Once a chapter is firmly established, it needs to continue to seek ways to develop growth in membership and variety in programming. Often chapters will seek out other groups with similar interests for joint sponsorship of programs or conferences. Collaboration with other groups has helped chapters get their name out in public, increase attendance at meetings and enabled them to exchange mailing lists for membership promotion.

Recently chapters have followed in the footsteps of the National by developing "organizational memberships" where for a larger dollar amount, an organization receives a certain number of memberships and/or attendees at meetings or conferences of the local chapter. The Gateway/St. Louis Chapter has been especially effective in raising chapter money in this manner. By increasing the financial base of the chapter, it is able to pay expenses or an honorarium for well-known speakers who must travel to the chapter to speak for a program.

Programming is perhaps the single most important criteria for keeping interest in the chapter. It is always necessary to have programs of broad appeal. This can be done through panels where both sides of an issue are presented. It can also be done by alternating  programs that appeal to specific sectors of the membership.

The physical space, date and time of meetings are also important for membership to grow and mature. It may be necessary to survey chapter members from time to time to assess the appropriateness of lunch vs. dinner meetings; quarterly vs. monthly meetings, etc. As the membership changes, sometimes the needs of the members also change.

Chapters always need to work on developing their membership base. To keep the balance of the various constituencies, it is necessary to make sure that one group does not become dominant to the exclusion of the other constituencies.

How is your chapter doing? Take this quick Chapter Visibility Test to access how your chapter is doing in its communications and visibility within the community. If you can answer "yes" positively to these questions, your chapter is probably doing well regarding growth and sustaining itself.