AIPLA Committee Report
DATE: September 27, 2013 MEETING: Pre 2013 Annual Meeting
COMMITTEE NAME: Membership Committee
COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP: Chair Michael Piper
Vice-Chair Betty Morgan
SUBCOMMITTEES: None
DISCUSS THE OVERALL MISSION OF THE COMMITTEE AS IT RELATES TO AIPLA’s VISION, MISSION, and VALUES:
The membership committee is focused on assisting the Board and AIPLA Headquarters in finding and developing better and more effective ways to serve our membership as well as evaluating and proposing ways to grow and maintain our membership base. The membership committee plays a role specifically in maintaining a strong community which is open and inclusive and supporting membership growth and retention which provides the foundation for financial stability.
PROJECTS:
Plans for stated meetings: Our plan is to meet as a committee focused on committee business at the 2013 Annual Meeting, the 2014 Mid-Winter Meeting, and the 2014 Spring Meeting. As opportunities become available we will be presenting proposals to the Board and/or HQ at or in between the stated meetings. We are also open to supporting interaction with other committees at the stated meeting as both at their committee meetings (on request) and informally by an interaction between our members and the other committee’s leadership.
Plans for coordination between stated meetings: Our plan is to meet regularly by phone conference including HQ and our Board Liaison in the call. We tend to meet about once a month, but the schedule is flexible to account for when projects and materials which are our primary focus for the relevant call are ripe for discussion. We also regularly e-mail notes and proposals to committee members for feedback and approval in between telephone conferences.
Plans for communication with the committee clusters/board liaisons: We will meet with our committee cluster whenever a meeting is called. We also interact with a number of the committees in our cluster in the course of working on projects which intersect with their area of expertise and/or operation. We include our Board Liaisons in our conference calls and e-mail chains.
Detailed discussions of the various active projects we are working on are included below under the strategic plan pillar they most impact, primarily member services. The projects each have their own sub-heading related to the project.
ADVOCACY:
The membership committee has worked with the Trademark Committee to engage the association in the PTO review of trademark IDs. The membership committee also is working to engage the Copyright Committee in the upcoming review and revision of Copyright Law proposed by the Registrar. These advocacy efforts should assist in both membership recruitment and retention.
PUBLIC EDUCATION:
The membership committee’s work with the Copyright Committee and to engage it in the revision of Copyright Law will present opportunities for public education efforts for the association.
MEMBER SERVICE:
New Category Outreach: Licensing
The committee has finalized a document (attached) supporting plans for a specific outreach in the licensing space to coincide with the new member category which has now been approved for licensing professionals. The document has been provided to HQ to support their efforts and will be revised and expanded as requested by any feedback from HQ. At HQ’s request the Membership Committee can then take the document to the Licensing committee and get their buy in and commitments to support and build from there.
The goal is to use this memo and approach to also be a template to define outreach and services to the other new categories which will be brought in which is the committee’s next big project. As a peek ahead, the committee has preliminarily identified a set of targets it would be interested in potentially helping in developing messages and outreach plans for: the non-attorney niches opened up by the new categories (licensing professionals, technical/TM experts, business leaders, and paralegals and technical advisors), patent agents, government employees, corporate attorneys, shareholders/partners at big firms, shareholders/partners at boutiques, associates in big firms and associates in boutiques (different messages of opportunity), and small and solo practitioners.
Corporate Bundling
The committee has been working extensively with AIPLA HQ on refining the corporate bundling proposal which has been a primary focus since the member categories were completed. The bundle would allow for group purchases by corporations which bundle together multiple individual memberships along with online CLE and meeting attendance. Although the payment would come from the corporation, the implementation would still be a collection of individual memberships by eligible employees of the corporation. The goal of the corporate bundling would be to both increase the number of corporate members on the rolls (and receiving AIPLA e-mails and solicitation) and to increase participation in AIPLA events by the corporate members. The pricing would include components to offset the costs of the bundled CLE and meeting attendance within the price while also not losing out on dues we were otherwise receiving. If priced and bundled correctly we hope to create the opportunity to increase revenue and increase membership and participation while not losing profits in the process (although the profits would not grow as much as if the various activities were joined/undertaken separately). The approach and implementation are in close to final form and HQ is running various pricing scenarios against current corporate membership and participation data to try and find optimal price points. The committee hopes to have a finalized proposal for the Board by the annual meeting.
If AIPLA ultimately approves this direction, the Membership Committee would also endeavor to work with the Corporate Practice Committee and HQ to create a periodic e-mail designed more for corporate business types rather than just lawyers. This could give more value to the Corp membership as it expands to more than just the lawyers. It could also feed into the theory of getting the AIPLA message out more broadly than just the lawyers. This would fit within the idea of outreach programs discussed below.
Membership 2.0: Ambassadors
The committee continues to work on the ambassador program that HQ is trying to revive. The recognition is that the highest percentage of AIPLA new members comes from referrals from other members. The overall goal is to further strengthen a culture of members reaching out to find new members from their own networks. There is also an already existing incentive award for getting new members to join which provides $50 off of a stated meeting price for each full member and $25 off the stated meeting price for each patent agent/junior members to the person who recruits them. We have been working on identifying creative ideas to create and support a culture of continuous outreach by our members, especially our involved members, to non-members.
The current discussion is that the incentive should be about more than $50 off a stated meeting but should provide recognition and access as being equally rewarding for the type of people who might do this most successfully and the type of people who already are doing it presently. The incentives should also consider that the vast majority of our members do not attend stated meetings and yet could provide significant value to the association even remotely (especially with our growing local outreach efforts).
