The American Bus Association (ABA) is seeking a dynamic and strategic Director of Membership to lead our efforts in enhancing membership value, delivering exceptional benefits, and fostering meaningful connections within the North American motorcoach, group travel, and tourism industries. With a new CEO and a recently board-approved strategic plan, ABA is entering an exciting chapter of growth and transformation.
ABA represents a broad swath of the $100 billion group travel industry, bringing together motorcoach operators, tour companies, manufacturers, destinations, attractions, and travel service providers. Membership is at the core of this strategy, and the Director of Membership will play a critical role in executing the strategy by driving engagement, retention, and recruitment across all membership categories.
This leader will be expected to take full ownership of the department, develop its own strategic membership plan, and execute against the aggressive objectives and KPIs aimed at membership growth and impact.
The ideal candidate will have experience working within the travel and tourism sector, understanding the unique needs of businesses in this space and how to deliver value that strengthens their connection to ABA.
About the Role
As the Director of Membership, you will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer, oversee the Sr. Membership Manager, and work closely with other departments to ensure ABA continues to provide unparalleled value to its members.
This position is responsible for:
- Leading membership recruitment, retention, and engagement efforts.
- Developing and implementing membership marketing strategies that effectively communicate ABA’s value.
- Overseeing membership data analysis and reporting to track progress and inform decision-making.
- Ensure that member services and benefits continuously evolve to meet industry needs.
- Crafting and executing a departmental strategic plan aligned with ABA’s broader vision for growth.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Membership Acquisition, Retention, and Engagement
- Design and manage membership acquisition and renewal campaigns.
- Conduct benchmarking and environmental scans in support of recruitment, retention, and development of new member benefits.
- Collaborate with the meetings and communications team to develop promotional materials and content (e.g. ABA newsletter, annual meeting promotional materials, social media posts, ads, etc ) as they relate to membership.
- Collaborate with staff across the organization to create programs and offerings that strengthen member value.
- Define and lead member recruitment and engagement activities in the ABA booth at ABA Marketplace and meetings where ABA has a booth presence.
Membership Data Analysis and Reporting
- Track key membership metrics including acquisition rates, retention rates, demographics, and member engagement levels to identify trends.
- Working with the Sr. Membership Manager to manage queries and reports as needed by ABA staff and committees.
- Use data analysis to inform strategic decisions.
Membership and Database Administration
- Manage the member facing content, software features, and workflows across ABA platforms to provide clarity, optimize the user experience and maximize efficiency in member-related operations.
- Provide (and oversees) prompt and effective customer service to members, through both oral and written communication, including troubleshooting and resolution of billing issues, journal access, awards eligibility, webinar and course registration, and other member benefits.
- Working with the Sr. Membership Manager to oversee the processing of membership and other payments as well as daily, monthly and annual reconciliations. Works with finance team to research and resolve issues between the database and the accounting.
- Work with the ABA Foundation to expand awareness and support for the Foundation across members.
- Undertake special projects as assigned.
Qualifications and characteristics:
- Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications, or related field.
- Five to seven years of experience in the tourism or travel industries.
- Membership, recruitment, engagement, and analysis of membership data within a professional association preferred, but not required.
- Supervisory experience as well as experience working with contractors and vendors.
- Familiarity with customer databases, including Association Management Systems (AMS), Content Management Systems (CMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and marketing automation tools.
- Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills.
- Strong attention to detail and strong ability to multi-task, prioritize, analyze, solve problems and handle periodic high volume of inquiries.
- Commitment to diversity, with a strong sense of self-awareness and transparency.
- Ability to travel to various shows and membership related events between 25-50%
Schedule
ABA has a hybrid office schedule in its Washington, DC office. This position is available as a fully remote position or can be located at our headquarters in Washington, DC. Fully remote employees will be expected to be in Washington, DC at least quarterly for planning strategic staff meetings.
ABA values its employees, and offers a benefit package designed to attract, reward, and retain talented individuals who are committed to excellence in everything they do.
