Predicting Membership in a Consolidated Association: If We Build It, Will They Come?

Abstract

Rehabilitation counseling professional associations have experienced decades of declining membership. Efforts to increase the value of membership, to this point, have not reversed these trends. Some have argued for the consolidation of rehabilitation counseling associations as a strategy for increasing membership numbers, but no empirical studies have been conducted to assess whether consolidation could have a positive impact on membership. The purpose of this current study is to use net promotor scores to predict how membership numbers would be affected by consolidating to a single association. Net promoter scores from rehabilitation counseling professionals were used to assess the likelihood of recommending association membership for the current rehabilitation counseling associations and a hypothetical consolidated association. Results indicate that consolidation to a single rehabilitation counseling association would be accompanied by a substantial increase in its initial promotion compared to the promotion of current associations. Although not guaranteed, this data suggests that consolidating rehabilitation counseling professional associations would produce an initial increase in membership that could strengthen the position of the discipline.