The Branch of the Year award was initiated in order to motivate branches to communicate with their members and add value. The idea being that competition would stimulate new ideas and growth opportunities. Every year there is fierce competition among branches for this prestigious award, and every year there is also a lot of contention regarding the scoring system as well as the information that was used to achieve the scores.
Unfortunately this led to a lot of unhappiness and did not contribute to a healthier SAIMC. What was supposed to be a motivational tool became a controversial one, with negative connotations that worked counterproductively. Therefore, this situation had to be reviewed.
Johan Maartens.
Bring in the new
As of the second half of 2012 the Branch of the Year award will be replaced by a branch scoring system. The details are currently being discussed and the system will probably look something like this:
* Depending on the services being provided by the branch, it will be graded as Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze. This will in turn determine the amount of money the branch will receive from council as a percentage of the fees paid by the members of that branch.
* In order to up the game, it will be quite easy for any branch to obtain Gold status and receive 10% of membership fees from council.
* But, in order to obtain Platinum status, branches will need to step up on existing activities.
* New activities that we envisage scoring are: training for members scheduled by the branch (not just CPD training); involvement in local tertiary institutions and presenting papers.
The advantage of this new initiative is that even the smallest of branches can participate. We might even revisit our definition of a branch. If a branch does not qualify for even the Bronze status we can rightfully ask whether this is actually a branch that is providing a service to our members. On the positive side a branch of 10 people or less can now qualify as at least a Bronze branch, which will mean that it is providing a service. Now the definition of a branch could become a question of “Are you providing a service?” Rather than “How many members do you have?”
Please call on your chairman if you need more information, you can also call the secretariat or visit our Forum. Let us know what you think of this new initiative that sprouted from the Webinar we held a few months ago. It is now all about providing value to members.
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