I met with NDEA staff and NEA field staff in Bismarck, ND on June 13 and 14.
With regard to membership recruitment via technology, we agreed that application of advanced social media is not a good use of staff time or association funds at this time. This decision is based on two factors: (1.) Staffing is very limited (2.) demographics show older population less inclined to participate across multiple progressive social media outlets.
We agreed that we can leverage online media to engage member and non members and that the most effective way to do this will be by traditional mailing that encourages non members to visit the NDEA site for valuable resources--resources that, if they were members, they would have access to 24/7.
I plan to integrate GEM with the NDEA site and design a full-page ad on GEM for NDEA's membership handbook.