Membership

Introduction

Every time NEA does a survey on why non-members have not joined the Association, the number one reason is that they were"never asked to join".

Outlined below are a number of tips, suggestions, DO's and DON'Ts, and other information to better prepare your recruiters for the one-on-one membership campaign.

• Use personal contact. Use personal contact. Use personal contact.
• Ask someone in your building who is a member to walk across the hall and tell a non-member why he/she is a member.
• Be sure your building has an NEA bulletin board that is kept current.
• Use teams of members/leaders to recruit in specific buildings with a large potential membership.
• Your local needs to set reasonable goals for new membership in your building during this membership campaign.
• Use the legislative goals and platform as a talking point to show what we are working toward to benefit NM's education employees and children.
• Use local issues as a talking point for selling membership. What is your local doing to benefit employees? Where are you going to bat for local employees? Back to top

DO'S AND DONT'S FOR RECRUITERS

DO

1. Have a membership application with you, completed with as much information as you know about the potential member.
2. Know the person's reasons and excuses for not joining.
3. Make an appointment to discuss membership individually with a potential member whenever possible.
4. Listen carefully to learn the person's biggest hang-up or interest.
5. Stick with key issues once they're identified.
6. Show your personal conviction for Association membership, but also show respect for the other person's views.
7. Be prepared to answer the predictable questions and overcome the potential objections.
8. Help potential members find information they seek.
9. Enlist the help of other members who have a good rapport with specific potential members.
10. Ask for suggestions for improving the Association and make a written note of the comments.
11. Make another appointment before leaving if you can't get the membership the first time. Don't leave the membership application---take it with you and make an appointment to meet again.
12. Keep trying! (Sales people report that on the average, it takes 4-7 contacts to clinch a sale.)
13. Remember, you are selling the best product available in the educational market.
14. Forward memberships immediately to the local membership coordinator.

DON'T

1. Knock competing organizations.
2. Flatly contradict or enter into an argument. (Instead, try, "That seems to be a common misconception. Actually, the Association does ...")
3. Be afraid to try.
4. Give up after one try. (Remember, on the average, it takes 4-7 contacts to clinch a sale.)
5. Beg for membership.
6. Deal in personalities.
7. Argue in front of a group, or in any way embarrass your prospect in front of others.
8. Confront a group of non-joiners about membership. (Talk to them individually.)

HOT TIP: When you talk to a potential member, avoid asking, "Would you like to join?" It's too easy for the person to say, "NO!" Instead, get to know the potential member. Talk about her/his needs and how the Association can meet them. Hand over a completed membership form and a pen. Assume you've made the sale!
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PLANNING TO OVERTURN OBJECTIONS

• LISTEN to the potential members concerns and objections.
• PLAN a strategy to deal with the objection.
• OVERTURN the objection by giving additional information.
• SHOW VALUE in member and unity.

• MATCH the plan to the potential members's problem.


Are you dealing with a potential member ...
• with incomplete or inaccurate information who objects to joining the Association?
• who agrees with the purposes and goals of the Association but has a negative attitude about some activity or strategy the Association has used?
• who has had a negative experience with some Association service or a particular Association leader?
• who agrees with the Association's overall purpose but is offended by a particular Association goal?
• who has an inadequate appreciation of the value of the Association and its benefits or services?
• who prefers a competitor, his/her own subject area association, or no association at all?
• who prefers one level of the Association and rejects the others?
• who likes the goals and accomplishments of the Association, but believes that he/she can get it all without joining?

If you know the potential member's problem, you can prepare yourself to deal with the problem. You learn about the problem by listening. Back to top

SOME TIPS FOR OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

• Keep asking. People do not even notice you are asking again. Make the potential member your project until he/she joins.
• Don't argue, agree or disagree with the potential member. If attempts are made to get you to argue or defend, responding with a question will keep the potential member talking.
• Listen to what is being said. Continue to use listening skills while the objection is being fully expressed.
• Refrain from responding to an objection immediately.
• Keep the potential member talking after the objection is raised---ask open-ended questions reflecting on what's been said. This helps the person "talk it through" without your arguing or defending.
• Determine if the objection is firmly held by observing whether or not the potential member sticks to it.
• Listen carefully until it’s your turn. Then check out your statement of what you believe the objection is before you respond to it. (Often people merely want to get "something off their chest"; in this case, just hearing them out is what is required.)
• Don't underestimate your own reasons for joining. An enthusiastic member is the best person to sell the organization.

The following are some of the most useful techniques for responding to objections:

• "That was yesterday. What can we do about it now?"
• "What should we start doing now?"
• "What should we stop doing?"
• "I'll accept that."
• "I hear what you are saying."
• "I understand."
• "Even if that were true, ...what can we do to change it?"
• "What better option do we have?"
• "What better option do we have than to work together?
• "Wow about giving us a chance?"
• "Why don't you join us to change it?"
• "Why don't you join sides with the rest of us?"
• "I believe it's the best thing we have going."
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RESPONSES TO COMMON OBJECTIONS

"There isn't any reason for me to join---I will get all the salary and benefits the Association works for anyway."

