Being a member of both an amateur radio club and a Rotary club, I often compare the two. One of the things that Rotary International does that the ARRL fails to do is to actually provide their clubs with training and materials on how to make the clubs stronger.
The January 2014 issue of the e-mail newsletter Rotary Leader includes the article “Creating a Strong Club.” It suggests that you should treat your members as customers. While I’m not totally sold on that particular idea, the article does include a list of common mistakes that clubs make with regard to membership. They are:
- Focusing on recruiting new members, while neglecting engagement.
- Forcing new members to adapt to the club and not thinking about how the club can adapt to new members.
- Failing to understand the needs of new members.
- Blaming new members for dropping out rather than evaluating what the new members need.
I do like this list, although I’d probably change #1 to read, “Failing to proactively recruit new members.”
Leave a Reply