Membership Officer - First Steps

Words of Wisdom

Your first days are about understanding how things work—not fixing everything.

Focus on learning the role, meeting key people, and understanding existing processes.

What Success Looks Like

• You understand how new members are welcomed.
• You know who to contact when questions arise.
• You can access the tools and information needed to perform the role.

Best Practices

• Learn before changing.
• Build relationships early.
• Ask questions.
• Keep your initial focus narrow.

Common Pitfalls

• Trying to fix everything immediately.
• Overcommitting before understanding the role.
• Making changes before learning why current processes exist.
• Assuming you need to know everything right away.

Purpose

Provide a checklist to help new Membership Officers get oriented, build connections, and identify essential first steps.

Checklist

Understand Your Role

☐ Review your role page (e.g., Membership Officer) and its Role Overview

Connect with Key People

☐ Schedule a Membership Officer Handoff Checklist, if the previous Membership Officer is available

☐ If there is no handoff, learn how new members are currently welcomed and contacted

Local Leadership

☐ Meet with local leadership and discuss

• How new members are currently welcomed and engaged
• Expectations for New Member Events
• How local leadership supports membership outreach and retention

☐ Attend your first ExComm meeting

☐ Understand the geographic area served by your Local Group

☐ Ask the LocSec to have membership@localgroup.us.mensa.org redirected to your email address

☐ Understand the geographic area served by your Local Group

Area Coordinators

☐ If your Local Group has Area Coordinators, introduce yourself and learn how they support member engagement

Learn more: Membership Officer - Working with Area Coordinators

Local Group Communications

☐ Contact the Newsletter Editor and learn submission deadlines, formats, and expectations

☐ Identify other communication channels used by the Local Group and learn who manages them

Learn more: Membership Officer - Working with Local Group Communications

National Office

☐ Review National Office Staff Contacts

☐ Learn which National Office staff support Membership Officers

☐ Read the National Office New Member Communications sent to new members

Access Membership Tools

Membership Officers commonly use the following tools and resources. See National Tools and Resources for descriptions and access information.

☐ Local Group Reports

☐ Email My Members Tool

☐ Member Directory

☐ Mensa Connect Membership Officer Community

Access Local Group Tools

☐ Verify access to Local Group communication channels (Facebook, Meetup, Discord, etc.)

☐ Learn how to access the Local Group file repository, if one exists

What Can Wait

• Redesigning systems
• Launching new programs
• Fixing long-standing issues

The goal is to understand how things currently work before deciding whether changes are needed.

If You Feel Overwhelmed

That's normal.

Focus on:

• One task at a time
• Asking questions
• Learning existing processes
• Keeping things simple

Next Step

Once you feel oriented and have completed most of these tasks, continue with:

• Membership Officer - Next Steps