BSW Recruitment Steps Up as Dues Drop

Chapters and the national office get ready for July's new, lower BSW rates.

Missouri Chapter Executive Director Tamitha Price says she loves the challenge of enticing potential BSW members with new, lower dues scheduled to take effect July 1.

When the 1999 Delegate Assembly lowered BSWs' dues to two-thirds of MSW members' rate, many executive NASW staff and delegates alike harbored doubts, believing that the lower dues would curtail revenue for programs and operations.

Proponents of lower dues argued during the Assembly that too many BSW students were dropping NASW membership before reaching full-member status. A post-Assembly review of membership data showed that the BSW dropout rate was 61 percent at the threshold to the higher-priced post-graduate transitional category and 19 percent at the regular full membership threshold.

As a result, proponents said, no more than 3,000 BSWs have been part of the full-dues-paying membership in any year since 1970.

Kym Meyer, the NASW Utah Chapter's executive director, says BSWs are a sizable and untapped population of potential members waiting to be recruited. "In this state, there are about 1,700 BSWs who aren't [joining], and I think that reducing the rates will bring membership within reach of these people."

She hopes, too, that the chapter will eventually increase its revenues by attracting more BSWs than ever before.

Like Price, Meyer has been aggressive in recruitment efforts by approaching students in her state's social work programs.

"Fifteen percent of our members are BSWs," she said. "There is a considerable number of BSWs who we could be appealing to, and I think the reduced rates will be beneficial."

The Wisconsin Chapter, which was a force in lowering the BSW rates, is embarking on a new mentorship program for BSWs. The chapter also recently surveyed its BSW members on their needs and concerns. The answer most given to the survey question on how NASW could promote membership or retain members was dues reduction.

Information from the survey will be used to adjust programs, services and marketing for further recruitment, said chapter Executive Director Marc Herstand.

"We recognize that on the average, BSWs make about $10,000 less than MSWs. We wanted to be sensitive to that," he said. "The main thing is, we really believe in getting as many BSWs as possible involved in NASW."

In Minnesota, chapter staff and members will embark on a phone-bank campaign in which transitional BSW members will be contacted and urged to stay with the organization. The dues reduction will be cited as an incentive.

Minnesota member Mary Cullen was one of the BSW dues reduction's leading proponents.

"Some marketing work must also begin at the national level if this is going to work," said Alan Ingram, the Minnesota Chapter's executive director.

Ingram's view echoed those of many of his chapter-based colleagues.

NASW's national office in early spring will embark on an awareness and recruitment campaign to reach NASW members and nonmember social workers.

"The primary focus of our efforts will be to educate members about the change in the dues rate and to recruit nonmembers," said Cheryl Mayberry, director of member services and publications. The effort will be jointly handled by NASW's marketing and chapter services departments.

Mayberry said the departments hope to bring as much information as possible to chapter leaders at this spring's Annual Leadership Meeting.

The possibility that the organization will lose money as a result of reducing BSWs' dues, she said, poses "a challenge" to the national office and chapters to step up recruitment and retention, especially at the grass roots.

One challenge to the marketing project itself, Mayberry said, is to reexamine NASW's services and critically appraise their appeal, or lack of it, to BSW social workers.

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Copyright NASW Press, 1998