Growing membership, changing needs.

• Author: Manton, Jennifer
• Position: PRESIDENT'S PODIUM

The fall season is synonymous with budgeting and planning.

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This month will likely find many of you in the throes of revisiting your strategic plan, measuring return on investment, establishing new milestones and generally assessing where your law firm has been and where you need to focus next year and beyond. LMA is no different.

As widely reported, in August we transitioned to a new professional management group, SmithBucklin. It was an important step for LMA that was identified in the summer of 2008, when we last updated LMA's strategic plan and made some important decisions that would help guide us through the next three to five years.

As we revisit LMA's strategic plan this fall, we are taking a very close look at the organization's focus and the areas where we are--and are not--meeting our members' needs and expectations. We are focusing squarely on the value proposition to our diverse membership.

In evaluating our membership base, we are finding that LMA's constituency is much broader than it was a decade ago. Today, we not only serve full-time, in-house marketers functioning in increasingly more defined roles with distinct responsibilities (in addition to generalists) but also independent consultants, legal industry service providers, new and seasoned marketers--some of whom are new to the legal industry--retirees and even solo practitioners who must market themselves as well as practice law. This segmentation points to the need to provide different membership opportunities, deliverables and price points.

Now and in the months and years ahead, retaining and growing our membership base is key to our success. Part of our member value proposition is to support and serve our chapters. We will continue to put great emphasis on working collaboratively with our chapters. The best associations in the world rely on a vibrant and innovative chapter network. We...