The Member Engagement Show

What makes membership worth the investment? For many associations, the answer isn't just lowering dues or adding more benefits. It's making sure members understand the value they're receiving and that the membership model reflects their actual needs. In this episode of The Member Engagement Show, we talk with Kristin Witters, Director of Membership at the National Safety Council (NSC), about the organization's recent membership model transformation. NSC moved away from three separate, siloed membership levels toward a unified membership structure with three distinct tiers, each designed to better align dues, benefits, and member needs. Kristin walks through the thinking behind the change, including the importance of member research, financial modeling, internal stakeholder buy-in, and bringing in outside expertise. She also explains how NSC approached communicating the changes to different member segments and why that communication remains an ongoing process well beyond launch day. Whether your association is considering a dues restructure, struggling to communicate membership value, or looking for ways to improve member recruitment and retention, this conversation offers practical lessons from an organization that took a deliberate, member-focused approach to change. Topics covered include: Make membership about value, not just transactions. Get internal stakeholders involved early. Tailor your membership model to your actual member population. Use member research to shape your value proposition. Make benefits and pricing easier to understand. Know when to bring in outside expertise. Recognize that perceived value can be a communication problem. Segment your change communications. Make information easier to consume. Treat membership changes as an ongoing process. You can connect with Kristin on LinkedIn, Higher Logic's HUG community, or ASAE's Collaborate.  

How can associations improve member engagement while making years of accumulated website content more useful, accurate, and discoverable? As members increasingly turn to AI tools for answers, outdated information, conflicting guidance, and poorly organized content can undermine the member experience and an association's authority. In this episode of The Member Engagement Show, we talk with Layla Masri, who advises on work at the intersection of AI strategy, product innovation, customer insight, commercialization, and organizational transformation. Layla and our host, Kelly Whelan, discuss a practical approach to using AI to audit and improve content without turning the process into an overwhelming, all-or-nothing project. Hear why associations should prioritize content accuracy and usefulness before investing in a website redesign, how AI can help identify duplicate and potentially outdated material, and why human judgment remains essential to deciding what to update, consolidate, preserve, or retire. Learn how to build a repeatable content audit process, use member questions to identify content gaps, and create a continuous feedback loop that helps associations improve discoverability and deliver better answers over time. Topics covered include: Don't wait for perfect content to adopt AI. Prioritize high-impact content first. Fix content before redesigning your website. Build a content inventory. Combine content inventory data with website traffic. Use AI to categorize and flag content, not make final decisions. Give AI a clear rubric and detailed prompts. Don't delete content just because it's old. Use member questions to guide content improvements. Make content improvement an ongoing process. Helpful Links: Elizabeth Engel episode Ashley Brookshaw episode Webinar Recording: The Awareness Gap: Help Prospective Members Find You  

On this episode of the The Member Engagement Show, our guest is Sahil Kapadia, Founder of AMSNow. Sahil has 20 years of experience leading technology and organizational transformation across associations and other industries. Today his work involves helping organizations assess their AI readiness, establish governance, and turn AI opportunities into practical projects. Topics covered include: What are association leaders saying about AI and how they’re approaching it? The importance of leadership listening to frontline staff about real bottlenecks. How AI is a utility that needs to be deployed with organizational cohesion. What scares associations about AI adoption? What to do before implementation. Identifying roadblocks and where AI can help improve workflows. Moving from planning to action. Why an association needs AI governance and what it should cover. Why policy reviews should be done annually. When AI policies get too strict and limiting. What to do if you can’t have a dedicated AI guardian. How leadership can help team members leaning into AI. How to decide which AI projects are worth pursuing. What a good AI project plan looks like. Where to start for the overwhelmed.   Helpful links: AMSnow.io Elizabeth Engel's episode

Our guest on this episode of The Member Engagement Show is Cate Sauer, Senior Customer Success Manager at Higher Logic. Cate has recently presented several courses on ethical AI use, and talks about her work helping associations use technology in a way that aligns with their values and mission. She shares ways associations can benefit from using AI without surrendering the human judgment and accountability. Topics covered include: The most frequently heard concerns and questions from associations around AI. Data and privacy considerations when deciding what AI platforms to use for what tasks. The responsibility associations have to educate staff, set policies around AI usage, and be transparent with members. Reducing AI energy impact by treating it "like going to the grocery store." Three pillars for using AI ethically: accountability, protection, and fairness. Guidance on putting together AI policies. Providing a pathway back to a person. Some Helpful Links AI & Copyright episode featuring Dorothy Dang from Whiteford Law AI & Value episode featuring Elizabeth Engel Webinar on Embracing AI Safely with Amada DeLuke    

