HEADQUARTERS REPORT 11/1/03 – 2/29/04

MEMBERSHIP

MEMBER STATISTICS

	2003/2004	2002/2003
Total New Members (11/1 - 2/29)	592	677
-Regular	135	170
-Student/Preprofessional	282	384
-Student Transfers	59	70
-Reinstates	116	53
Total Members (as of 2/29)	9082	9170
-Regular	7103	7091
-Student/Preprofessional	1979	2079
Total Members - Low-Income Countries (as of 2/29)	249	245
-$15 Dues	124	141
-$35 Dues	82	57
-$55 Dues	35	47

RETENTION

	2004 Paid	2003 Paid
Total Invoiced	6316/8437 = 75%	6277/8426 = 74%
-Regular	5543/6781 = 82%	5496/6824 = 81%
-Student/Preprofessional	773/1656 = 47%	781/1602 = 49%

2003 Year-End Statistics Show Membership Holding Steady

The overall membership total was slightly less than 2002, but new non-student member numbers were up quite a bit.

New Members

-876 Regular (up from 824 in 2002)

-666 Students (down from 803 in 2002)

Retention Rates: Regular 89%; Student 59%; Overall 84%. (89%, 60% & 84% respectively in 2002)

Membership Total as of 12/31/03 = 8,967 (down from 9,010 in 2002)

This is primarily due to significantly less new student members in 2003 and a slight drop in student retention. Overall, our student population is still maintaining, being only 60 less than it was last year.

Geographic Distribution: 80% US; 7% Canada; 13% Other

Invoicing 2003

E-mail reminders went to all unpaid members on 12/3/03, 1/7/04 and 2/17/04, while second invoices were mailed on 1/22/04. Third invoices will be mailed the first week in March with one last e-mail reminder blast set for the third week in March. We have scheduled the first week in April to drop all members who have not paid their 2004 dues.

With the assistance of ComNet Marketing (see description in Recruitment section below), each non-student/preprofessional dropped member will be contacted by phone in late April and urged to pay their 2004 dues. We will follow up with an exit survey to determine why members did not renew in mid-May.

Outside Recruitment Efforts

In November, we hired ComNet to assist us with reinstating members who had lapsed over the last few years. ComNet is a full service telemarketing group specializing in member re-enrollment, recapture of expired members and new member acquisition. Of the 900+ members who were contacted by telephone, about 8% reinstated their memberships. We were very pleased with these results and plan to use them annually to recapture lapsed members.

Sections & Student Branches

Visits were made to the following sections and student branches: Iowa Section, Iowa State Student Branch, California/Nevada Section, Ohio Section and the Texas Section. A priority list of sections to be visited over the next year has been developed. The list is comprised of active sections that have not been visited over the last two or three years. These sections have been urged to extend invitations to ASABE headquarters when they schedule their next section meeting.

With the help of North Carolina Section officers, the South Carolina Section will be reactivating with a meeting planned for late May. It is expected that someone from ASABE will be in attendance.

Section Officer Update electronic newsletters were sent to section officers, the Membership Development Council and the ASABE leadership on 11/12, 12/18 and 1/8 with headquarters news and updates. More and more sections are taking the information and publishing it in their section newsletters and posting it on their Web sites.

Preprofessional Officers & Activities

For the third consecutive year, the Preprofessional Officers held their winter retreat at headquarters in January. They and ASABE staff discussed a number of items, including how to better reach and retain preprofessional members and activities at the upcoming Ottawa meeting.

The Preprofessional Officers also developed and distributed the fall edition of the preprofessional newsletter with information on regional activities, important dates and a recap of the Las Vegas meeting and why it’s important to become involved.

1/4 Scale Tractor Student Design Competition

The seventh annual 1/4 Scale Tractor Student Design Competition is set for June 3 – 6 in East Moline, IL. To date, we have 27 teams registered including a first year entry from MIT. We are also pleased to have corporate sponsorship from Kubota Tractor this year.