in memoriam - Fleet Reserve Association

(Enclosure 3)
NES-15
11 May 2007
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE SECRETARY MEMORANDUM NUMBER 8-07
From: National Executive Secretary
To: Weekly Mail
Branch Secretaries
Subj: Status Report on NHQ Staffing, Membership Issues, and Other Projects
Past NES Memorandums (17April 2006 and 3 November 2006) addressed various FRA membership and
other key issues and detailed NHQ staff action plans with regard to the Association’s declining membership. In conjunction
with these ongoing challenges the NHQ Staff met on 12 April 2007 for an update on various initiatives and
to brainstorm other initiatives detailed below. During the meeting I also announced a staffing reorganization plan
detailed in my e-mail to the NBOD of 20 April 2007.
NHQ STAFF REORGANIZATION
A new NHQ staff reorganization plan includes advertising for a full-time Director of Membership Development.
The opening announcement was posted on several job listing web sites and FRA’s web site on Friday, 20
April. Interviews of top candidates were conducted this week. In addition it will run in Roll Call which is widely
read newspaper in the association community and on Capitol Hill.
DMD Bob Washington will continue to serve in this position until a full-time director is hired and oriented.
He will also continue as FRA’s Health Care Advisor and assume new outreach responsibilities involving travel in
conjunction with liaison efforts with commands and activities, speaking to groups and other tasks once the new director
joins the staff. His expertise and participation in various health care related committees and panels will enhance
his presentations to various groups to expand awareness of the Association and its legislative advocacy work.
The staffing plan also includes a part-time staff member to shoulder some responsibilities now performed
by MIT Vince Cuthie who’s retiring in early July. We anticipate announcing this position in the near future. Fortunately,
Vince may be continuing in a part-time capacity with yet to be finalized responsibilities including managing
FRA’s Scholarship Program.
MEMBERSHIP INITIATIVES
The Bring ‘em Back Call Program referenced in my 3 November 2006 Memorandum (3-07) continues
and data on calls to MALs by NHQ staff indicate positive results. The program is a variation on PNP George Kaye’s
“Member Get a Member” program and of 1200 calls completed since last July, 119 non-renewing members have
paid their dues. Our initial response rate was in the 6% range, but through analysis and honing of the script, we have
reached fantastic statistics for April 2007 – 101 Shipmates were contacted and 45 paid – the majority for multiple
year memberships! That is a 44.5% response rate. This program reinforces the importance of personal contact and
outreach efforts which also prove successful at the Branch level. The script and how to instructions on use of the
website for the program are located in MY FRA in the Area for Branch and Regional Officers. To make calling
members for renewal easier, we have added phone numbers to the Branch Reports for any member who is needing to
renew or has terminated because of non-payment of dues.
NHQ staff discussed hiring a telemarketing firm to make calls on behalf of the FRA to non-renewing
members in order to augment staff (and perhaps Branch) calls to these Shipmates and may check into the costs of
contracting for this type of support.
A direct mail campaign is underway with an initial test mailing to 10,000 prospects from the FRASOL
list. The list has been scrubbed and is being de-duped and now totals about 170,000. Many new names have also