Want more value from your membership? We’re listening.

By Derek Jamieson, Head of Membership Services

All professional bodies have a responsibility to help shape their profession and to help develop and support their members. At the Chartered IIA, understanding what members need is critical if we are to meet these goals going forward.

As we approach our annual conference at the QE11 in London this Wednesday and Thursday (8 and 9 Oct), I wanted to take the opportunity to share the feedback from our recent member survey (undertaken in June) together with some details of how we will be responding in the coming months.

I believe that it is important that we are transparent and share these member survey findings with you, not least because many of you will have invested time in providing your responses.  

A new member activity report also seeks to provide you with a summary of our work and activities over the last six months. My hope is that it begins to address one of the key themes from the member survey – that of communication, and specifically a lack of awareness of some of our products and services.

So, what have members been telling us?

While the member survey presentation provides detail on the approach and results, I would like to highlight a few key points in particular.

The overall result was positive, with a high level of satisfaction with the quality of products and services that we provide and a high percentage of responses rating us as satisfactory or far better.

However, there are five key areas where members are telling us we must improve, these being – costs and fees, website content search, communication, support for our students (inc. delivery of some of our qualifications), and being too London-centric. 

I can assure you that we have heard these messages and that we have already begun action to address each one.

..and what are we doing to improve the member experience?

I have picked out three of the above issues to highlight briefly here, but there is further detail on all five areas in our Member survey findings[NS3] .

Web search - We rolled out our new website and CRM in late 2024. Since then work has been ongoing to improve the user experience for both systems. The global search function at the top of each web page has just recently been upgraded and we are due to begin a full review of our Content Hub website area over the coming months.

Communication - I am very keen that we improve our personal connectivity with members and over the coming months you will hopefully begin to notice a change in how we engage.  We have also introduced the new Member activity report[NS4]  to address feedback around a lack of awareness of some of our activities, and I sincerely hope that this will help to close that gap. 

Fees - It is important to recognise that our fee-setting process is robust and that ultimately voting members approve them. So if you are attending the annual conference and can come to our AGM at the end of the first day, you will hear details of the process we follow. And if you are a voting member you will be able to vote on the proposed fees for 2026/27. It should also be said that our fees have increased at below the overall rate of inflation over the last 5 years.

How can I get more involved?

If you haven’t done so already, I would strongly encourage you to sign up to our website.

You can then update your communication preferences to ensure that you have better visibility of what interests you in the future and reduce the risk of you missing out.  

Signing up will enable you to join our free-of-charge communities to focus and collaborate on areas of particular interest - undoubtedly adding value, whether it is through a Special Interest Group or Forum.

Engaging with or joining our Regional Volunteer Committees is a rewarding experience and will assist our ambition to grow our member network across the regions. 

Who do I contact?

If you are attending the conference, then please come and speak to any member of staff at the Engagement Hub.

If you need additional information to what is provided on our website, please just contact the Member Services Team through email . They will be delighted to help.