Your AMS can’t be a universal solution for your membership. It cannot be their be-all end-all – nothing can. Sometimes, members will have to go somewhere else to find answers to their questions. However, your association management system can address many of your members’ needs. Whatever you can keep your members in the AMS ecosystem for (instead of going elsewhere), you certainly should. The stickier you can make your membership management software, the greater the buy-in from members. The more needs your association can service, the more positive the perception of your value proposition. Members will feel that their dues are going a long way.
One of the many value adds you can provide to your membership through your AMS is professional development courses – e-learning. You can easily host online courseware on your association management software. It’s as simple as uploading the content on the administrator side of the system and members will have access to it.
Furthermore, your association can decide how members are permitted to interact with the educational content. The course can be offered in free-form, so any member has immediate and complimentary access to the information, or you can place the content behind a paywall – so interested members are required to pay a fee for access. Your association could also choose to section-off the educational resource, so there is a threshold to access (only a certain level or role of member, and above, can see or access the content). Whatever way you want the content to be presented, it can be done through your AMS.
There is no better way to build buy-in from membership than to provide value adds through your AMS. Courseware is a value prop your association can add to their member management system that can be indefinitely replenished with new content. That means that you can continually gauge what professional development your members are looking to add to their repertoire, and then find (or develop) and upload a piece of content that matches that interest. This way, you are keeping those members engaged in your AMS ecosystem, and they feel fulfilled in that they are garnering the value they are looking for by being involved in your association’s online community.