With Northern California Chair Jim Gurulé, Founder of Bay West Sales & Innovation
As the world’s leading trade organization for the K&B industry, NKBA | KBIS informs, inspires, and empowers its members. And it is our Chapter Membership Chairs that are vital to the important mission of connecting and growing the Association. In our ongoing series on the winning strategies that build membership, we are spotlighting these chapter officers and sharing their unique ideas on attracting new members while keeping current members actively engaged with innovative campaigns and illuminating programs.
“I think I take a different approach to building members in that I believe that every event we do is actually a membership drive. From the beginning of the year, my goal is to sell out every event, and so far we’ve been able to do that. I find that when you have a great event, and people like to be there, they want to come back for the next one. That drives an increase in membership engagement, while also attracting new members and retaining the existing ones.
Then, if I am asked to speak at a local college’s design club, for example, I’ll talk to the students about the benefits of becoming a part of the community and the NKBA, but also what it’s like coming into the industry and the opportunities that are available to them as new members.
Without question, I’m fortunate to have a great team, in particular my Programs Chair, Joyce van den Dugan Bille. Joyce and I both visit event sponsors together, so we’ll get to know them. Then I’ll do a pre-interview webcast. It’s about 10 to 15 minutes, where we talk about the benefits of attending the live event, the other companies that are hosting, the networking opportunities, and all the things that will take place. That’s been very successful.
Right now, we have a waiting list of Gold sponsors that want to sign up because our events have become so popular. We have multiple events throughout the year. There’s of course our quarterly events, but we also have a gala, it’s a formal event that sells out every year, as well as a design crawl. Combine those together, and it’s really just been a fantastic experience. And like everything, it’s all about the right people at the right time.”
