Client: Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association (IHLA)
Challenge: A 55-member board with disengagement, structural inequities in dues, and governance constraints that were blocking the organization’s ability to grow membership and revenue
Outcome: A restructured board reduced from 55 seats to a more functional governance model; a new four-tier membership architecture including corporate and strategic partner tiers; a rationalized regional dues structure; and a clear platform for membership and revenue growth
The Situation
The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association has been the voice of the hospitality industry in Illinois for decades — a well-respected advocacy organization that its members credit with securing meaningful wins on labor protection, lodging per diem rates, and financial relief during the pandemic. Member satisfaction was high. Over 80% of members reported high satisfaction. Many told the organization directly that they received more value from IHLA than their dues reflected and would be open to a dues increase.
On the surface, IHLA looked healthy. Underneath, it had structural problems that were limiting its potential.
The board had grown to 55 seats. At that size, governance became difficult. Some board members attended sporadically or not at all. Geographic representation was broad — which mattered — but wasn’t balanced against the expectation that board members would be active and engaged. Chicago-based hotels held disproportionate representation. Downstate properties bore the burden of traveling to Chicago for every meeting or participated minimally. Long-serving members occupied seats that could have created pathways for new voices.
The dues structure had similar problems. Hotels in different regions paid per-room rates that didn’t reflect the actual economics of operating a hotel in Chicago versus central Illinois versus a small rural market. The pricing model rewarded size in ways that felt arbitrary and inequitable to smaller operators and downstate properties.
And the membership architecture itself — the range of ways different types of entities could engage with IHLA — hadn’t kept pace with the industry’s evolution. Management companies and ownership groups, hotel vendors and partners, strategic industry allies: all of these had different relationships with the hospitality sector and different things to offer IHLA. The existing structure didn’t differentiate between them in ways that captured their potential value.
Michael Jacobson, IHLA’s President and CEO, engaged Sequence Consulting to address all of it — board structure, dues model, membership architecture, and strategic partner program — as a comprehensive restructuring.
What We Found
Sequence conducted internal discovery interviews, data and research review, qualitative research with members and board members, and benchmarking against comparable state associations and AHLA’s national framework.
Several themes emerged consistently.
The board’s size was compromising its effectiveness. At 55 seats, the board was too large to function as a decision-making body. Qualitative research with members and board participants confirmed what the numbers suggested: some members attended sporadically, geographic distance was a genuine barrier for downstate representatives, and the sheer number of voices made substantive engagement difficult. The board had become more representative than functional — and in practice, the breadth of representation wasn’t serving downstate members as well as intended, because those members’ participation was constrained by the burden of travel.
One-year terms for the board chair were too short. Across qualitative research, extending the chairmanship to two years was widely supported. A one-year term limited any chair’s ability to initiate and sustain meaningful strategic work. The organizational memory and continuity that effective governance requires wasn’t being built.
Term limits were needed at the top — but the structure wasn’t there. Chicago North and Chicago South regions were absorbing the majority of board seats, in some cases with long-tenured members whose extended service limited rotation. Creating pathways for new voices — particularly from smaller operators and newer hotel GMs — required structural change, not just cultural encouragement.
The dues model had regional inequities that created friction. The per-room rate structure, while logical in concept, produced outcomes that felt unfair to operators in markets with lower ADRs and operating economics. Central and southern Illinois hotels were paying rates that didn’t reflect their economic reality relative to Chicago properties. The model needed to better calibrate to actual geographic market conditions.
The strategic partner and allied member program was undermonetized. The existing structure for vendors and industry partners — a single allied member tier at a low price point — didn’t capture the range of commitment and value that different partners brought. Organizations willing to invest significantly in IHLA’s success had no pathway to deepen that relationship financially or governmentally. The result was a vendor relationship program that generated modest revenue and modest engagement from parties who might have contributed substantially more under the right structure.
