DBs Describe Successful Membership Strategies

With many district branches reporting difficulty retaining and recruiting new members, some of those branches are wondering what the more successful district branches may be doing to buck that trend. Representatives of four of the district branches that have had success in retaining and recruiting members shared some of their strategies with other DB members at the APA Assembly’s fall meeting in Washington, D.C.

Limit on Dues

For instance, one way of keeping psychiatrists as members of their local psychiatric society is by limiting the dues that they have to pay. The Rhode Island Psychiatric Society has low dues, and this tactic has helped it retain members, reported Robert Johnston, M.D., an Assembly representative of the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society. And one reason that the Maine Psychiatric Association is retaining members is that it has not increased its dues since 1987, said Richard Fortier, M.D., who represents the Maine Psychiatric Association.

Providing psychiatrists with interesting meetings is another way of keeping them on board, it appears. One reason that the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society is in good shape member-wise is because it tries to make its meetings attractive to members, Johnston pointed out. For instance, it invites local academics and nationally known persons to speak and has its speakers address topics that are hot in the psychiatry world.

And one reason that the Ohio Psychiatric Association is doing fairly well in retaining members is that it holds scientific meetings in various areas of the state, said Melodie Morgan-Minott, M.D., a representative of the Ohio Psychiatric Association. This way, she explained, members in locations throughout the state find that the meetings are easily accessible.

Membership Tracking System

Still a third means of keeping psychiatrists from dropping out of their local psychiatric societies, it seems, is to identify members at risk of dropping out before they actually do so. “We have a new membership tracking system that is highly effective,” reported Harry Brandt, M.D., a representative of the Maryland Psychiatric Society. Members who are behind in their dues are flagged by the system, and the society then asks members who know those particular members to call them and encourage them to stay in the association. The Ohio Psychiatric Association also has an active membership tracking process, Morgan-Minott said.

But how about getting psychiatrists to join the local psychiatric society in the first place? One valuable technique, Fortier pointed out, is that whenever his psychiatric association identifies new psychiatrists in the state, they actively court them to sign up. His association, he said, has also noticed that public-sector psychiatrists and Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrists are often not members, so the association is actively reaching out to them as well.

Another method, which the Maryland Psychiatric Society uses, is a marketing model that incorporates mailings and breakfasts with potential members, Brandt said. And in Ohio, Morgan-Minott pointed out, psychiatry department chairs and psychiatry residency directors actively encourage psychiatry residents to join the state psychiatric association. ▪