Member Engagement

Purpose of the Portfolio

The purpose of the Member Engagement Committee is to build, nurture and manage relationships across all membership segments. We do this by developing an in depth understanding of the member base and delivering a customised and highly valued offering to members, with the key outcomes being an increase in member participation rates and membership growth rates.

Key initiatives

A key focus of the Committee is the delivery of social events where we provide our members with informal opportunities to socialise and network with their CFA peers.  The Committee also targets diversity initiatives across all segments as well as localised career programs such as mentoring.

In 2023 we experimented with a few new ideas and delivery formats engaging different segments. For example, we combined a Fireside Chat with Marg Franklin (CEO, CFA Institute) with the Q1 social drinks. We also combined segments where there was overlapping interest. We “opened” up the Open Doors event (a female focussed career panel) to university students and early year members when previously this was a candidate only event and the new Recruiter Event was open to both candidates and early year members.

Through the end of 2022 and into 2023, we continued to deliver more frequent in person events.

• 23 November - Social & Networking Drinks, Emerald Peacock

• 4 February - Coffee at the Tan, Jardin Tan at the Royal Botanic Gardens

• 1 March - Fireside Chat with Marg Franklin plus Q1 Social Drinks, RACV Club

• 2 March - International Women’s Day Lunch with Leigh Sales, State Library of Victoria

• 4 May - Charter Awards Ceremony, RACV Club

• 6 June - Get Inside the mind of a recruiter, Korda Mentha

• 8 June - Social & Networking Drinks, Beer DeLuxe Fed Square

• 20 July – Beyond Conformity: Harnessing Neurodiversity, webinar

• 12 August - Coffee at the Tan, Jardin Tan at the Royal Botanic Gardens

• 17 August - Adelaide Networking Event, Gallery, Adelaide

• 22 August - Redefining minority and majority – through the lens of neurodiversity, webinar

• 31 August – Open Doors “Jump start your career”, Dexus Place

• 14 September - Volunteer Thank You Lunch, Cumulus Up

• 21 September - Social & Networking Drinks, Emerald Peacock

In May, we held our annual Charter Awards ceremony. A group of 31 new Charterholders received their Charter in front of family and friends and were officially welcomed into the Society. Norman Zhang, CIO of Legalsuper, delivered an inspirational keynote speech.

In August, we held our annual event for Adelaide-based members. This event demonstrated the need for ongoing support of our South Australian members in building the CFA community there.

After the success of the 2022 mentoring program last year. We are delivering the program again in 2023. Mentoring continues to be a key finding from member surveys. We would like to thank all our mentors who have been generous with sharing their experience and time.

Finally, although the CFA Institute’s focus is on improving gender diversity, in 2023 the Committee tackled another diversity lens - Neurodiversity. There are lessons that can be learned by looking through a different diversity lens.

What’s next?

For the year ahead, our focus remains on delivering initiatives that are highly valued by our members. We will continue to experiment with new ideas, to diversify the format and venues for social events to ensure we are as inclusive as possible. Based on feedback we will also take a deeper look at the member experience including member communications.

There will continue to be a specific focus in the year ahead on new members and senior members to ensure we are catering for every cohort of the membership base in the initiatives we deliver.

The CFA Society Melbourne is run by an army of volunteers! We would like to thank all of them for their enthusiasm, generosity, and contribution in delivering exceptional value to our members.

Member Engagement Spotlight