Members were ready for change. Despite the structural issues, member sentiment was strongly positive. Members described IHLA’s advocacy work in particular as outstanding, often noting that they received more value than their dues reflected. That goodwill created unusually favorable conditions for restructuring — the board was not being asked to fix a broken organization, but to modernize a healthy one.
The Approach
Sequence designed and presented a comprehensive restructuring recommendation to IHLA’s board in March 2025 — covering board structure, membership architecture, dues model, strategic partner program, and the governance mechanics required to implement each change.
Board restructuring. The 55-seat board was redesigned around a cleaner governance logic. Hotel member seats were maintained at 50 total — 40 regional, 5 at-large, and 5 on the Executive Committee — but with meaningful structural changes:
Term limits were introduced for Chicago North and Chicago South regions, capping service at four consecutive two-year terms (eight years) with a two-year sit-out before returning. This created rotation without eliminating experienced voices entirely.
The Chair term was extended to two years, with the Vice Chair succeeding the Chair at term’s end — creating a built-in succession path and institutional continuity that the one-year model couldn’t support.
The Executive Committee was reconstituted to include only current officers and First and Second Past Chairs — a tighter governing body for between-meeting decisions.
Two southern/central Illinois regions were consolidated to align with a rationalized dues structure, retaining combined representation rather than reducing downstate voice.
A new Board Member Emeriti category was created — lifetime membership with voice but no vote — giving former board chairs and past presidents/CEOs a continuing role that honored their service without occupying active governance seats.
New membership architecture. Sequence designed a five-tier membership structure that created distinct categories for different types of IHLA participants:
Hotel Members — all hotel properties, with regional per-room dues — remained the core constituency and the majority of the board.
Corporate Members — management companies and ownership groups — gained a formal pathway into the organization at $15,000 per year, with board eligibility for those at that investment level. The existing Owners Council structure was maintained.
Strategic Partners — hotel vendors and partners willing to invest significantly — were structured into four tiers: Bronze ($10,000), Silver ($15,000), Gold ($20,000), and Platinum ($25,000+), with board eligibility beginning at Platinum and a guaranteed board seat for Platinum partners. Gold partners were eligible for board seats if Platinum representation fell below the minimum of five seats. Tier naming was aligned with AHLA’s national framework for consistency.
Allied Members — lower-investment vendor relationships — were structured into Allied ($1,000, up from $500) and Allied Plus ($5,000) tiers, with Allied Plus members gaining access to a new Strategic Partner Advisory Council and event discounts. Neither allied tier carried board eligibility.
Board Member Emeriti — former board chairs and past presidents/CEOs — received lifetime membership with voice, no vote, and committee eligibility.
Rationalized regional dues. The per-room rate structure was redesigned to reflect genuine geographic market differences. Chicago properties paid the highest per-room rates ($14.80–$16.80 depending on size). Suburban Cook County followed ($14.00–$16.00). Suburban properties outside Cook County paid less ($13.00–$15.00). Central, western, and southern Illinois properties were consolidated at a flat $9.00 per room regardless of size — a significant simplification and equity correction for downstate operators. The smallest hotels (1–35 rooms) moved to a flat fee of $300 rather than a per-room calculation that produced minimal revenue while adding administrative burden.
A $1 per room dues increase, effective January 2025, was implemented as part of the restructuring — the first increase in years, endorsed by the board as part of the process.
An introductory membership discount was designed for first-time members: 25% off single-hotel pricing, 50% off for three or more hotels, with engagement activities built into the first 90 days to establish habits of participation before the discounted period ended.
Strategic partner program redesign. The multi-tier partner structure replaced the single allied tier with a program that created meaningful differentiation between vendors willing to invest at different levels. The Platinum tier — with a guaranteed board seat — created a compelling reason for IHLA’s most important vendor relationships to deepen their financial commitment. The Strategic Partner Advisory Council gave all strategic partners a board-adjacent engagement mechanism that didn’t dilute hotel member governance control.
