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First Impressions
Highlights from the 2011 New Member Surveys
It has become a summer tradition at the BGS Central Office to invite recent inductees into the Society to come to St. Louis and serve as Beta Gamma Sigma interns. 2011 marked the fourth year in this program, and was the first time that the Society was fortunate to have two current students take part in the internship opportunity, lliyana Kuneva (Truman state University) and Daniel Gross (Valparaiso University).
 In addition to their work on the 2011 New Members Surveys, Daniel and Iliyana also helped produce a video explaining the benefits of BGS membership. Check it out, and share the link with your prospective members.
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While Iliyana and Daniel helped out in many ways, the benefits their service provided to the society went far beyond mere paperwork and office tasks. They provided the Society with perspectives we don't always get, that of current college students. In addition to their own thoughts and opinions, which were incredibly valuable on their own, Iliyana and Daniel, as previous interns have done, were able to open the door to the hearts and minds of current college students and recent inductees through a series of new member surveys.
More than 1,218 recent inductees participated in the 2011 surveys, representing 10 percent of all invited juniors and seniors.
The surveys provided an invaluable amount of insight into the Society, and we thought it would be useful to our collegiate chapters to share some of that information, particularly the insights and perspectives regarding the invitation induction process. Below are some of the highlights, but we invite you to view the recorded webinar presentation, and download a copy of the executive summary.
This is all very useful information, and we encourage you to use it to your chapter's advantage going forth.
| Awareness of the Society |
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In the past three years, students’ awareness of the Society has steadily increased. However, a significant 68% of all focus group participants said they were not aware of the Society before they were invited to join. |
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Survey results from this year show that the trend “the bigger the school, the less known BGS is known" remains. However, when comparing last year’s results to this year’s, it can be seen that awareness of BGS in schools of 15,000 or more has increased. |
| The Value of Membership |
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The majority of students do not understand the value of BGS membership at the point of invitation. |
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They receive so many invitations for honor societies that it is hard for them to see the differences between each one. Emphasizing professionalism, exclusivity, and formality during the invitation process is a good way for BGS to differentiate itself from other honorary organizations. |
| Reasons for Accepting Membership |
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The top three reasons for accepting membership which were selected by juniors and seniors are “the honor and prestige,” “the recognition for my hard work,” “to put on my resume.” |
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Invitation Process |
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Most members were invited to join through traditional mail and email. |
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Tapping ceremonies clearly positively influence students’ decision to join and address many concerns of students including: making the invitation process more formal to better represent the honor of BGS, making the invitation process more public, and receiving more encouragement from faculty. |
| Benefits of Membership |
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Students are most likely to identify themselves as BGS members on resumes and interviews as well as take advantage of the various discount offers. |
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Like previous years, product discounts and test prep discounts were the most popular discount offers. |
| Graduate Education |
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The majority of BGS members plan to pursue a graduate degree, mainly an MBA. However, there are students interested in other degrees. |
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There was a striking difference between when students plan to obtain these degrees. More than one-third of juniors[8] said they would pursue their graduate degree immediately following their undergraduate education. On the other hand, only 27% of seniors said they would pursue theirs immediately following their undergraduate education. |
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Beta Gamma Sigma, Inc. © 2012