ACEC MEMBERSHIP OVERVIEW

Transcription

1 ACEC MEMBERSHIP OVERVIEW Glossary of ACEC Membership Terms Engineering Firm a member company paying both state and national dues to its MO. Pay Direct an ACEC member firm that has branches in more than one MO and has elected to pay national dues directly to ACEC National for all of its employees in all of its locations. A Pay Direct firm is required to belong at the state level in at least one MO, but is encouraged to be a state level member in all MOs where its branch offices are located. Branch all offices of a company other than its headquarters office. Both national firms and state only firms may have Branches. MOs in which Pay Direct firms Branches are members at the state level, consider the Branch a Member Firm. Headquarters this is the location that a member firm considers its corporate headquarters, usually where its C suite officers are located. In most (but not all) cases, this is where the firm s Primary Contact is located, and where official notices including dues invoices are sent. Bill to Branch some Pay Direct firms have designated a branch other than its headquarters as the branch to which invoices should be mailed, and ACEC calls that branch the Bill to Branch. ACEC Count of Member Firms ACEC s public count of 5,200+ firms is the sum of all MO totals of Member Firms it includes Branches of Pay Direct firms that hold MO memberships. The smaller number reported to MOs each quarter (3,700+) is the total of all Firms and Pay Direct firms only it includes no Branches. ACEC Count of Member Firm Employees this is the total number of employees for which all Firms and Pay Directs pay national dues. ACEC Fiscal Year July 1 through June 30. Most although not all MOs use the same fiscal year. Primary Contact the individual designated by an Engineering Firm or a Pay Direct as the person to whom all official ACEC notices must be sent. This included certification related communications. Primary Contact s Designee although not an official term, many Primary Contacts have chosen to designate another employee to log in to the ACEC database and have rights normally assigned only to the Primary Contact, such as changing the firm s employee count during the annual Certification period. Certification the annual process during which all member firms (Engineering Firms and Pay Directs) are asked to update their employee counts. The Certification period lasts a fixed length of time, occurs in the Spring, and results in an employee count upon which the following fiscal year s national dues are based. (Most MOs also base their state dues upon the employee count.) Each year ACEC gives MOs the option whether to conduct their own Certification for their Engineering Firm members, or to have ACEC National conduct it for them, and each year approximately half of all MOs choose to conduct their own. ACEC National has traditionally conducted its Certification of Pay Direct firms, and MO designated Engineering Firms during the month of April. Certifications of Engineering Firms performed by MOs directly vary from February through May of each year. Commissions to Dedicated Membership Recruiters a few MOs have hired dedicated membership sales people (recruiters) people whose only job is to sell membership. In those cases, ACEC has chosen to pay those MOs a commission on new member dues from firms recruited by the salespeople: 40% of national dues remitted to ACEC in the first year of the firm s membership; 20% in the second year; and 10% in the third year. Page 1

2 Affiliate Members ACEC has an Affiliate category of membership open to firms not eligible for regular membership, but firms associated with the engineering industry in some way. They may be suppliers to the industry, service providers, companies that work with engineering firms, other engineering related associations, etc. Many MOs also have some sort of non engineering firm category of membership, and these non engineering categories do not require both national and state membership as firms or organizations holding these memberships may only be interested in a particular geographic portion of the engineering industry. At the national level, Affiliate member firms are not included in any firm counts, nor are they included in the Certification process. Affiliate member firm employees enjoy most of the benefits of membership except they cannot hold office in the Council or on any of its committees or other groupings, they have no vote in Council business matters, and they are not eligible to participate in all of the Trust programs. Member Benefits all employees of all member firms are entitled to member benefits this means free subscriptions to Last Word and Engineering Inc., reduced member pricing for seminars, publications, conferences, etc., the right to participate on ACEC national committees, the right to hold office on committees (unless otherwise restricted), etc. Member Committees Open and Appointed ACEC has more than 30 committees and subcommittees in which member firm employees participate. Some committees are Appointed committees and their membership is appointed each year by the ACEC Chair elect, usually specialized committees with unique requirements. But most are Open committees open in participation to all employees of all member firms. There is no cost associated with participating on a committee, and no limit to the number of employees one firm may allow to participate. Coalitions these are mini associations of member firms within to which any ACEC member firm may belong. They represent subsets of the total ACEC membership: CASE Council of American Structural Engineers CAMEE Council of American Mechanical and Electrical Engineers COPS Council of Professional Surveyors DPC Design Professionals Coalition LDC Land Development Coalition SMF Small Firm Council Coalition members pay dues to their respective coalition. ACEC membership is required before a firm may join a coalition (except in the case of the Design Professionals Coalition ACEC s largest firms ACEC membership is required within six months of when a firm joins the DPC.) Forums and Councils member firm employees with specific functional responsibilities may join one or more of ACEC s Forums and Councils and network with peers from other member firms. There is no cost to participate on one of these groups, and no limit to the number of employees one firm may allow to participate. Currently available to member firm employees are the following: Architect Council CFO Council CIO Council Emerging Leaders Forum Finance Forum Human Resources Forum Information Technology Forum Legal Counsel Forum Sales & Marketing Forum Page 2

