In my role as Vice President of Membership Experience I have been given the chance to grow not just as a leader, but as a person. Below I will go into more depth about each of my responsibilities as VPME!
As VPME, I serve as the chair of the Recruitment Team. This is undoubtably the largest responsibility of my role and the main reason I ran for the position. The team consists of me, the President, the Director of Matching and Selection, and the Director of Recruitment Events. As chair, I set the vision and delegate responsibilities to my team members to help bring the vision to life.
Like I mentioned before, this was the main reason I ran for VPME. I was a recruiter two years in a row which allowed me to hear the positive and negative feedback from other recruiters on a more authentic and unfiltered level. As a recruiter during 2024 Formal Recruitment, I felt that there were many areas of growth, and I started to think that I could be the person to change it for the better.
My main goal was to make Work Week (think one week of Recruitment boot camp) and Recruitment a more positive experience. To do this, I made it clear to my team that we would not be yelling at our recruiters. Yelling and overt frustration from Recruitment Team had been a normalized part of the experience, and one of the main reasons Recruitment had gained a negative connotation. I believed it was possible to teach and organize 140 women without yelling. And it was. Recruitment Team and I built our foundation on positivity and transparency which allowed us to stay calm and speak kindly to our recruiters, who in turn, spoke kindly to us.
Another goal I had was for Recruitment Team to be on the same page and overly prepared. In previous years, the Recruitment Team would talk over each other, disagree in front of the chapter, and give conflicting instructions. To combat this, I immediately brought this to the attention of my team. I had my team read through each of our job descriptions and set the precedent that if anyone was crossing into another member’s job, we would call it out. This created clear boundaries from the beginning and allowed us to work harmoniously without issue. To keep us on the same page, I wanted to be extremely prepared. We began planning our Work Week schedules in May and did not stop revising and reviewing them until September, right before Work Week began.
After so many months of planning and prepping, it was a surreal feeling to see it all play out. We got such positive feedback from recruiters about their experience and how much more enjoyable it was. We also had an extremely successful Recruitment, with our retention rates improving significantly from last year. Day 1 rose from 88% to 97%, and Day 2 from 67% to 85%. We recruited the largest member class since 2019 and exceeded quota.
Not only did I gain leadership and public speaking skills, but this role provided a newfound confidence within me. It was the most insane and amazing experience I’ve ever had and I’m so grateful!
Another large part of my position is chapter retention. It is part of my responsibility to make sure our members are engaged within the chapter and therefore have less resignations.
I created a Retention Committee (that I rebranded as the Sunshine Committee) to brainstorm ways to keep members happy with their membership. The committee is made up of a representative from each grade level, along with our Director of Lifetime Membership and Director of Risk and Wellness.
I wanted a rep from each grade so that I could get direct insight from each membership class. I also included the Director of LM because she plans our sisterhood events, and our Director of R&W because part of her position is focused on our members’ mental health.
The committee meets every other week and not only brainstorms new activities, but also thinks of ways to reach out or engage members that have been on Exec’s “watch list.” This list consists of members who have not been coming to chapter events or missing mandatory requirements.
As VPME I oversee the Membership Experience team that consists of 5 directors (Director of Matching & Selection not pictured).
I am in constant communication with my directors, answering questions, supporting their positions, and helping plan or set up events whenever I can.
We meet every Sunday to check in and discuss events they’re working on.
And if you thought I couldn’t serve on any more teams or committees… you’d be wrong!
The final committee I serve on is the Executive Committee. This consists of our president, me, Vice President of Community Relations, Vice President of Chapter Programming & Development, and Vice President of Operations.
Each position is in charge of their own team of directors and each have their own specific focus on chapter activities. But, we all work together to solve confidential chapter issues and challenges.
Exec meets once a week and is constantly communicating and working out chapter logistics daily.
My favorite part of serving on Exec is when we brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other to come up with a solution to some challenge that has come up. It’s shown me how much I love being on a team and holding a leadership role!