The Result
The restructuring recommendations were presented to IHLA’s full board in March 2025 and approved. The board voted to move forward with bylaw revisions implementing the new governance and membership architecture.
The immediate outcomes included the $1 per room dues increase — the first in years — which the board endorsed as part of the restructuring process, not in spite of it. The research finding that members felt they received more value than their dues reflected gave the board the confidence to make the move. Members who said they’d be open to a dues increase were given one.
The new strategic partner tiers created pricing levels that hadn’t existed before, giving IHLA’s most valuable vendor relationships a pathway to invest more substantially in the organization. The Platinum tier board seat is a material incentive for partners who previously had limited commercial reasons to move beyond the minimal allied membership.
The governance changes created cleaner pathways for new voices — particularly from Chicago properties that had been underrepresented due to board saturation — while preserving the institutional knowledge of long-serving members through the emeritus structure.
The broader significance of the engagement: IHLA now has a governance and membership architecture designed for growth rather than inherited from history. Dues equity across regions reduces friction with downstate members. The tiered partner program captures more value from vendor relationships. The board structure enables effective decision-making rather than just broad representation.
“I absolutely endorse them. Just one decision they helped us make more than paid for the engagement.” — Michael Jacobson, President and CEO, Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association
What This Means for Your Association
Most associations don’t start with a 55-seat board. They grow into one — gradually, as each new constituency earns representation, each long-serving member finds a continued role, and each governance decision layers on the last. The result is a structure that feels permanent but was never engineered. It works well enough that no single problem is serious enough to force a reckoning — until someone looks at the whole system and asks whether it’s the right structure for what the organization is trying to do.
At IHLA, the existing governance model was holding back three things: effective board decision-making, equitable member relationships, and revenue capture from vendor relationships. None of those problems required a crisis to address. They required the willingness to examine the structure honestly — and the board’s confidence that the membership supported change.
That last point matters more than it might seem. In organizations where member satisfaction is high and the leadership is trusted, restructuring is more achievable than it looks. Members who feel well-served are willing to support change that serves the organization’s future. The barrier isn’t usually opposition — it’s the reluctance to name the problem.
Three questions worth asking about your own association’s governance and membership model:
Is your board the right size to make decisions — or the right size to represent constituencies? Those are different design goals, and they produce different structures. A board sized for representation needs a smaller executive committee to actually govern. A board sized for governance needs alternative mechanisms for constituency voice. IHLA had a 55-seat board designed for representation that was trying to function as a decision-making body. Getting clear on which problem your board is solving is the first step toward designing it to solve that problem well.
Does your dues structure reflect the economic reality of your members — or the history of how you’ve priced things? Per-room, per-employee, or percentage-of-revenue dues models that made sense when they were designed may have drifted out of alignment with actual member economics. IHLA’s downstate members were paying rates that didn’t reflect their market. The fix wasn’t complicated — but it required someone to surface the inequity and design a correction.
Are you capturing the full value of your vendor and partner relationships? Most associations have a single allied or vendor membership tier at a price point that hasn’t changed in years. That structure is almost always leaving revenue on the table. Partners willing to invest $25,000 in a meaningful relationship with your organization have no pathway to do so if your highest tier is $500. The question is whether you’ve built a structure that lets partners express the depth of their commitment financially — and given them governance access that makes the investment worthwhile.
IHLA’s restructuring didn’t fix a broken organization. It modernized a healthy one — giving it the architecture to grow from a position of strength rather than waiting for problems to force the issue.
About Sequence Consulting Sequence Consulting works exclusively with professional and trade associations to grow membership, strengthen revenue, and clarify strategy. Founded in 2001 by Chris Vaughan, PhD and Lisa Vaughan, Sequence brings the rigor of Big Strategy consulting to mission-driven organizations. Trusted by 12 of the top 20 U.S. associations.