3 Communities most ACEC organized groupings of members have their own online community a technology that replaced the old listservs. These are vehicles to foster improved communications between group members, and are open only to those individuals who are current members of the group. Members may post and share documents online, and keep them in their community s online library. Dues National Dues all ACEC member firms pay national dues calculated on the number of employees they have submitted during the Certification process. A formula computes the amount with a lesser amount charged for each subsequent employee, i.e., dues per employee are less for a 20 person firm than they are for a 10 person firm. Engineering Firms are billed for national dues by MOs, and Pay Direct firms are billed for national dues directly by ACEC. National Dues Collected by MOs on a quarterly basis (July 1, October 1, January 1, and April 1) ACEC sends an invoice to each MO listing the member firms ACEC has in its database as a member of that particular MO. This list includes Engineering Firms and Branches of Pay Direct firms, but for all Pay Direct firm branches (whether the office in that MO is a Branch, a Headquarters office, or a Bill to Branch) the figure in the national dues column is $0.00. This tells the MO that that firm s national dues have been billed directly by ACEC and the MO should not bill for national dues. If a firm of any type has more than one branch location within an MO, the firm appears on the national dues invoice only once and is counted only once. Mock Dues Bills to try to minimize the dissemination of inaccurate quarterly dues billings to MOs, one month before the billings are distributed, ACEC sends to each MO a mock dues bill. MOs review the bills and mark them up if they are not correct, returning them to ACEC in time for corrections to be made before the actual dues billings are sent out. MOs take this opportunity to strike out a listed firm that has indicated it does not wish to continue its membership, to write in a new firm not listed on the invoice (and enclosing a copy of the membership application so the firm can be accurately keyed into ACEC s member database), or to correct anything else that is not accurate such as a name change, a change in employee count resulting from a sale or acquisition (on an exception basis). New Member Incentive Reductions in Dues approximately half of the MOs utilize a new member incentive to reduce dues in the first year or two of membership, and with regard to national dues, ACEC matches what an MO does. If an MO reduces the first year s state dues by 50%, ACEC reduces the first year s national dues by 50%. The incentive reduction most commonly used by MOs is 33% of dues in year one, 66% in year two, and 100% in year three. How to tell if an MO member is a branch of a Pay Direct and therefore owes no national dues? On the quarterly dues invoice sent to MOs, if there is $0.00 in the column for national dues, the branch office is part of a Pay Direct firm. If there is a dollar amount in this column, the firm is NOT part of a Pay Direct and the MO must collect that amount in national dues from the branch. (Even if another branch of the same firm is a member in another state(s), the firm may not have chosen to be a Pay Direct firm.) How to send in payment who to send it to, what to send with a check unless one of the firms on your dues invoice has advised that they wish to discontinue ACEC membership, the total amount is due. Remit payment with check and a copy of the invoice to the ACEC office, Attention: Accounting. If a firm listed on the invoice is no longer a member, draw a line through its name and deduct its national dues from the total amount remitted. If you have firms as Page 3