School boards and governing agencies are getting more and more sophisticated and want to know how many members the Association represents. Representing some of the employees isn't enough. Eighty percent isn't even enough. Is the Association representing the overwhelming majority, if not all, of the employees? If not, we all might lose in negotiations and advocacy positions. Joining the Association shows the board that members are together behind the Association.

Members of the Association are paying the tab for you right now. They're spending dues to represent you. Since you benefit, you should share the expense.

• "We should all be working together to make our organization the very best it can be at representing all of us."
• "When you remain a potential member, you are actually joining the side against us."
• "As a member, you can take an active part in decision making, vote, hold office and have a voice in a democratic, representative organization."
• If something happened to you and you needed the Association it would be too late to join and obtain assistance automatically provided to Association members."

"My spouse works for the district---why should we pay double dues?"

Because you're guaranteed "double benefits". Membership isn't altogether unlike an insurance policy. If either of you has an accident, it doesn't help if only the other is covered. The same thing applies if one of you needs assistance from the Association. Your membership benefits come with your membership only. Unless both of you join, you are only giving half of your support to your own cause. We need strength and numbers in local negotiations and in state and national lobbying. Both of you have a big stake in the success of your Association. Both should support it.

• Both are affected by legislation and monitoring activities to stop anti-educator, anti-education attacks.
• Note other couples who both pay their "fair share".
• Both get salary increases and bargained benefits.
• "Could either of you afford to pay for attorneys to defend yourself?"
• You were not hired because you were a couple. Each of you must stand on his/her own. You are both important members of the unit. We all need participation from both of you---on the job and in the Association.

"I don't agree with a lot of things that the Association does."

Of course it's your privilege to disagree. Few people agree with 100 percent of anything! But the Association prides itself on being a very democratic organization. Members directly influence the decision-makers through a representative process at all levels of the organization. As a member, you have dozens of opportunities to influence and change the direction of the Association if you disagree. But if you're not a member, you can't change anything.

• "Our Association is democratic--no member is required to agree with the majority on every issue. But every member has a chance to try to sway the majority through representative democratic governance structures at every level of the Association. Furthermore, our representative bodies issue the recommendations of the majority; the Association doesn't attempt to speak for every individual member in every decision."
• Compare to taxation, services such as water, fire, trash collection, parks, security. One pays one's share even when one disagrees or does not use the service.
• If the objection is to our protecting a "bad" employee, point out that we do not hire, fire, evaluate or judge an employee. It is our responsibility to give each employee a "day in court". Point out that rights, like laws, must be enforced for each individual or they will not exist for all. Cite cases.
• "Do you agree with everything the legislature or Congress does? But you don't drop your citizenship, give up your right to vote or refuse to pay your taxes just because those bodies may take actions with which you disagree.
• Explain the position. If it's a resolution, explain that a resolution is reviewed each year by the Representative Assembly, Council, etc. Resolutions are initiated by members and voted on by the Assembly of their elected representatives. Introduce the prospect to his/her local representative who was in on the decision.
• "How can you get involved, be informed, find out what is happening, work for change if you don't join?"
• "The advantages of membership far outweigh the disadvantages of one or two things we do not like or agree with."

"But I can't afford it" or "Dues are too high."

You can't afford not to join. Consider your Association dues as a kind of "job insurance"---you're investing in your present as well as your future.

• You get what you pay for and Association members are getting good benefits from NEA, NEA-NM and their locals.
• Most employee groups, even the blue collar workers, pay dues that are twice ours. They do it because they realize that dues are an investment in their future welfare. Association dues come to less than a dollar a day. That's a pretty small investment.
• Many members who take advantage of the Unified Special Services programs have reported that they save more than their dues in that area alone. That doesn't even take into account the higher salaries, better fringe benefits, UniServ staff to help with grievance processing and employment problems, $1 million excess liability insurance protection, training opportunities, legal defense, and all the other benefits that come automatically with membership.

Quote dues in lowest terms---per day, week, pay period, or month.

• "What can you buy for only $___ a day?"
• Equate daily amounts to what that amount can buy; less than the cost of a Big Mac, a movie, or a 6 pack of pop, etc.
• "None of us can afford it. We're all on the same salary schedule. Those of us who belong make it a priority."

"The Association doesn't do anything for students, only its members."

That's not true. One of the major jobs of the Association is enhancing the image of public schools. The Association works actively to help Americans think about public education in a positive way. The Association's many different projects range from national television advertising to Operation Rescue, a nationally-recognized dropout prevention program conducted in the late 1980’s. Teacher TV highlights best practice across the nation’s classrooms and is available on the Learning Channel.

