I am not sure of the exact numbers, but I suspect there are probably in the neighborhood of 10% or more of our members with 10 or more years of AEC marketing experience. Many have served in Chapter leadership positions, many are past presidents, but do not see the Chapter and their programs as helpful to them now and tend to not participate or come to events.
Many of us call this the "Dead Presidents Club" .But there are many other senior members out there that are not members of the Dead Presidents Club, members with tremendous experience that could help the chapter achieve its goals. Some chapters have started a past chapter presidents group to advise the chapter.
In Virginia, we have started a senior marketers group planning to meet monthly and share information, discuss pertinent topics and identify how we might help the Chapter. In the past 2 years, the Fellows have begun a similar initiative-- but if extended to other members with 10 years or more experience, that would capture the skills, knowledge and experience of probably 700+ marketers. Think what SMPS could do for its members by better capturing that largely untapped resource.