4 members that are not listed, write them in and enclose a copy of their membership application so they can be added to the database and start receiving ACEC materials. If you have a question about any of this, contact Kathleen Murphy in the Membership Department, , kmurphy@acec.org. May dues be paid by credit card? Yes. Questions re credit card payment may be directed to Steve Lim in the Accounting Department, or slim@acec.org. How to report dropped members, when to drop a member report a dropped member as soon as you are aware of the firm s intent to discontinue membership, but no later than the next quarterly invoice. Report these to Kathleen Murphy. How to report new members, what to send to National, when to send it report new members as soon as you have them contact Kathleen Murphy and send her a copy of the membership application. This will ensure that the member firm employees start receive materials from ACEC, including Last Word and Engineering, Inc. If the firm has joined late in the year and national dues should not be assessed until the first quarter of the following fiscal year, let Kathleen know and she will set them up that way. Certification Certification is the process by which employee counts are updated each year and upon which following year s dues billings are based. Can be done by MOs or National about 50% of MOs do their own certification conducted by ACEC for Pay Direct firms and for firms in the MOs that have asked ACEC to do this for them, are done in April each year. MOs performing their own certification do so at varying times during the Spring, and they report their findings to ACEC no later than May 31 of each year. Recruitment Where do prospects come from? Some prospects have heard about ACEC and come to us wanting more information about membership. Those that come to ACEC via the website are very likely to join, with a close rate of about 35%. Others are proactively recruited by either ACEC or the MO. If ACEC receives the inquiry, the following occurs: 1. ACEC National staff calls the firm to explain membership structure and learn more about their goals/motivation for inquiring about ACEC. 2. ACEC National staff then sends to the respective MO all the information gathered about/from the prospect. 3. ACEC National staff s the firm with details of ACEC membership. This also informs them that they should expect follow up on next steps to come from their local ACEC office and provides that Executive Director s contact information. The MO Executive Director is also cc d on this , and also contacts the prospect with state level information. 4. The MO then takes the lead on this recruitment. Page 4

5 If ACEC receives a membership inquiry from an ENR 500 prospect firm which is likely to join as a Pay Direct firm, the following occurs: 5. National staff reaches out to the involved MOs to gain insight and background on the firm s previous engagement with ACEC and with state industry activities. 6. If all OK at step number 5, ACEC National staff calls the firm to explain membership structure and learn more about their goals/motivation for inquiring about ACEC. 7. National then shares information gained from the prospect with the MO, and National and MO staffs decide who should take the lead on further outreach. 8. That party continues follow up, with the others providing support when necessary. If ACEC does not receive a membership inquiry from an ENR500 prospect firm but is proactively recruiting them: 9. National staff reaches out to the involved MOs to gain insight and background on the firm s previous engagement with ACEC and with state industry activities. 10. National and MO staffs decide who should take the lead on further outreach. 11. That party continues follow up, with the others providing support when necessary. If the MO is pursuing a recruitment in which ACEC has not been involved ACEC is available to help as requested by the MO, including providing membership materials as needed. How to engage the prospects both ACEC and the MOs should have a cadre of engaged members ready to step in and assist with recruitments. These people may be current or former organization leaders, or they may be part of a formal membership recruitment committee or task force. Where there are staff members dedicated to membership recruitment, they too are part of the team working on recruitments. In some MOs where they do not have a formal Membership Committee they consider the members of their Board or Executive Committee to be their de facto Membership Committee. The primary objective (other than signing up the prospect!) is to inform and demonstrate the value of membership such that the prospect determines that he/she cannot afford to pass up this opportunity. This effort will certainly include sending the prospect ACEC and MO related materials, but it should also include an effort to allow the prospect to sample the wares first hand. Determine the prospect s hot button issues and engage him/her in activities that show value in that area. Invite him/her to participate on a committee, to attend a roundtable discussion, to participate in an advocacy initiative, to attend a seminar on a cutting edge topic, etc. Collaboration the most successful recruitment efforts where an inquiry was not initiated by the prospect involved contact by an individual(s) to whom the key personnel at the prospect firm can directly relate personal knowledge, same type of engineering business, same geographic location, etc. anyone that can open the door to cause the prospect to become favorably disposed to meeting with other ACEC/MO personnel. In the overwhelming majority of such successful recruitments, the effort is a collaborative one involving myriad touches from both the national and state levels. Target prospects, match ACEC resources to a prospect s needs and interests ACEC has many programs and products available to members only which MOs can use as recruitment tools. For some it s the high quality and competitive pricing of the ACEC Trust products; for others it may be a coalition that matches the prospect s practice area CASE (structural firms); COPS (surveyor firms); CAMEE (mechanical electric firms); SFC (small firms); LDC (land development firms); or DPC (large firms). Although coalitions charge annual dues, membership is only open to ACEC member firms. In most cases, coalition dues are nominal. Other groups (forums and councils) Page 5

