ITAPEI Membership Development & Communication Strategy
Client:
Indigenous Tourism Association of PEI (ITAPEI)
Dates of Resonate XM Engagement:
December 1, 2022 - Spring 2023
Resonate Rockstars:
Kim Doyle, Jillian O’Halloran, Adam MacLennan
Resonate XM Network:
Lake Design
The Indigenous Tourism Association of PEI (ITAPEI) is a not-for-profit tourism association supporting the growth of Indigenous tourism businesses and community enterprises in Prince Edward Island. In late 2022, ITAPEI contracted Resonate XM to develop a membership development program, as well as a one-year communications and engagement strategy.
The Challenge
A newly established entity, the ITAPEI’s membership development prior to engaging Resonate XM were fairly minimal. Notably, the organization was simultaneously engaging in efforts to build tourism capacity within the Island’s Indigenous communities, as there have historically been very few Indigenous tourism offerings. Thus, membership development would have to be pursued in connection with ITAPEI’s capacity building efforts.
The Resonate XM Solution
Resonate XM reviewed current research from ITAPEI, as well as Indigenous Tourism Associatio of Canda, and sister organizations in NS, NB and NL. The team conducted interview with stakeholders across the Island, which served to inform both the membership development and engagement strategies.
Resonator Kim Doyle leaned into her extensive experience in tourism membership development and engagement, while concurrently synthesizing the insights gathered from the project research phase. The result was a membership development program and communications/engagement strategy that were non-colonial in design. For example, the membership program recognized non-monetary member contributions to the community and reciprocal memberships in like-minded organizations like TIAPEI and ITAC.
The Resonate 'X' Factor'
One of our mottos within the Resonate XM Collective is that it’s more important to get it right, not rushed. This came to bear on our work with ITAPEI. As a new organization, they were developing key policies simultaneous to the membership development program and engagement strategies we had been hired to complete.
In order to ensure that our deliverables were aligned with ITAPEI’s new policies, we extended the initial timeline and periodically paused the project while the new polices were finalized.