Non-discriminatory membership – we see the best option as an “opt-in” approach with a principle of non-discrimination where any stakeholder group may express an interest and should be welcome. The process of representation in day to day governance must also be inclusive with governance that reflects the demographics of the membership.

First, consider who gets to make the rules. Tenured scholars who, as we’ve noted, are mostly white and male, largely make the rules that determine who else can join the tenured ranks. This involves what sociologists call “boundary work,” or the practice of a group setting rules to determine who is good enough to join. And as such, many of the rules established around tenure over the years work really well for white scholars, but don’t adequately capture the contributions of scholars of color.

academic and student services team that collaborates to plan and implement data-informed, equity-infused practices along the student journey.

ISPI offers a variety of publications, from its member-exclusive monthly and quarterly journals, "Performance Improvement Journal and Performance Improvement Quarterly,"

A lot of membership pros will think, “All I am trying to do is get this guy to write a check for $1,200 to join, that’s all I want him to do. I don’t care that he is going to be a member for 20 years. That’s nice, but none of that matters unless I get him to write the first check,” Stackpole says. “And so, folks, especially marketing and membership sales folks, sometimes get frustrated with this idea [LTV], because it doesn’t seem to have any relevance to the immediate goal.” The traditional LTV calculation looks like this: (dues + nondues revenue) x average tenure = LTV But Stackpole says associations have greater ability today than ever before to track and assign a dollar value to nonmonetary engagement like committee service, knowledge contribution, grassroots advocacy, or anything else the association deems important. Adding those elements to the equation can reveal the long-term worth of an association’s most engaged members.