Last year, the AUSA membership team and our association chapters had a very productive year.

Facing the 2017 goal of 100,000 members by the end of the year, we focused our efforts on our chapter volunteers.

AUSA staff members visited many chapters where they observed, surveyed, listened and learned from our volunteer leaders about the rewards and challenges they faced while generating ideas and initiatives to increase their membership at the local level.

We, at national headquarters, put those insights and recommendations to good use by producing and introducing the AUSA Skills Knowledge (ASK) program.

This innovative membership guide is designed to help volunteers engage with their communities and potential AUSA members by using a mentoring or “buddy” program. The ASK program was well received and chapters now using it are having a great deal of success.

We also saw the advent of AUSA’s Association Partner Program.

AUSA partnered with five different organizations that share the mutual goal of supporting the Army and its soldiers and families.

The organizations are: the U.S. Army Warrant Officers Association (USAWOA); The ROCKS, Inc; Patriot Project; the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS); and the Civil Affairs Association.

Each of these partnerships helped AUSA reach new audiences while we provided more robust AUSA member benefits to those individual who are members of these organizations.

Finally, in January 2018, after meeting the 100,000-member goal in December, AUSA saw its membership soar to the highest number on record – 117,283 – surpassing our established goal.

With this success, in 2018, we will bring exciting new challenges to our membership efforts with the theme: “Retention through Engagement.”

AUSA plans to develop ASK 2.0 for the chapter volunteers with an updated program that embodies more ideas for recruitment, retention and event planning.

We will again be going on the road with a goal of visiting one chapter in each AUSA region to engage their volunteer leaders to assist us in this new membership challenge.

We are looking forward to the year ahead.