SIOP Community Poised to Welcome New Affiliate Members

SIOP Membership Committee; Rick Laguerre, Michelle Goro, & Daniel Bashore

Since the Affiliate membership expansion vote passed (with approval by more than 90% of voters) back in June, the Administrative Office and Membership Committee have been hard at work to make sure the transition process for integrating this new membership type is as smooth as possible. The goal of this article is to provide more information about the Affiliate membership and share how we plan to integrate it within our existing framework. There is also a special call to action below for all current SIOP members, so please join us in maximizing the success of this membership expansion!

The SIOP Affiliate can be viewed as a membership category for non-I-O professionals who are interested in learning about I-O and engaging with SIOP. This category is for people who do not meet the current criteria for our traditional membership categories (i.e., Fellow, Member, Associate, Student, Retired), and it can be considered as the membership type that is “open to the public.” Affiliates have access to two main benefits: (a) access to SIOP content and (b) the ability to engage with the SIOP community. Based on pilot data used in the initial proposal of the Affiliate member type, we anticipate that many Affiliates will be well-educated professionals who are members of other organizations such as APA or SHRM. Our pilot data also suggest that those interested in the Affiliate membership seek to engage with SIOP for three main reasons: (a) to network, (b) to keep up with the latest trends in research and practice, and (c) to have professional development opportunities. Overall, we believe that, if done correctly, the Affiliate expansion will broaden our impact both in and outside the organizational sciences as well as welcome more multidisciplinary perspectives into our community to enrich our science.

This new membership category aligns with SIOP’s 2020 Strategic Plan in that it helps SIOP become more inclusive, and it provides an additional revenue stream, which will have downstream benefits for SIOP. Even though the Affiliate vote passed, we acknowledge that only a small proportion of eligible SIOP Members voted (11%). For this reason, our goal is to launch the Affiliate category in a measured and systematic way so that we can monitor the impact of this change on the SIOP community. We are just beginning the soft launch of the Affiliate membership category, as our goal was early fall 2022.

Below, we provide a brief description of our overall plan for Affiliates. Of course, these are subject to change, and we will do our best to communicate with you all as we embark on this journey.

Affiliate Membership Fee and Recruitment Strategy

• $80 annual membership fee (from now through February 28, 2023, we will offer a special $60 introductory rate)
• We are using a phased rollout for recruitment:

• Professionals who participated in SIOP before but were nonmembers at the time of their participation. Also, we have plans to reconnect with professionals who expressed interest in joining SIOP in the past but did not meet membership criteria.
• Encourage current SIOP members to recruit Affiliates from their professional networks. After the initial rollout, we will assess the needs of the Affiliates and our capacity to meet them before advertising the Affiliate membership type more intentionally to the wider public.

Benefits to Becoming an Affiliate

Immediate Benefits

• Access to SIOP content (TIP, IOP, etc.)
• Networking (Affiliate open houses, etc.)
• Attend SIOP events and conferences at a slightly discounted rate

Potential Future Benefits

• Live video conference sessions with panels/speakers (offered quarterly for Affiliates)
• Social media highlights about Affiliates
• Updated Affiliate website with modern and exciting visuals
• Affiliate mixer (meet-n-greet) at SIOP
• Crafting a personalized experience by having SIOP volunteers serve as Affiliate point-of-contacts throughout the year

A Call to Action for Current Membership

As mentioned above, one of the rollout phases will include asking you, our current membership, to reach out to your networks and encourage your non-I-O colleagues to consider joining SIOP as an Affiliate member.

Do you have a colleague who perhaps has the same role as you and does not hold an I-O degree? Do you attend HR or analytics group meetings and know others who would benefit from the science of I-O or help inform our membership community in a way that would enhance the I-O profession? We ask that you consider passing along word of the new SIOP Affiliate membership, and encourage these colleagues to join our I-O community.

The Executive Board, Membership Committee, and Administrative Office are each excited to welcome Affiliates with open arms; we hope that you will join us!