Tag Archives: membership

2018 Data

February 1 is the date that AAUW considers the “official” day to report membership numbers.

Here is the graph of how our membership has changed since our founding in 2008:

Membership categories by date

History

Since this marks our 10th year as a branch, here are some additional facts about our membership numbers.

• Over the ten years, our average number of members on Feb 1 is 84, with 48 primary and 36 dual members.
• Over the last five years our Feb. 1 membership has stabilized in the 90s, though our Nov. 30 membership (just before lapsed members are removed) is usually over 100.
• We have enrolled 252 unique members over the years.
• 55% of our members stay for only one or two years. We are glad to have introduced them to AAUW resources.
• About a quarter of the members stay for at least six years, and after ten years we still have eight of our 24 charter members.

February 1 is the date that AAUW considers the “official” day to report membership numbers.

Here is the graph of how our membership has changed since our founding in 2008:

Membership categories by date

Three people have joined or rejoined since February 1, and our current breakdown of how members connected to AAUW before they joined the virtual branch is:

To compare this year’s numbers with previous ones in more detail, see http://tarheel.aauwnc.org/tag/membership/

Our membership numbers stayed relatively stable this year. We did have three new graduates join us under the new program that we funded where the branch waives local dues and pays the $11 state dues, so new graduates (any degree) may join under the national Give-A-Grad-A-Gift program and pay $0 for the first year. Please think about your friends who might fit this program. They were among the total of 11 new members.

We didn’t recruit any Shape the Future new members, but three members took advantage of our discounted dues (we recommend $40 — instead of the normal $65 — and will accept $20) for those who value their AAUW membership but cannot afford full dues.

Thanks to the following members for recruiting new members: Virginia Adamson, Peg Holmes, Denny McGuire,  Mary Peterson, and Nancy Shoemaker, Mary Peterson, and Peg Holmes. Special thanks to nonmember Pat Sledge who has recommended AAUW to some of her BPW sisters — we are glad to see the cooperation between the two groups (and at least some of us hope to welcome Pat as a member sometime soon.)

On the other hand, we did have 14 members resign or lapse and we still miss Leslie Syron who died. That means our total membership changed from 94 to 90 over the year.  Since February 1, three new members have joined us and our count is now 93.

To renew your membership, check for your member ID and go to the AAUW NC membership page for quick access to a personalized online renewal form. To renew, use this www.aauw.org link or check our Join page for additional options.

More details:

Membership

The AAUW Tar Heel branch is a vibrant group of nearly 100 members from across the state. We’ll have a presence at the April 21 Women’s Advocacy Day in Raleigh, and we hope to introduce more people to the work that AAUW does. Look for us at the AAUW table in the 1000 Court of the Legislative Building — or if you miss the event, check out the Virtual Table.

We’re glad to partner with you and your organization, but if you’re still looking for a way to get connected to the conversations about equity for women, do consider joining AAUW. Until May 10 a membership (national, state, and this virtual branch) through 6/30/2016 is $40 instead of the usual $65.

• Find the details on joining now

UPDATE 4/29:
We are pleased to announce that the board has approved free memberships for new graduates. This applies if you’ve received an associate degree or higher in the last two years and you haven’t been an AAUW member before. To take advantage of this offer fill out our

• Membership form

On the second page, click “other” in the “you owe no dues” section — and put “Give a Grad” in the text box.

Our recruiting and renewals improved some this year with 25 new members between Feb. 1, 2014 and Feb. 1, 2015. That’s the most new members since 2011-2012,  and there were at least 12 current members involved in recruiting the new members.

Thanks to the following members for enlarging our reach by bringing new contacts to us:

Karla Atkinson
Doris Bernlohr
Kat Braeman
Michelle Evans
Michele Hoyman
Bea Keller
Elizabeth Laney
Mary Peterson
Mary Fran Schickedanz
Nancy Shoemaker
Laura Tew
Terry Wall

Do you have a friend who might enjoy getting connected to AAUW and AAUW NC? Consider asking them to join this branch — which may be a bridge to getting them more involved in AAUW or our allied organizations in their local community.

On the other hand, we did have 20 members resign or lapse. That means our total membership grew from 89 to 94 over the year. We have welcomed  back three of the 20 and our membership is currently at 97.

by Lill Van Order, Director at Large and Membership Contact

This year was a bit slow for membership in The Tar Heel Branch. We are currently 89 strong with about half and half primary and dual members. The graphs show the breakdown.

The board made an effort for retention of members by contacting members who had not renewed. We first sent an email and then a followed up with a phone call. It was not as helpful as we had hoped but a few did respond to the reminder. A small percentage of the members actually resigned; most just let their membership lapse with no response.

This lack of might be a show of the times or just lack of interest in the organization. The question might be how do we keep members interested? Is it hard to “get involved” in a virtual branch? For many of the primary members this might be their first exposure to AAUW. Perhaps these questions should take the form of a discussion.

We do need to work on retention and recruitment and we need your help. What are your ideas? Why do you stay a member of the Tar Heel Branch?

Dig deeper:

• Reports from earlier years
• Membership history for all branches in NC

February 1 is the date when AAUW reports the “official” membership in the branches. For information on the AAUW NC branch history, see this post at www.aauwnc.org.

This was the first year that the Tar Heel Branch lost more members than it gained. This is not terribly surprising after two years of remarkable growth. But it does say that, just like any branch, we need to work on retention of our members.

In FY12 we had good recruiting events at Elon University (spring of 2011) and Western Carolina University (fall of 2011) where we recruited 27 of the new members on the rolls  for  2/1/2012 (nearly half of the 59 total new members). However, this year, without such a campus recruiting event, we had only 18 new members, and 35 resigned.

If we look into the 35 resignations more carefully, 16 were from those two campuses. Another 7 members moved away or resigned due to health issues, 6 dual and 6 primary members lapsed for a variety of other reasons.

Perhaps of more concern is that our net change from 122 to 105 members represents a drop of 14 primary members, 2 duals (those whose primary affiliation is with another AAUW branch), and 1 student. We still have a higher per cent of primary members (58 of 105) than any other online/virtual branch, but we might do better at connecting brand new members to AAUW. If you have suggestions on our “new member guide” (other than, of course, making it more personal), please do pass them on.

We are also doing  a survey of members again this year (see 2010 results) to see what suggestions that might gather.

AAUW Tar Heel Branch growth 2008-2013