The national TV campaign was started by NEA in 1980. The national TV spots dramatize the essential contributions public schools make to American life. NEA, NEA-NM and many local associations produce public service announcements and distribute them to radio and television stations, too.

The Association is involved in image-building projects. Each fall the Association co-sponsors American Education Week and produces kits of material that locals use to build community support for education. Teacher Day in May is another event that the Association supports.

• "What should we be doing?"
• "What are you willing to do?"
• Share information on IPD (Instruction and Professional Development), lobbying activities on behalf of education, legislative goals and programs to benefit and improve education, organizational goals, programs and activities that support education.
• Share information about the $1 per member NEA dues set aside to deal with the problem of school dropouts.
• Point out scholarships; community support; contests; workshops; courses; work on professional standards, certificates, retirement; NEA Professional Library.

Finally, consider some arguments for the chronic non-member.

• Every non-member gives the administration some hope that members really aren't behind the Association. They can hurt everyone. It can mean the difference between an agreement reached reasonably and a possible impasse or strike while the board tests the unity of the Association.
• Individuals who don't join are freeloading off members who do. Dues-paying members pay to support salary gains for non-members. If non-members don't want to join, would they be willing to turn their salary gains back to the Association to be distributed among the members who paid the freight?
• The same reasoning applies to teachers and ESPs protected by evaluation and other laws and to education employees who receive higher salaries as a result of increased state funds. Members paid for the lobbying services that made those statewide gains---but everyone got the benefits.

At some point, straight talk is needed with the chronic non-member. Whether that non-joiner wants to admit it or not, he or she is a parasite living off the commitment of members paying to support a strong organization. Whether he or she wants to admit it or not, that's a reason why administrators feel they can ignore legitimate Association demands.
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THE ART OF ASKING QUESTIONS

Sample Questions:

• "How do you feel about ...?"
• "What do you think?"
• "Do you think it would be better if ...?"
• "What would you suggest?"
• "What is your opinion?"
• "Why is that important to you?"
• "What would be your reaction?"
• "What would happen if ...?"
• "Is a better way to do it?"
• "Where do you start?"
• "What do you think you need to get the job done?"
• "What's your biggest worry about ...?"
• "Could you tell me more about that?"
• "How important is that to you?"
• "Why is it being done like that?"
• "Could you give me an example of that?"
• "What difference would it make?"
• "May I ask what you like most about your present ...?"
• "Would it be fair to ask what you like least about your present ...?"

Paraphrase for Clarification

• "You say you feel ...?"
• "So your feeling(s) about this is/are ...?"
• "In other words, you're saying ...?"
• "In essence, you've said ...?"
• "So, what you're telling me is ... Is that correct?"
• "Let me see if I understand. You're saying ...?"

Other Ways to Keep a Person Talking:

• Pick up on a few words from a person's last statement, repeat them and wait. That encourages the person to tell you more.
• Remain silent and wait. A person will often continue to expand on what he/she just said.
• Be sure to show concern, empathy and understanding for the person

Questions to Reflect Back on What a Person Says:

• "Why is that important to you?"
• "What do you think is a better way to do it?"
• "Where do we start?"
• "Could you tell me more about that?"
• "Could you give me an example of that?"
• "Would you explain that further?"
• "What do you mean?"

Comments Which Encourage People to Keep Talking:

• "I see."
• "Tell me more."
• "I understand."
• "Wow!"
• "Really?"
• "No kidding?"
• "It's okay to feel (angry/frustrated/that way)."
• "You aren't alone."
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STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL MEMBERSHIP SALE

FIRST, the Recruiter makes contact with the prospective member.

SECOND, the Recruiter gets to know the prospective member, asking open-ended questions and listening to the answers.

THIRD, continuing the conversation, the Recruiter attempts to learn the prospect's interests and concerns.

FOURTH, the Recruiter gets the Prospect to agree on a position on an issue or concern that can lead to a successful membership "sale".

FIFTH, the Recruiter shows the prospect how the Association ties into the prospect's issue or concern, offering an answer, a way to a successful resolution of a conflict or the means to achieve a goal.

SIXTH, the Recruiter finally explains the advantages of Association membership, specifically concentrating on the prospect's key areas of concern.

SEVENTH, the Recruiter attempts to cement or close the membership sale.

NOTE: These steps may be undertaken by the Recruiter immediately, or after consultation with the other members of the Membership Team. The next scheduled contact should be initiated either by the Recruiter or by another individual whose participation would be helpful as indicated by the results of the vital first four steps in the process. Back to top

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We hope the above information and suggestions will prove to be helpful in preparing your local recruiters to approach new employees and non-joiners comfortably and confidently and bring them into the NEA family where they belong. Nothing breeds success like success itself.

The more successful recruiters in the local should be an integral part of the recruitment and recruiter training programs. However, don't let others sit back and expect the successful ones to do all of the recruiting. As indicated earlier, membership is everyone's responsibility.

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