vice President Membership

June 30, 2008
InSight's Membership Committee continuously seeks new opportunities to create value for existing members while spreading the word about InSight to future members. I'd like to report to you on some of the key activities we've been involved with recently, and where we want to take our membership development efforts going forward.

Last year, InSight's Board of Directors commissioned a Market Segmentation Study to deepen our understanding of how we can strengthen our membership base, especially by identifying where there may be opportunities to better meet member needs. Although we might have welcomed a few surprise "Eurekas!" of revelation, the study actually showed that InSight is already delivering the types of value that members and prospective members seek most from their technology user group.

The most significant issue identified in the study was one of awareness. Many of our colleagues who value the opportunity to participate in enhancements, and who seek educational programs and the chance to collaborate in peer-to-peer networking, haven't come to recognize (yet!) that InSight is the leader in providing those benefits to McKesson users.

We've also used other formal and informal channels to seek your input on ways to increase the value of your membership experience. One idea that's come up often is that of corporate or group discounts on InSight membership (remember, we already offer a popular group discount program for conference registration). The Membership Committee has welcomed the idea of such discounts, yet when we dug down into the economic and operational demands that would be created under such a program, we haven’t been able to find a feasible way to make it work yet remain fiscally viable. There may be a time in the future when some form of corporate discounting will make sense, but for now we’re going to look for other ways to increase member value.

For the near term, our best course to strengthen membership is to change the means and frequency with which we promote InSight to new and renewing members. Prospective members will be hearing from us more often, and the messages they receive will be customized to show how InSight's value applies to their particular professional role. And going beyond the marketing campaign, we’ll be organizing more personal outreach to prospective members. We believe that a phone call from a professional peer who explains InSight's value and asks a prospective member to join will always be more effective than a brochure or a discount. 

You can support InSight's membership development efforts today by asking a colleague to join. And if you'd like to become more involved, we're always looking for dedicated volunteers to join the Membership Committee.

Thanks.