The British Columbia Genealogical Society, Ontario Genealogical Society and Quebec Family History Society each saw fee revenue drop by more than 10%. Two of the three societies had the highest membership fees and the greatest fee revenue decrease.
The Alberta Genealogical Society and British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa had fee revenue increasing in line with the trend of the Consumer Price Index.
The New Brunswick Genealogical Society saw a large increase in membership fee revenue in 2018 — likely due to a fee increase — at $40 their fees remain one of the lowest.
This blog post, Association Membership Trends, although focussed on professional organizations, contains ideas worth contemplating by genealogical societies concerned about membership:
Dedicating resources to innovation, providing members with the content that they want, offering membership models that meets members' needs ... are all ways that associations can work to ensure their future membership numbers remain solid.I recognize that sometimes organizations deliberately change their revenue sources, perhaps relying more on surpluses from events such as their annual conference rather than membership fees.
Our Campbell River Genealogy Society has seen a drop in membership over the past couple of years. In order to maintain a library and meeting place we have added small and frequent workshops (2 or 3 a month) with a nominal fee from each participant. These are helping to supplement our membership fees to pay our rent. We are trying to make the topics relevant and conduct surveys from time to time to keep up with trends of what our members want. We also have an energetic publicity person who is bringing members into our group. We know sustainability is difficult with new genealogist's mindset that everything can be found online. They miss a lot without the networking. Christol James, President
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