2015-16 membership year in review

American Mensa saw a small drop in members at the conclusion of its 2015-16 fiscal year but begins 2016-17 up considerably from the same time the previous year.

The number of year-end members fell by 457, to 56,374, from last year. The small decline can be attributed largely to two factors. A more proactive approach to tracking member deaths and transfers resulted in an increase of nearly 100 lost members in that segment compared to the previous year. And members gained through short-term, discounted promotional rates in the last fiscal year renewed at disproportionately lower rates than the rest of the membership.

Nevertheless, American Mensa begins its 2016-17 year with 46,658 members, up more than 2,000 from the same time last year. And the organization retained members at a record rate for the recently completed 2015-16 renewal campaign. The percentage of members who lapsed on March 31, the last day of American Mensa’s 2015-16 fiscal year, was only 17 percent, the lowest figure in 18 years of tracking lapse rates. The organization’s average annual lapse rate is about 22 percent.

A focus on retaining first-year members resulted in a 6 percent increase in that segment’s annual renewal rate. Keeping first-year members is especially important, according to Trevor Mitchell, American Mensa’s Senior Director of Membership & Strategy, because renewal rates improve drastically after a Mensan renews his or her first year.

“The longer a person is a Mensan, the more likely we are to keep him or her as a member,” Mitchell said. “So keeping our new members and lowering our total lapse rate is a promising sign for our overall numbers going forward.”

Mensans’ opinions on which aspects of membership best resonate with them — as well as which aspects fall below their expectations — will continue to drive overall strategies for keeping members and finding new ones. The annual Member Satisfaction Survey, now entering its third year, has played a definitive role in advising these decisions. Indeed, efforts borne of the 2014 inaugural survey’s results have already yielded more satisfied responses in the 2015 survey, as evidenced by improvement in the survey’s key metric. (The survey’s “net promoter score” rose from 16 to 19 last year.)

“We will keep leveraging this data to better understand the interests and needs of our members,” Mitchell said. “There are always many factors that impact someone’s decision to join and renew with Mensa. Our attempt is to make that decision an easy yes for years to come.”