Membership recruitment is of course a primary interest in all voluntary associations. Trade associations are no different. If you read books and go to seminars for trade associations and non-profits you would think that membership recruitment is conducted by tracking, that is, carefully recording statistics of visitor and new member activity. This is a bit like spending all your energy on discussing how to express the score of a baseball game and never picking up a bat. Scoring works only if it serves to improve the game.
Here are my 3 top rules for membership recruitment.
1. Make a human connection. Members, who like your organization, and invite people they know are your best method of obtaining new members.
2. Make a human connection. When a visitor comes to your meeting, put them with a warm, similar person, who will find out who they are and what they have come out to find. Notice, find out what they want, so you might be able to fulfill it. Do NOT treat them like another notch on the belt or legs pix on the fusilage!
3. Keep human connections by providing value. Run your organization for the benefit of members. Be sure that the members get what they came for. This will work far better than moaning and groaning that people no longer want to join. The best leadership is servantship.
Now, if tracking helps to make sure your organization is doing all of that, great. Notice, however, it is about people, not just recordkeeping! Happy recruitment.