Membership Recruitment & Retention Toolkit

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Membership Recruitment & Retention Toolkit

Your chapter plays an important role in helping members feel welcomed, connected, and supported within the local in-house community. This toolkit is designed to support your efforts with clear, practical ideas that are easy to apply.

You do not need to implement everything at once. Instead, use this toolkit as a flexible guide and focus on the actions that best align with your chapter’s goals, capacity, and member needs.

Membership growth is a shared effort between ACC staff, chapter administrators, and volunteer leaders. Small, consistent actions — such as welcoming a new member, making an introduction, or following up after an event — can have a meaningful impact over time.

We encourage you to start with one or two priority actions this quarter and build on your progress together.

Chapter Insights: Membership Call

• Call Recording (2026)
• Slides (2026)

MEMBERSHIP BASICS: 

Eligibility Criteria 

We recommend that board members and administrators have a shared, practical understanding of ACC membership structure and requirements.

If questions arise, the ACC Membership team is available to support you.

Membership Packages  

Find detailed descriptions of ACC’s membership packages and types here. We offer: 

• Individual memberships 

• Corporate memberships legal departments with 9 or more lawyers 

• In-transition memberships 

• Memberships for retired in-house counsel 

• Complimentary 30-day trial memberships. 

Membership Benefits 

Sharing membership benefits clearly and consistently is one of the most effective recruitment tools. Consider using the benefits video, brochure, and website when welcoming new members, speaking with prospects, or promoting events.

• Membership benefits video
• Membership benefits page 
• Membership brochure 

You can invite our team to host a short live website tour to show members where to find and how to use their benefits.

Chapter Roster Portal 

Chapter Presidents, Membership Chairs, and Administrators can use the Chapter Roster Portal to better understand their local membership landscape. You can use reports to welcome new members, re-engage lapsed members, and identify growth opportunities within corporate memberships.

• Access the chapter roster portal  

• Some frequently used reports are: 

  • All Active Members: Pulls a list of all current chapter members. 

  • Lapsed Members: Pulls a list of lapsed members based on the date range you select. View sample outreach emails to lapsed members. 

  • Joined Between: Pulls a list of members that joined between a specific date range. We encourage chapters to welcome new members at the beginning of each month. Ideally, members should receive an email, attend an event and make a friend within their first 90 days. View sample outreach emails. 

  • Large Law companies with members in this chapter: Pulls a list of Corporate Memberships based in your Chapter.   

Monthly Membership Reports 

ACC provides monthly membership reports to help your chapter track progress over time, accessible here. Moreover, we can provide benchmarking reports that offer insights into how your chapter compares with others of similar size over the span of the past 9 years. To request this information, please contact us at chapters@acc.com

Resources from other chapters

You can find sample email messages, templates, and surveys from other chapters here. 

PROMOTE:

Open your events to non-members. 

Opening select events to non-members is a simple and effective way to introduce prospective members to your chapter. Encouraging members to invite colleagues as guests creates a welcoming and peer-driven recruitment experience.

Update and promote your events via your chapter’s website. 

Your chapter webpage is often the first impression for prospective members. Keeping events current, highlighting recent programs, and showcasing member value helps increase visibility and engagement. Consider recording a welcome video featuring your President or Membership Chair. Check out an example here from ACC MENA. 

Promote your events via social media. 

If your chapter uses social media, we encourage you to share and promote upcoming events regularly. This is a simple way to increase visibility, reach prospective members, and highlight the value of your local community. If your events are open to non-members, social media can be especially effective in inviting guests and introducing them to ACC.

For ready-to-use tips and templates, you can explore ACC’s Social Media Toolkit here and adapt the content to fit your chapter’s voice and audience. 

RECRUIT:

Tips for Recruiting New Members 

• Open events to non-members: Extend invitations to non-members to participate in chapter events to increase engagement and expand your pool of prospects. 

• Encourage members to bring a friend: Encourage existing members to invite in-house colleagues who might be interested in joining the chapter, leveraging personal networks for recruitment. 

• Send Thank You notes with trial offers: Express gratitude to event attendees through personalized thank you notes, including promotional offers such as a 30-day trial membership or discount code CHP50 for $50.00 off the first year of membership, to incentivize membership sign-ups. To learn more about ACC’s promotional offers, please email chapters@acc.com.  

• Assign a board member as an ambassador: Designate a board member to engage with non-members at events, offering information about the chapter, membership benefits, and answering any queries potential members may have. 

• Promote events on social media: Utilize your current social media platforms to advertise upcoming events, reaching a wider audience and attracting prospective members. 

Room to Grow. 

ACC Corporate Memberships use a tiered approach to membership allowing legal departments to purchase a set of membership slots for their legal department. Room to Grow is an effort which seeks to maximize legal department’s use of their Corporate Membership by filling open membership slots with eligible in-house counsel.  

Your chapter administrators receive a monthly report called “Room to Grow” which lists all ACC corporate memberships that have open availability. You should familiarize yourself with this list and keep it in mind for when meeting prospective members that could join existing corporate memberships.  

To add prospects to existing corporate memberships, please contact corporate@acc.com and provide their full name, company, working address, title, and email address.  

