Help new CRN members realize the benefits of being part of the association's community of responsible industry leaders! CRN makes it easy with a step-by-step, simple mentor roadmap.
BACKGROUND: CRN offers an array of benefits to its dietary supplement and functional food industry member companies, with different offerings having different appeal depending on a company’s goals. The wide range of subject matter addressed by CRN’s various committees, working groups and task forces, as well as the association’s resources, can be a lot to navigate.
Following a new member company’s on-boarding presented by CRN staff, peer-to-peer interaction with member mentors will help new members maximize those membership benefits that will provide the best impact toward their specific goals.
PURPOSE:
- Introduce and assimilate new CRN voting members into the association culture and help ensure they engage to get the full value of their membership investment.
- Reinforce new members’ awareness of CRN resources and help make real-life, personal “case-study” connections to the value of these resources to the business.
- Reinforce the value of participation on CRN committees, working groups, and task forces through discussion of how the mentor and their company colleagues have benefitted specifically and some of the things they have achieved through participation in these groups, not only for the industry or the company, but personally in their professional lives.
- Monitor the new member’s satisfaction with CRN through frank peer-to-peer check ins.
- Maximize probability of renewal past that first year by reinforcing the sense of CRN community and helping the CRN team address needs or new member pain points to help elevate their experience and position CRN as essential to their business.
MENTOR REQUIREMENTS:
- CRN Board of Directors members or former Board members/committee chairs are ideal mentors, but the opportunity is open to other CRN members, as well.
- Must be willing to commit to the program for one year, including at least quarterly touchpoints with the new member company.
EASY STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL NEW MEMBER MENTORSHIP
Background info and connecting with your new member contact
Following an initial onboarding call with CRN’s membership team, we will set the new member up with a mentor. CRN will then provide the mentor with background from the onboarding call to help them dive right into substantive discussions with the new member company contact. CRN will send an email connecting the mentor and mentee (a contact from the new member company will be the touchpoint).
Mentor action
The mentor will then follow up directly with the mentee contact and arrange for a call or virtual meeting to:
- Discuss the new member’s priorities and expectations for their CRN membership in more detail, building on the background provided from the CRN team onboarding notes and provide insights on how to proceed.
- The mentor will recommend that the new member focus on specific goals that can be monitored, measured, and reviewed on future calls.
- Review which committees the mentee—and their colleagues—have signed up to participate in—or make this an action step to check in on in a future call or email if they have not yet done this.
- Schedule future touchpoints to monitor member satisfaction and obtain feedback on membership—touchpoints should occur at least quarterly.
- Connect with CRN’s membership team quarterly via email or virtual meeting to provide feedback from your new member interactions. The CRN team is also available to support the mentor-mentee engagement as needed basis along the way!
In-person meeting
New member mentors should attempt to meet the mentee at an industry event, CRN event or board meeting, or company office, if feasible.
We appreciate our association leaders that elevate the dietary supplement and functional food industry through mentorship, helping new member companies realize the benefits of being part of the CRN community!
Please reach out to Ed Wyszumiala (ewyszumiala@crnusa.org) or Gretchen Powers (gpowers@crnusa.org) with questions or to sign up to be a new member mentor.