On that basis the committee has been considering and making suggestions on recognition for “AIPLA Ambassadors” to try and both incentivize and reward member recruitment. Discussions include whether the current $ program is beneficial and properly tailored (should the incentives be tweaked now that various new categories have been added and some of the price points have changed). We have discussed alternate monetary incentives.
The committee is focusing on ways to build up the brand of AIPLA Ambassadors – suggestions included a page on the AIPLA site listing recent ambassadors and also a posted ranking with the top producing ambassadors for the year and over time, badge recognition (maybe not a ribbon but a sticker like the PAC sticker), an ambassadors hall of fame inducting members who historically were active recruiters and interviewing them for their thoughts on the benefits of AIPLA and the personal benefits of recruiting others to join. Other possibilities raised in recent discussions include: a personal thank you or 10 minute organizational mentoring coffee with someone on the ExCo or Board if you recruit more than 5 new members, a President’s reception with the Board & ExCo if the group is large enough, or inviting Ambassadors to the New Member/1st Time Attendee reception as well (logical since they probably helped people get there and are of a mind to help new members get oriented).
Finally – as AIPLA requests members to recruit others – attention could be focused on what can be provided to support their recruiting efforts. One thought was creating a micro-site which includes materials and talking points both generally and for specific targeted non-members. Similarly the site could include: an easy way to get lists of eligible non-members in a firm/company, in a city, from a law school, from an engineering school, etc. This will clearly take work with HQ to identify what could potentially be done efficiently and effectively.
Another support idea is providing a link to an ambassadors entry point on the AIPLA website which recaps the talking points for the prospective new member responding to the e-mails and allows them to jump straight into the member registration system with whatever discounts are being providing to the recruited new member. Potentially it could also be tailored to automatically give credit to the person who sent the link as an ambassador or at least could provide a field upfront to ask the prospective new member who sent them. Again, this will take work with HQ to figure out what might be feasible here.
The committee is working on a draft report/proposal for HQ feedback on these ideas with respect to ambassadors.
Membership 2.0: Targeted Outreach Phone-a-thons
The committee has also recently identified an alternative recruitment path for investigation. Some peer organizations have had significant recruiting success using designated days and places for members to directly call potential new members. While this would be a new approach for AIPLA and would need to be considered and tailored to work with AIPLA’s culture, the opportunity could have real impact even with a relatively small number of participants from current AIPLA leadership and members.
The committee will start vetting and investigating the concept with headquarters and other sources and based on those investigations potentially bring back a proposal. With her experience from peer organizations, Betty Morgan will lead this exploration for the committee.
Membership 2.0: TM/Copyright Outreach
The committee is working on a targeted TM outreach proposal both for its own purposes and to create a template and model for how the committee could propose and provide value for other potential targeted outreaches to other groups. Jody Drake with Jon Hudis is working on the detailed proposal which has been initially circulated and is in the process of receiving feedback for revision and ultimately approval. The concept would be to get leadership and others to bring a TM friend to AIPLA. It would include talking points about the positive advantages of AIPLA for TM attorneys (without being negative about other organizations but just highlighting things the committee believes may be unique to AIPLA at this time). Advantages could include: excellent broad IP CLE, an undiluted advocacy message from an active advocacy program, leadership opportunities and engagement opportunities at a young age, international opportunities through AIPPI, and a different base of prospective clients in non-TM attorneys in private practice to build relationships with. From a delivery/channel standpoint, an e-mail could be developed conveying the talking points in a 1 page piece and asking the recipient to reach out to their TM friends by e-mail or call or otherwise. The e-mail and the piece can include a specific landing site on the AIPLA web page highlighting the TM points for this targeted approach and making for an easy path to sign up for membership. A slightly modified version of the same e-mail and landing site could be used for a direct communication to TM attorney non-members if and when the committee is able to obtain an appropriate e-mail list to send to. A similar flyer could be produced for when AIPLA travels to TM heavy events.
In developing this proposal, the committee identified that there are a number of overlapping issues with our copyright audience but that there is also a compelling story about the upcoming changes to copyright law that would appeal very strongly to that audience. The current plan is for Betty Morgan to take the draft TM document and enhance it with the additional copyright issues and also identify overlapping issues to create a combined source document of talking points for both disciplines.
Once the committee has the talking points, the plan is to provide to HQ a template which suggests the target audience, proposed paths to reach the audience, and talking points for that audience. HQ would take the lead on developing the specific materials and channels with the committee available to provide feedback and assistance in refining the materials and message and in some instances in delivering or supporting the delivery of the message or the outreach. Stated another way, the primary goal is to provide content and support for HQ to be able to build on in specific implementations as HQ continues its efforts under Membership 2.0.
New Lawyers/Law Students
The Membership Committee has been reaching out to leadership for committees for NewLawyers/LawStudents to support their efforts targeting professors, targeting law students, and building a network of IP Law Societies. The committees are considering trying to do careers in IP panels at several places around the country to support law societies and campus efforts. The Membership Committee may be able to assist their Board liaisons in providing bridging efforts and connections for these activities possibly also providing an additional source for leadership mentoring for their leaders and brainstorming both to help them generate ideas and on ways to support or implement ideas they already have. The Membership Committee can also potentially support their efforts by bringing them into the ideas we have on the ambassador program and the structures being worked on with HQ to build around that.There has also been discussion of how to create and support Student Block Captains or Law Student Ambassadors which could fit into this model.