As the current president of the AMA-Milwaukee chapter, I work closely with my board members to set our strategic goals and implement the tactics to help us reach those goals.  As with most organizations, there are a few people who are heavily involved, with most members simply attending the programs and networking events.  One of the main challenges on our plate right now is how to engage our members and get them more involved in the organization so that we have a bigger pool of volunteers to help shape the organization.  We’ve discussed so many great ideas for getting our members more involved, now we need to prioritize and put them into action.  From social media outreach to personal outreach to events and programs, there are a lot of options.  As with any strategy, we need to take a step back and determine our goal.  How many people from our membership do we want to turn into engaged members (i.e., volunteers)?  Is it a straight number or a percentage of our total members?  Do we want ongoing volunteers or are we happy with volunteers who help out short-term on projects?  And does the number really matter?  I’d like to hope that our board would agree that it’s not so much the number but rather how engaged they are.  And I’d like to hope that the engagement turns them into raving fans of AMA.