6 are available to individuals in member firms, offering them peer to peer professional networking and educational opportunities personnel in HR, IT, finance, sales and marketing; architecture; CIOs; CFOs; emerging leaders; and legal counsel. Some members have told us that the value gained from the forums is worth more than the price of dues! Be rewarded for successful recruitment efforts all MOs realizing 2% firm growth and 3% employee growth during an ACEC fiscal year (July 1 June 30) will receive free registration of the executive director at the upcoming Fall Conference (the Fall Conference following the June 30 year end with successful membership recruitment results). Retention Retaining Member Firms because it is generally easier to keep a satisfied firm than to recruit a new one, it is critical to take several steps to ensure that the new firm remains satisfied: 1. Get them engaged make sure that the firm s principal(s) are actively engaged at the state level get them to participate on committees, give them assignments (advocacy, outreach, etc.), personally invite them to attend activities, perhaps eventually get them involved in the MO s leadership structure. 2. Get several of them engaged having one committed individual from the firm is good, but having several is better. The risk with only one committed person is that when that individual leaves the firm (retires, moves to a different firm, etc.) no one else at the firm is aware of the good that ACEC and the MO do, and when the next dues bill arrives at the firm, it generally doesn t get paid. 3. Always show value in membership make sure the programs you are delivering are the programs the firms want. Periodically take time to assess what members want, how satisfied they are with what you deliver, what they want that you don t offer. 4. Use ACEC programs to bolster your efforts as needed smaller MOs with limited staff resources can piggy back off ACEC program offerings to use them as needed on the state level. Examples: Use an ACEC online seminar as the program for a local meeting buy one registration/download and show it in a conference room, charging a smaller registration amount to each attendee for the opportunity to participate in the program and perhaps have discussion at the conclusion of the program. PDHs available to each attendee for a nominal fee. Contact ACEC to arrange for this. Use a portion of the ACEC online membership directory for the MO s online directory of firms located in that MO. Contact ACEC to help set this up. Free website MOs may use ACEC s website/technology for their own website at no cost to the MO. This effort uses ACEC s architecture but is customizable to each MOs unique needs for content. Examples of MO websites using this technology are and oflouisiana/. Earn royalties from seminar and publication sales in your MO just agree to promote these in your state on your website, in your newsletter, etc. Contact ACEC for more info. Apply for a Minuteman Fund Grant to help with legislative or regulatory challenges in your state apply to have the ACEC Minuteman Fund match your ef Page 6

7 forts one to one to fight onerous legislative matters that could spill over to other states if not addressed in a timely manner. If you offer discounted membership dues during a new member s first or second years ACEC will match whatever incentive you offer on the MO level. Use our promotional materials available free in quantity to MOs are myriad promotional materials, including brochure templates that can be customized by you with local MO information, various ACEC brochures, magazines, etc. Coming soon new membership video. For greater promotional outreach, use the ACEC online events calendar if you are putting on a seminar or other meeting and welcome participation from outside of your local area, post your event on the ACEC online calendar. Use ACEC Trust programs in your membership marketing efforts. Some members have joined primarily because of one or more of the Trust programs. Encourage your members to attend the ACEC Spring Legislative Convention and earn free registration for a member of your staff any MO that realizes one third more full time convention registrants than it did in the prior year earns a free registration for its executive director (or for another staff member in place of the executive director). Promote the convention (members who go almost always give the convention high marks and enjoy themselves) and save your MO the money it would have spent on a staff registration. Page 7