Membership is the thrust of our Association
Membership
In the famous words of International Membership Chair/Division President Dan Yeomans: "Membership is the thrust of our Association"...this is surely a fact today more than ever!
As a member of the AFSA International Membership Committee, it is my duty to act as a conduit for all of your membership concerns. I want to help you get the most out of your membership team/recruiters; therefore, please contact me at anytime if you have any membership questions, or would like to get some ideas to stimulate your chapter's recruiting/retention efforts. If I do not know the answer offhand, I will work hard to get it to you as quick as possible.
Furthermore, the aforementioned Active Duty Affairs website has interactive forums where membership ideas/best practices can be exchanged; I foresee this to be the place to cross flow ideas and get most of your membership questions answered! Once again, contact me if you have any questions on Membership.
Update: We have grown approximately 1000 members this year as of Aug 31st; however, the last two months have slowed down tremendously. We need to work hard to establish membership committees (with reps in each squadron) to entice their counterparts to join AFSA and strengthen their voice in Congress. This will better allow us to spread the word of AFSA in every unit, and hopefully regain the increases that we had during the first half of the year.
Subsequently, remember that spouses and children can be members of our Auxiliary because their vote counts just as much as ours does and it can really have an impact on the Hill when it comes to lobbying for enlisted family benefits. Furthermore, now is a perfect time to entice all of your recent SSgt Selects to join AFSA; they will be able to sign up under the "18 months for $18" plan until they put on the stripe...then, they will have to pay $25 as a SSgt.
Let them know that every good NCO joins/supports AFSA, and that it also influences their subordinates to "actively participate" in this vital professional organization IAW AFI 36-2618 [the Enlisted Force Structure], Chapter 3.1 (dated 27 Feb 09). This should help you recruit most of our future NCOs into our fantastic organization!
SMSgt Matt Becker