Recruit New Corporate Members 

If you have leads for potential new corporate members, who would like to schedule a demo for a prospective corporate member, or if you would like to find ways to engage your current corporate members, you can contact our corporate team at corporate@acc.com for more information.  

Learn more about ACC Corporate Membership.  

Articles on Recruiting New Members 

• 99 Ways to Get New Members 

ENGAGE:

Create a membership committee and appoint a board member to lead your chapters’ membership engagement initiatives

Your board can play an active role in helping your chapter grow. If you do not have one already, consider forming a membership committee.  

• Sample job description of a membership chair.  

• Sample award winning membership strategy from ACC Singapore. 

• Resources on membership engagement: 

Additional Reading: 

• Two Critical Steps to Drive Membership Engagement - ASAE

• What does Membership Engagement Mean in Your Organization? - ASAE 

• Membership Engagement: From Participation to Relationships - ASAE 

• How to Craft Your Winning Member Engagement Strategy - Higher Logic 

Engage new members within the first 90 days. 

Membership research shows that new members decide within their first 90 days whether to renew. Engaging them in meaningful ways during their first few weeks of joining your chapter increases the likelihood they will renew. Implement some of these activities:

• Send a personalized welcome email. View sample welcome messages. 

• Give new members a shout-out via your newsletter, or social media channel. 

• Assign board members to greet new members at in-person events, and facilitate introductions to longstanding members. Some chapters will have “New Member” ribbon or sticker at their events that members can use to identify themselves.  

• Host member orientation webinars featuring members talking about their chapter journey. 

• Have board members host informal monthly or quarterly coffee or lunch meet-ups to welcome new members. 

• Read: Three Keys to Solving the Member Retention Puzzle - ASAE 

Engage your corporate members

Engage with corporate members headquartered in your chapter’s service region, especially new ones. Members of corporate memberships may be unaware of local chapter offerings, or the benefits of a local chapter community.  

• Be on the lookout! When a new corporate member joins ACC, our team will notify your chapters president and chapter administrator. Try to engage these new members within the first 30 days of them joining. Find sample email messages for new corporate members here.  

• Assign board members to connect with the GCs of Corporate Members. If applicable, invite them to roundtable discussions for law department leaders or to speak at your events. 

• Encourage your corporate members to host small chapter events at their premises to showcase the best practices in their legal departments. 

• Consider using a template such as this one from ACC New Jersey to welcome new members and encourage them to join one of your events. 

• If applicable, try to recruit senior corporate members to your chapter board. 

Survey Your Members! 

It's important to get to know your members, and you don’t have to do it alone! ACC can help you create a survey for your members. 

• Chapters can request the development and deployment of chapter membership surveys. Results will include tabulation of results complete with charts and graphs.

• In addition to an annual survey, your chapter should also consider doing post-event surveys. Find sample post-even surveys here.  

• Find sample surveys from other chapters here. 

• Read: Create Surveys That Generate High-Quality Results - ASAE 

Increase event accessibility

• Many of our chapters find that events that provide an opportunity for members to bring their families are highly successful. By allowing families to attend, your chapter can lower one of the barriers that prevent their members from joining for an event.  

• Community Service is another great way to get your members involved and allows them to connect with their families as well. Find inspiration on the ACC Global Community Service Month website. 

• ACC Tampa Bay’s annual symposium is a weekend event that offers childcare services for attendees. This allows attendees to participate in the event  with their families and attend receptions without the worries of finding childcare. 

Ensure that your events are inclusive and reflective of your membership base. 

It is important to ensure your chapter’s events are inclusive to ensure that your full membership can remain engaged.  

Below you will find some resources and read regarding inclusivity: 

• Three Ways to Make a More Inclusive Event - ASAE

• Ten Things Meeting Pros Can Do to Improve Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility - ASAE

• What the Arrival of Gen Z means for Membership - ASAE

RENEW:

The ACC Membership Department starts sending renewal notices to members 90 days before their memberships are set to expire. Additionally, our dedicated membership team conducts follow-ups after the renewal date has passed. Members are granted a 60-day grace period and will lose access to their benefits, including membership in your chapter, if they do not renew in time.

As a local ACC Chapter, your involvement is pivotal in the ACC renewal process through active engagement. A study conducted in 2021 showed that 50% of associations reported higher non-renewal rates due to insufficient engagement with their organization. By fostering local member engagement, you contribute significantly to the establishment of local connections, which help lead to higher renewal rates.

Below, you'll find articles highlighting the crucial relationship between member engagement and renewal.

• Membership Renewal Strategy, the Top 6 Reasons Your Members Don't Renew - Higher Logic
• What is a Membership Engagement Strategy? - Disciple Media
• Membership Retention and Renewal: Strategies, Processes and Tip - MemberClicks
• Member Retention 101 - MemberClicks

REINSTATE:

Recently lapsed members can be easy to win back. Oftentimes, members simply forget to renew. We highly recommend sending a reminder to renew to your members who have lapsed within the past 90 days.  

• Pull a list of lapsed members in the Chapter Roster Portal, and send a personalized renewal reminder email. Find sample templates that you can use for outreach here.  

• When possible, include an upcoming event in your messaging to create FOMO. See an example email here.  

Connect your members with membership@acc.com, should they experience issues during the renewal process.