Data: Chapter Closing Time
Associations Now
A decision to close a chapter can be difficult, but it’s one that many associations are making, a recent study suggests.
According to the 2019 Chapter Benchmarking Report from Mariner Management and Billhighway, a sizable majority of respondents whose associations have chapters, 70 percent, said they closed a chapter recently. That’s a significant increase from three years earlier, when only 22 percent reported shutting a chapter down.
“When you get into the details of this data, respondents said that when they closed chapters, they often merged,” said Mariner Management President Peggy Hoffman, FASAE, CAE. “It’s a reorganization that I think is adaptive to the local level, and it shows that chapters are playing with traditional structures more.”
Of association respondents with chapters:
2019
Closed a Chapter
70%
Added a New Chapter
34%
2016
Closed a Chapter
22%
Added a New Chapter
20%
Source: Mariner Management and Billhighway, 2019 Chapter Benchmarking Report, October 2019