This month AuSAE welcomes Ian Coombe, Chief Executive Officer at Playgroup Queensland as our Member in Focus. Ian recently spoke with AuSAE about Playgroup Queensland's membership strategies and their biggest challenges. Plus, exciting projects underway for the Association. 

Can you tell us a bit about Playgroup Queensland and the goals they strive to achieve?

Playgroup Queensland has over four decades of strong member and volunteer support, primarily from mothers but increasingly from dads, grandparents and carers. Groups get together for a couple of hours regularly, usually weekly, for a couple of hours to help their children learn through play before they are old enough to attend formal schooling.

The early years learning framework and the five developmental domains are incorporated into a lightly structured fun session that helps make the transition to school more successful. Much research shows the long term benefits to not only the children, but also the parents, carers and communities.

We strive to connect children, families and communities and are driven to benefit as many of the 250,000 families in Queensland with children 5 and under.

What are Playgroup Queensland’s most successful membership strategies to increase engagement and membership retention?

Playgroup Queensland membership has been relatively stable over recent decades. Last year we renewed our vigour to grow to reach as many of the 250,000 families as possible. Our three key successes are:

• Offer multi-year membership deals as well as our standard 1 year memberships
• Offer the first year free to families of newborns to encourage membership from brith
• Engage our members through social media on mobile phones – 80% of our traffic is mobile

What do you personally feel has been the biggest challenge that Playgroup Queensland has overcome in your time with the organisation?

Apart from the challenge of ensuring sustainability in a rapidly changing world, the biggest challenge we have had to overcome is by far one of technology. We have had to rapidly redeploy from a paper-based charity to one of efficiencies and scale through the use of technology. In doing so, we can now grow unimpeded and free up our most valuable assets, our people, to better service our rapidly growing member base.

Yet another challenge is finding the buttons to push that engage our members on social media and driving the momentum expected on the various social media platforms.

Whilst these two challenges are easy to list, making them happen has been an amazing journey that has taken the whole team beyond their usual experiences.

How does the future look for Playgroup Queensland (or what exciting projects are underway at the Playgroup Queensland?)

We have just launched an exciting partnership with the Queensland Government where we offer 12 months’ free membership to families of newborns when they register their baby before they turn one. The initiative is called Play Stars and together we are reaching out through education, health, family magazine and digital channels to reach as many of the 64,000 births in Queensland every year.

Over the initial five-year partnership, there is the potential to help over 350,000 families. This is a huge benefit to children, families, communities, the Department of Education and Training and also to the members of Playgroup Queensland. Through extra member support, we can deliver even more resources to children, parents, carers and families.

What would you say to someone starting out in the children services and community profession with a view to become a future leader?

It may well be a cliché to do what you love, but I have found that I have always been drawn not only to helping others but to children’s causes – and that keeps my passion and drive burning and fuels me to get through challenging times. With fuelled drive, it is vitally important to keep learning and to stay well connected. Always stay on the lookout for opportunities to solve problems in a better way and as you deliver results, more opportunities will come.