Member Benefits
March 28, 2009 - 11:29pm — NathanaelOster (PEN)
We are currently assessing our member benefits, and I am curious what sorts of benefits other chapters are offering. Tangible, intangible? More opportunities or more "things"?
NCSU
Our benefits are more tangible things, such as merchandise discounts. We sell mugs, padfolios, and Jim Wilson books for fundraising, which are all very popular items. Members get discounts on these items.
Also, members are the only ones "allowed" to participate in VBMA events, such as annual speed networking at the North Carolina Veterinary Conference, and the annual mini-VLE that we host here at the CVM.
I am looking to improve member benfits. Of course I always try to push the "it looks great on resume" point, but I am reading other chapters ideas to try to use more "intangible" benefits. I also really like the VA benefit about the online practice evaluation tools.
Thanks for all the help, guys!
Shannon VanDyke
NCSU-CVM VBMA Chapter President
c/o 2011
At Virginia we've been
At Virginia we've been trying to help our members by giving them opportunities that they can put on their resumes. For example by bringing in NCVEI (http://www.ncvei.org) and training our students on how to use those free online tools to evaluate their practice. We're also trying to build a program with Boehringer Ingelheim where we could teach our members how to use some of the practice management tools on common veterinary software programs like Avimark and Cornerstone.
While we don't do as much of this at VA a lot of chapters will give some tangible things as membership benefits such as business cards or business card holders.
I'd be especially interested to hear what other chapters were doing. I know Emily who is the president at Iowa was saying they had some awesome success with recruitment - she'd be a great person to ask about what works too!
Cyndie Johnson