A Model for Assessing Professional Association Engagement

Abstract

Assessing member engagement with a professional association is critical in determining the success of programs such as the AACP New Investigator Award (NIA), because engagement leads to organizational growth and is key to long term sustainability. A review of the literature indicated that many organizations are focused on increasing engagement, but there are few quantifications of engagement to be used to measures success of initiatives. Use of online communication tools such as AACP Connect can be quantified, and are often used as a proxy for engagement, but the literature is clear that the majority of individuals may be avid readers, but do not post. The authors searched peer-reviewed and organizational literature for published models evaluating organizational engagement to create a modified scale to quantify engagement following the NIA. The American Bar Association published an article assessing engagement of its members with five tiers, explaining the tiers as a continuum. Although presented by ABA as a continuum, this approach was seen by the authors as an approach to measure the depth of engagement.