Best Practices for multiple companies under one membership

Some member companies have several branches of business / subsidiary companies within their local HBA, and rather than have a membership for each branch of business, want to include multiple companies in their single existing membership’s name. This seems to be particularly of note during awards entry season. The following information can help guide your HBA on how to address this type of request. 

Best Practices

From a CHBA National perspective, it is up to each constituent HBA to develop their own policy on how these requests are actioned. Keep in mind the following:

• Allowing multiple lines of business within one membership will reduce your membership dues income, while the multiple “companies” all get the recognition. 
• There are several HBAs that have membership fee structures that not only do not allow this, but charge more for higher volume members. 
• In BC, NB, Ontario and at the national level, we have only one flat fee rate per member per local, irrespective of the size of the company. (In Alberta, the provincial level charges higher fees for larger companies.) Therefore, one could consider that for the majority of the country, rather than charging higher fees to larger companies, the rationale is that if they are large enough to work in multiple cities, they pay each time in each local instead of being charged more simply as a larger company. (Read more info for EOs and members regarding multiple membership fees here).
  • The same logic would apply to subsidiary companies working with a single local HBA; if they’re large enough to be operating multiple businesses, they should have a membership for each of those companies. s.
    
    

How to Answer a Member’s Request

If you get a request from a member to include more than one company within their membership, and your HBA has decided not to allow this, here’s a standard response that you can modify as needed. Feel free to add in specifics about how this would benefit them at the local level (e.g. awards recognition, etc.).

Dear Member,

Thank you for your inquiry. We’re happy to hear you see the value of having multiple arms of your business belonging to our local association. 

Rather than having higher fees for larger companies, our association operates under the logic that if a company is large enough to have multiple businesses under its umbrella, it pays for multiple memberships. 

This not only allows your separate business to have a visual presence in our membership directory and for any housing awards (at any level of the association), it also allows our local association to deliver more of the important government relations work that benefits your businesses, and it means that everyone who works for your businesses receive discounts through the CHBA National Advantages benefits program, and industry training, support, and intelligence. The provincial and national levels of CHBA spend extensive time and resources supporting local associations, helping to bring even more value to our HBA. 

I hope this answers your question.

Sincerely,
EO