What kind of engagement is most challenging? According to the 122 participants of the recent Member Engagement Lab Series put on by the Association Societies Alliance (think your state SAE collaborating with the other state SAEs), volunteer engagement is very, really, exceptionally difficult.

Why? Well, it seems no one has any time anymore. The members ideally suited for many volunteer opportunities are professionally and personally busy (not lowercase busy, but BUSY!!! You know the kind of busy I’m talking about, right? I’m sure you, too, are bananas busy.)

When potential members are this busy, how do you get them to spend their precious time on the association? Perhaps, we can redesign volunteer opportunities over time to make them more prestigious, valuable, and appreciated. We could also make them less time-consuming, lengthy in duration, and inconvenient.

One of the favorite ideas that came from the wisdom of the crowd during this recent Lab Series was micro-opportunities for volunteering. Defined as “short-term volunteer opportunities that are convenient and less intimidating or overwhelming.”

Reading through the team’s notes of their conversation, it occurred to me that perhaps the very first micro-volunteering opportunity could be for members to participate in a Lab where they create a long list of micro-volunteering roles and tasks to choose from. Would members be more invested in picking a role from the list when they had input into the list? It is worth a test!

Oh, and by the way, keep your eye out for the next cohort series from ASA and your state SAE because we learned a TON and had fun while we were at it! These events promise to be worth the time away from your busy schedule. 😃