For the last few months I've been working with an incredible team to develop a vision: The Membership Organization Leadership Series.

Most of my own community leadership experience is working with these membership driven organizations: Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, Young Professionals Organizations, Networking Groups and of course NetworkInAustin.com. In working on the boards and committees within these organizations and occasionally consulting with groups I find that what they're trying to accomplish is almost universal. Yet each group tries to find solutions and answers to the same questions in isolation.

The Top 6 Questions:

• How do we grow our membership?
• How do we retain our existing members?
• How can we better engage our members so that they attend more events, volunteer on committees and ultimately help us on the board?
• How can we add more value for our members?
• What can we do to make our events unique, valuable and worth attending?
• How can we control costs and increase revenue so we can do all of this?

NetworkInAustin was designed not just to serve individual networks, but also the various business, networking, civic and non-profit organizations throughout the Greater Austin area that host networking events.

What better way to serve them than to bring together their leadership (board of directors and committee chairs) to work together to find answers and best practices around these 6 key questions? That is precisely what the Membership Organization Leadership Series is all about!

The vision is quickly becoming a reality. The first part of our 3 part series is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15th. You'll find the complete details and registration information here. We've worked to make the series very affordable and until August 31st you can register to attend all 3 events for just $85!

This post can't possibly be complete until I profusely thank the host committee and our incredible sponsors. Without them all of this would still just be a dream:

•  Ali Khataw, Chair Austin Asian American Chamber of Commerce
• Amy Welborn, President-Elect Austin Young Lawyers Association & Board of Directors Austin Bar Association
• Ben Marks, Heartland Payment Systems
• Christine Choate, President-Elect Entrepreneurs' Organization
• Christopher Popov, President-Elect Austin Young Lawyers Association
• Donna Fox, Fox Career Mentors
• Heather McKissick, President/CEO Leadership Austin
• Kim Wilson, Director of Development Greenlights
• Lamar Romero, Romero Capital and Funding
• Laura Valentino Romero, Absolute Austin Realty
• Matt Kouri, Executive Director Greenlights
• Maurice Benson, Chair Leadership Austin Emerge
• Natalie Kennedy, Kennedy Creative
• Pilar Sanchez, President-Elect Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Priscilla Guajardo Cortez FuturoFund
• Scott Lawrence, Membership Chair Catalyst 8
• Dave Jobe, Karmadillo

Happy Networking!

-Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com