Membership Officer - First Steps
Words of Wisdom
Your first days are about understanding how things work — not fixing everything.
What Success Looks Like
You should have a basic understanding of:
- How new members are welcomed and communicated with
- Who is responsible for what locally
- What tools and systems are used
- What recurring tasks exist
- Who your key points of contact are
Best Practices
Common Pitfalls
- Trying to fix everything immediately
- Assuming previous volunteers did things “wrong”
- Overcommitting early
- Not asking questions
Purpose
To provide a checklist to help you get oriented, build connections, and identify essential tasks.
First Steps
Understand Your Role
- ☐ Review your role page (e.g., Membership Officer) and its Role Overview
Connect with Key People
- ☐ Schedule a Membership Officer - Handoff, if the previous Membership Office is available
- ☐ If there isn't a handoff, find out if and how new members are initially contacted
- Membership Officer - Working with Local Leadership
- ☐ Ask the LocSec to have membership@localgroup.us.mensa.org redirected to your email address
- ☐ Understand the geographic area of your Local Group
- ☐ Attend your first ExComm meeting
- ☐ Ask how what type and how often local leadership would like new member events to occur
- ☐ Ask if local leadership reaches out to new members as well as the Membership Officer doing so
- Membership Officer - Working with Area Coordinators
- ☐ If your Local Group has Area Coordinators, send an email introducing yourself to each one
- Membership Officer - Working with Local Group Communications
- ☐ Contact the Newsletter Editor to clarify submission deadlines and the preferred method and format for content submission
- ☐ Contact other communication contacts in your Local Group to discuss NEED TO COMPLETE THIS
- National Office Membership Staff
- ☐ Understand who to contact at the National Office
- ☐ Read the initial emails sent by the American Mensa, Ltd (AML) to new members
Access the Membership Tools Available on the National Website
- Ensure your credentials allow you to access:
- ☐ Local Group Reports
- ☐ Email My Members Tool
- ☐ Mensa Connect Membership Officer Community
- ☐ Ensure you can search the Member Directory
Access Chapter Tools
- ☐ Ensure you can access chapter communication channels (e.g., Facebook, Meetup, Discord)
- ☐ Learn how to access the Local Group file repository, if the Local Group uses one
What is Not Part of First Steps
- Redesigning systems
- Launching new programs
- Fixing long-standing issues
If You Feel Overwhelmed
That’s normal.
Focus on:
- One task at a time
- Asking for help
- Keeping things simple
Next Step
Once you feel oriented, move to: