Membership Officer - First Steps
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.
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 Officer is available
☐ If there is no handoff, learn how new members are currently welcomed and contacted
Local Leadership
☐ Meet with local leadership
☐ Ask the LocSec to have [membership@localgroup.us.mensa.org](mailto:membership@localgroup.us.mensa.org) redirected to your email address
☐ Understand the geographic area served by your Local Group
☐ Attend your first ExComm meeting
☐ Discuss expectations for New Member Events
☐ Understand how local leadership participates in welcoming and engaging new members
Area Coordinators
☐ If your Local Group has Area Coordinators, introduce yourself and learn how they support member engagement
See: 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
See: 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 - Initial Emails sent to new members
Access Membership Tools
☐ Verify access to Local Group Reports
☐ Verify access to the Email My Members Tool
☐ Join the Mensa Connect Membership Officer Community
☐ Verify access to the Member Directory
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: