Tips for CEOs - Open/Active/Closed Members by Age Group

The following are tips for CEOs using the Open/Active Closed Members by Age Group screen when preparing for Board Report meetings.

Understanding Account Opening and Closing Trends

• One of the most powerful tools on the system for understanding the coming and going of members. This option allows you to correlate concepts like:

• What are the trends for the types of members we attract by age and gender? You select 5 years, and the system uses your current MASTER file (active members) and current MSHIST file (close members) so the data is always there. When you brainstorm with a group you can change the age breakdowns, allowing for small slices of age groups if you would like (such as 5 groups looking at people in their thirties).

• How many memberships have we opened in the selected years? Is it consistent from year to year or are there spikes or valleys to discuss? Can you tell the story, and does everyone agree?

• Of the population of members who joined in the selected years, how many are still active members today? How is our member retention and does it make sense? It is not always about the member’s satisfaction, it can be about being in more than one business at a time (classic memberships vs. indirect memberships, merged/acquired members vs. organic retail members, etc.)

• So what is the retention rate? Take the group up to the big picture by selecting F15 or F17 for summary stats that include Net Loss, Retention %, and more.

• How many memberships have been closed during the selected years? Is it consistent from year to year or are there spikes or valleys to discuss? Can you tell the story, and does everyone agree?

• Do not forget the graphs: select either the View Age Distribution or the View Group Trends button and give the group a set of pictures that might be worth a thousand words.