Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Membership, Oct 2011)

It has been over a year since this blog shared an update on the top 10 BDPA chapters in terms of membership totals. A look over the membership totals in the past 14 months shows us that BDPA needs to be very focused on membership recruitment and retention in the coming weeks and months. The organization needs to continue to focus on delivering programs that advance the careers of African Americans in the IT industry. This needs to be an area of focus for all 45 local BDPA chapters as well as the national leadership team.

Membership is the lifeblood of any organization. The 45 BDPA chapters in BDPA-nation average 26 members (down 9 from Aug 2010).

Pam Sexton

BDPA Chicago (president, Pamela Sexton) continues to demonstrate excellence in the area of recruitment and retention of its membership. This chapter has been #1 in membership for the 54 months in a row. We are going to try to document some of the best practices from the Chicago chapter leadership team on how they keep growing their membership -- their chapter total is over 200 right now.

BDPA Cincinnati (president, Wanda Gray) made the largest gains over the past 14 months as her chapter leapfrogged nine (9) slots to become the 3rd largest in the nation. I attended the Cincinnati chapter strategic planning meeting over the past weekend and I can tell you that the incoming leadership team understands the importance of active adult members. It should be interesting to see if the chapter can maintain its upward momentum in the coming weeks and months.


The top ten chapters in terms of membership are:

1. Chicago
2. Atlanta - (improved three places since Aug 2010)
3. Cincinnati - (improved nine places) * NEW *
4. Philadelphia (dropped one place)
5. New York (improved one place)
6. Washington DC (dropped four places)
7. New Jersey (improved two places)
8. Los Angeles
9. Charlotte (improved two places) * NEW *
10. Richmond (improved seven places) * NEW *

Only one chapter -- BDPA Chicago -- is in the BDPA Century Club with at least 100 members. BDPA Chicago chapter tops the list with 239 members!    The three chapters that dropped out of the last report of the Top 10 BDPA chapters were Triangle (dropped 10 places to #14); Southern Minnesota (dropped 11 places to #18) and Dallas (dropped 7 places to #17).

Leave a comment if your chapter isn't listed above. We're happy to tell you where your BDPA chapter is ranked if you want. In the meantime, we would love to know what you think about membership in BDPA?