National Association of Social Workers and student membership

The purpose of this study is to explore the reason for low rates of student membership in professional social work associations, particularly the National Association of Social Workers. Student membership is usually offered at a more discounted rate than professional membership, yet social work students are not joining at the same rate as more veteran professionals. The study seeks to help the organization develop ways to target social work students before they enter the field and do more to meet the needs of social work students. The opinions of MSW II Social Work students were analyzed in this study to assess factors that contribute to low rates of membership. The 107 participants were all in their last semester of study. It was determined from the data collection that 76.6% of the participants did consider professional membership associations to be of value to social work. Only 22.4% said that they were currently members of the National Association of Social Workers and 37.4% reported that they had been members of professional membership associations in the past. Another significant finding was that there was no significance between CSUS students who attended the National Association of Social Workers annual Lobby Days and those who signed up for membership. The study corroborated the literature, which said that there is an overall decline in professional membership associations.