NW ACDA President, Richard Nance, calls for commitment to gaining new members

Richard Nance, President Column,
ACDA Northwestern Division
Reprinted from the ACDA Northwestern, Northwest Notes: August 31, 2008

Saturday, August 23rd was a very productive day as your NWACDA board met in a daylong session in Seattle.  I am so pleased to have such an outstanding group of leaders on the board.  Their optimism and creativity amazed me as we discussed several important issues.  We had the opportunity to take a first blush look at the venues for the 2010 division convention—they are truly outstanding, and I will give you some details in an article in October, so stay tuned! 

I must dedicate this column to the primary topic of discussion during our meeting, which is of vital concern to all ACDA members and to our organization—loss of membership and the impact this has on our national budget. 

It is very important that every ACDA member be aware that between January 1, 2007 and May 1, 2008, a very short period of time, our organization lost some 3500 members.  This alarming figure has come to light since last May, when Tim Sharp took over as Executive Director of ACDA and began the process of assessing where we are as an organization.  Beyond the bare facts, which are shocking enough, comes the reality that financial commitments have been made based on a membership of 21,000 when income from dues only totals approximately 17,500 members.  You can see that this has created a huge budget crisis for the national organization, and we are now operating in a deficit situation, some $300,000 in the red.

I am certain this takes you by surprise—it did me, as well as the rest of the board when I broke the news from Tim Sharp to them.  Tim and his staff have already taken steps to set our financial house in order, and things are undergoing a major restructuring at the national headquarters.  In the Northwestern division we are extremely healthy and have been for many years, thanks to the efforts of past presidents and our long-time treasurer Carol Stewart-Smith.  They have been incredibly good stewards of our money, and we are well positioned for the future.  However, that does not change the fact that national ACDA has hit a bump in the road, and we desperately need the help of each individual member to get over it.

To that end, Tim Sharp has charged the divisions to increase ACDA membership by a total of 3000 new active and student members by June of 2009.  The Northwestern division is the largest of the seven divisions in land area, but the smallest in number, with 985 active members as of July 31st.  This accounts for just below 6% of the total national membership!  Under Tim’s goal allocation, the Northwestern division is being asked to increase membership by 142 new active and 34 new student members in the coming eight months—just under 5% of the total goal of 3000.  By state this breaks down as follows:

•  Alaska:  5 new active and 1 new student member.
•  Idaho: 14 new active and 3 new student members.
•  Montana: 16 new active and 4 new student members.
•  Oregon: 40 new active and 10 new student members.
•  Washington: 57 new active and 14 new student members.
•  Wyoming: 10 new active and 10 new student members.

Please note that these are NEW members, not people who exist on ACDA rolls but who have let their memberships lapse.  We must make every effort to get those people back as ACDA members, in addition to recruiting new members.

In addition, Tim wants to push the idea of a rather under-utilized category of ACDA membership--associate members.  These are people who are singing in your community or church choir—lovers of choral music who are not necessarily choral professionals.  Tim is asking that EACH state recruit 50 new associate members.  As the board and I discussed, this is a rather hard sell right now, because ACDA needs to put in place more resources to attract this sort of member.  Never the less, this is an important part of Tim’s goal.

As division president I have set forth the following deadlines for achieving our part of the national membership goal:

•  State presidents will contact all expired members by September 30th.
•  State presidents will develop individual plans for meeting membership goals in their state and send to the division president by September 30th.  Plans should be implemented by mid-October.
•  State presidents will report progress of their membership initiative to the division president each month.
•  The membership initiative will be published in all state newsletters and websites as well as the division website, and regular updates will be published.
•  A mid-campaign analysis of the division effort will be done in January and published on the division website.
•  The division Collegiate and Student/Youth Activities chairs will work closely with their state chairs to solicit names of graduating seniors/masters students from all the division colleges and universities who will be entering the choral profession for the first time.  These graduates will receive a free first-year membership in ACDA (at the cost of just $15 per person to the division).  Each will receive a membership package congratulating them on their accomplishment and welcoming them into the profession.
•  The division will be represented with a booth at the NWMENC conference in Spokane this coming February.  We will also have a booth at the career fair to be held at the convention.
•  The division website will be undergoing changes in the next few months to provide better resources for each Repertoire and Standards area.

As you can see, the division board is taking definitive action to overcome this crisis—but WE NEED YOUR HELP!  I cannot emphasis enough how important it is for each individual member of ACDA to participate in this effort to rebuild our membership base.  We need everyone to be pro-active about this effort or it will fail.  Other prominent music organizations are struggling for members or have completely shut down—MENC no longer offers national conventions, and the International Association of Jazz Educators is no longer in business.  None of us want that to happen to ACDA.

So what can you do?  It seems so simple, but if every active member of the Northwestern division brought one new colleague into ACDA in the coming months, we would double our membership!  That would far exceed our membership goals.  Some of us might even bring in two or three new members—surely each of us knows at least one person working in the field of choral music that is not an ACDA member and should become one.  Perhaps you have the disposable income to “gift” the first year of membership to a young person you are a mentor to, or a long-time colleague you care about.  Tim Sharp would rather have this type of contribution than just a check to the organization, because this could literally be the “gift that keeps on giving.”  We need each of you to be an “evangelist” for ACDA!

The division board, your state officers and I invite each and every member of the Northwestern division to become a big part of this critical effort to bring 3000 new active and student members into ACDA by June of 2009.  We will be working with the national organization to build resources for attracting new associate members, and in the meantime, please approach singers and other individuals that you know to join—we need 50 new associate members from each state to reach our goal.  And if you know anyone that has belonged to ACDA in the past, but has let their membership lapse, please let him or her know how important they are to the organization, and how much we need them back in the fold. 

ACDA has so much to offer everyone involved in the choral art.  It should be the “home” of every choral professional, the founding organization for every thing we do.  Let’s work together to overcome this momentary bump in the road, and go forward into a healthy, thriving future!