On this episode of Higher Logic’s “The Member Engagement Show,” we talk with Elizabeth Engel, Membership Product Advisor at Higher Logic. Elizabeth has 30 years of experience across association membership, marketing, technology, strategy and leadership. She’s been an advisor through her own consulting business, Spark, and now helps shape Higher Logic’s approach to AI for associations. We talk with Elizabeth about how associations can move from offering a maze of resources to creating a more useful and responsive experience. Topics covered include: The three core problems associations are dealing with when it comes to serving members. The different value propositions for members and prospects. The importance in the age of AI search of making info easy to find on your sites. Proactively fixing it so members come to the association for answers. Making data usable. How AI is bringing solutions both to member experiences and data organization & use internally. Adding business intelligence into AI systems. Why someone should come to the association for answers and not public AI tools. Properly teaching your AI agent. Key questions to ask yourself as you start to set up your AI tools.   Helpful Links: Get to know Higher Logic's AI Assistant Understand the awareness gap in our webinar with Olena Lima

On this episode of Higher Logic’s Member Engagement Show, we share a webinar featuring Olena Lima, founder and principal consultant of MemberBoat, a marketing agency that works to empower associations with innovative digital solutions and expert marketing strategies that foster engagement, growth, and value for members. She’s also host of the Membership Marketing School & Association Hub Podcast. The webinar goes deep on what it takes to attract new members and build memberships. Topics covered include: What do associations think is the biggest barrier to member recruitment? How big is the missed opportunity of unaware non-members? The importance of knowing your total addressable market and market share. The math of retention and conversion tells you how many people you have to reach. Which audiences are the hardest to reach? What matters most to prospects at different stages of their career. Positioning your association for discoverability. Aligning your content with what humans and search systems are looking for. Why you should take a trip to a physical library (really!) Deciding between public and gated content. Moving people through member journeys. One thing you can do this week to improve visibility. The underused asset you already have.   Helpful Links: Watch the Webinar Version Higher Logic 2025 Association Member Experience Report Association Forum’s Association Membership and Services Survey 2026  

Our guest on this episode of The Member Engagement Show is Joe DeLisle, Jr., Director of Council Relations for the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). Joe shares how he and AMGA have been using AI for everything from community discussion summaries and meeting prep to member research and internal workflows. Listen in for real examples of how one association is applying AI to improve member value and make their work easier at the same time. Topics covered include: How AI is saving time while keeping humans in the driver’s seat. Using AI for repeatable processes. Using AI to assist in members whose field of knowledge is not yours. Using AI with your email inbox to source, create, and deliver relevant member content. Using AI to free up time to execute on really good ideas you’ve been sitting on for a while. Using AI for meetings and events, before, during and after. Using AI for member and industry intelligence. A message for those with AI-reluctance. What you should tell AI when you’re setting it up. Guardrails for protecting data. An example of how to roll out AI to an organization.   Some Helpful Links Share your association engagement stories with us, [email protected] Our host, Kelly Whelan on LinkedIn    

Our guest on this episode of Higher Logic’s The Member Engagement Show is Stephanie Kusibab, CEO and chief strategist for Essentiam. Stephanie has worked extensively with associations and nonprofits on everything from futures and foresight work to organizational strategy and innovation. Topics covered on this episode include: Advancing from simply gathering data to using insights from that data. The qualitative/quantitative balance. How to use focus groups and community to help you form better questions for future data. The value of community for always-on feedback. Community as an early warning and early opportunity signal. Tips for elevating the role of community internally. Getting more engagement and delivering the right value proposition – the two main concerns of associations today. The biggest barrier to realizing personalization and marketing automation’s potential. Using data to test new ideas and innovate. The changing ways people want to contribute to associations. Distinguishing signal from noise. A practical first step toward better data strategy.   Helpful links: From Numbers to Knowledge: Turning Data into Better Decisions with ASAE's Christin Berry Higher Logic's Member Data Guide  

Our guest on this episode of Higher Logic’s The Member Engagement Show is Ashleigh Brookshaw, a strategic advisor at Higher Logic who is also a Prosci-certified change manager and agile & traditional project manager. As more associations adopt AI, Ashleigh touches on several topics related to the challenges and opportunities that can bring: How organizations can adopt AI successfully. Why AI is first and foremost a change management challenge, not a tool implementation challenge. What are the key components of AI readiness? Is the quality of your data good enough to get high quality AI outputs? Implementing AI with both members and internal staff in mind. How to decide what AI initiatives to prioritize. The right way to do staff enablement. The skills or mindset shifts that people need the most in AI adoption. Involving members in your AI adoption. The signals of a successful AI implementation?

Our guest on this episode of The Member Engagement Show is Amber Worthen, Founder and CEO of Email Maven. She’s an email strategist who’s spent years helping member organizations rethink how they connect with members through email. Most recently, she’s been exploring the effect of AI on email inboxes. Topics covered include:  What is changing in the email landscape now that AI has come along? What’s under your control and what’s in the email recipients’ control. How traditional email metrics like opens, clicks, and deliverability are being impacted. The new goal for inbox targeting. A reality check for those who think sending more emails is the answer. The rising importance of segmenting and email preference options. Making data-driven decisions around email. Know your email platform. The power of engagement scoring, personas, and dynamic content. The 10 main things to future-proof your inboxes. Why it’s a good idea to test how AI is summarizing your newsletters. Resources Download the episode transcript. Explore Email Maven's resources. Check out Higher Logic's 2025-2026 Association Email Benchmark Report. Watch Higher Logic's recent webinar, Relevance Wins: What 2026 Benchmarks Reveal About High Performing Emails.