The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Modernizes its Member Communication
Tom DeBacco
As the representative voice for the Latino community’s workforce, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) aimed to modernize its member communication, particularly during its National Membership Convention. LCLAA sought a modern, easy-to-engage, and cost-effective mobile solution to facilitate member engagement across its 40-chapter network throughout the US.ed Mobile Event App – And Year Round Member App – In Just Days, With No Coding Experience
Based in Washington, DC, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) stands as the leading national organization for Latino/a workers and their families. Representing the interests of over 2 million Latino/a workers and their families, LCLAA emerged from the need to educate, organize, and mobilize workers within the labor movement through the Latino lens. In recent years, LCLAA expanded its influence, organizing Latino/a individuals to impact workers’ rights and their involvement in the political process.
“In the end, the decision to select MobileUp was easy because the team at MobileUp made it so easy, and the functionality delivered what we needed.”
Jose Vargas Executive Director
With support from its Board of Directors, Executive Director Jose Vargas had a strong desire to modernize LCLAA, reduce paper-based communication among members, and transition the organization to a “Go Green” initiative. The pivotal program to instill a digital mindset and implement a mobile solution was the LCLAA National Membership Convention.
Vargas and his team chose MobileUp as the LCLAA mobile app partner in January 2023, prioritizing the immediate implementation of the mobile app solution for the August 2023 National Membership Convention. The MobileUp solution successfully delivered and was implemented at the LCLAA 2023 Convention, continuing to drive chapter and member engagement post-Convention.
Challenge: To fulfill its strategic intent of moving away from paper-based collateral and adopting a “Go Green” approach with mobile app solutions to connect and engage with LCLAA members at its National Membership Convention and in subsequent communication.
Jose Vargas was entirely convinced of the value of a mobile app. However, the first mobile app supplier, chosen before the 2021 National Membership Convention, proved to be expensive, cumbersome to deploy and manage, and largely ineffective in delivering member engagement and management value at the Convention.
LCLAA had specific digital feature requirements, including message delivery, event scheduling, pre-event registration, and digital membership/ID cards. MobileUp successfully delivered on each of these features with an easy-to-manage back-end administrative toolset, allowing for quick and complete changes and updates. Despite LCLAA’s commitment to a paperless Convention, the organization recognized the diverse digital competency among its members, ranging from younger to older individuals.
“To ensure members would download and use the new mobile app, members were instructed to download the mobile app as part of Convention registration,” said Vargas. “We made it very clear that if you are coming to the Convention in August, this is the app you will need to navigate the programming and content throughout the Convention.”
Vargas also needed to transition his membership away from reliance on paper-based navigation while relying on a growing number of members who understand and embrace mobile technology. Vargas added, “Because we required Convention attendees to download the mobile app, they had no choice but to download and attempt to navigate the app. In addition, we provided on-site facilitation and troubleshooting.”
Solution: To drive utilization and engagement, Vargas and his team started posting on the app ahead of the event with messaging blasts, photos, and other engagement throughout the LCLAA National Membership Convention. This served as its own social media platform to drive influence and usage.
LCLAA utilized a range of traditional communication tools, including its website, bi-monthly newsletter, Action Network communication, and social media, to keep its member base across the 40-chapter network connected, informed, and knowledgeable about the programs it offers and to advocate for the rights of Latino/a workers. “We developed a full ‘how-to’ tutorial on how to download and use the mobile app and pushed it out to our full membership through Action Network,” noted Vargas.
To encourage app downloads, no paper meeting materials were available on-site during the Annual Meeting. Schwab-Falzone also created 10-15 automated app notifications for each day, highlighting sessions, networking opportunities, breaks, and meal locations.
“It’s key to our future member connection.”
In evaluating the MobileUp solution against the experience with its prior mobile provider, Vargas noted that the MobileUp engagement was less of a selling process but more of a solutions-based discussion, focused on designing a solution against the needs of LCLAA. Vargas further noted the LCLAA imperative was to NOT depend on MobileUp for updates or functional changes but to ensure the solution allowed for the LCLAA team to make updates directly, quickly, and without added cost. “In the end, the decision to select MobileUp was easy because the team at MobileUp made it so easy, and the functionality delivered what we needed,” said Vargas. “I’m a union organizer, and that’s all I want. Please listen to my needs. Deliver what I ask and stand behind it. Ryan and the team at MobileUp did all that,” added Vargas.
Following the Convention, there has been a natural and expected drop in engagement. However, Vargas and his team are planning new messaging to encourage downloads of the app for members who did not attend the convention. Vargas believes strongly that the mobile app will be essential to drive active engagement in LCLAA programs going forward. “It’s key to our future member connection,” said Vargas. Adding, “Our goal is to drive all members to the mobile app to replace offline membership cards,” stated Vargas.
As a member-based non-profit, LCLAA is continuously working to add value to each member within each chapter. Moving forward, LCLAA will be encouraging every chapter to engage with the app, with the goal of replacing email with notifications through the app. “We will continue to encourage downloads through direct messaging to our members, in addition to working with chapter presidents to drive engagement with the app at the chapter level,” said Vargas.
Results: The LCLAA mobile event app signifies a more modern, green convention, a great communication model, strong member utilization at the Convention, consistent and better chapter engagement, and improving member engagement, leading to a costeffective reputation build for LCLAA.
LCLAA’s leadership has fully embraced digital communication tools, with a particular focus on mobile technology. This commitment extends to continuously enhancing the value offered to its 40-chapter network and thousands of members. The mobile app has become a central platform during the National Membership Convention and ongoing member communication. While traditional communication channels are still utilized, the mobile app now serves as a cornerstone content platform for conventions, member identity, conference content, programming, and chapter engagement.
MobileUp and its mobile app platform have played a pivotal role in helping LCLAA realize its strategic imperatives, proving to be a valuable and reliable strategic partner. The evidence of this value is reflected in the substantial number of LCLLA Convention attendees who proactively downloaded the app before the Convention, actively engaged with it throughout, and expressed widespread satisfaction. As LCLAA management continues to promote new app download messaging and encourages mobile membership identity, alongside efforts by Chapter Presidents to drive engagement at the chapter level, downloads and engagement are anticipated to gain further traction.
The most noteworthy results include 1) LCLAA Management Excellence: The workflow management of the app throughout the Convention was consistently excellent, offering a streamlined and user-friendly experience for the organizational team. 2) Member Satisfaction and Engagement: The functionality and community engagement aspects of the app, including features like photo sharing, make it a much more useful and viable option. “I’m very happy with MobileUp. This solution relieved my stress and was so much more affordable. The app is so easy for our team, and so engaging for our members. I know there is much more we can do with our mobile app, but for now, we’re very satisfied with the Convention experience, and engagement of our members,” concluded Vargas.
