Nearly all clubs could benefit from more members. If we have more members, we can help more women and girls! Membership is one of our four ‘pillars’ of the organization:

Successful clubs have all of these elements working. Each is reliant on the other. Since we are talking about membership: If you don’t have good public awareness, you won’t attract new members. If you don’t have a solid mission (program) and a purpose (women and girls), you won’t attract new members. If you don’t raise money for your programs, you won’t retain your members.

Does your club have at least one membership recruitment event each year? We all should! Make it fun and informative.

What sort of atmosphere or ‘vibe’ does your club have? Is it a vibrant room full of women with a purpose? Or women who are just in a routine of coming to a meeting and have forgotten the reason they are there? Think of ways to bring the mission back into each meeting. Mix it up, do something different at your meetings, make them fun and meaningful. This doesn’t all have to rely on your club leadership, but on each of us.

Let’s talk about the tools that you have available to help you recruit and retain members: SIA has a wealth of tools for you on their website: SIA’s Diamond Campaign. You’ll find everything from templates for flyers and club brochures to information on the different generations to retention tools. Dig in and see what might work for your club.

In our region, we have our Federation membership chair Trudy Mills, who is more than willing to talk to you or come to your club to discuss ideas on how to grow your membership. She has some great ideas on appealing to ’empty nesters’, which just might be a great target market for us to look for new members. She has posted some of SIA’s tools on her region page on our website as well. She also has a great corporate engagement opportunity to approach women in businesses in our communities. Our region website is www.soroptimistsnr.org. Just click on the Membership tab.

Lastly, $$$$$$$! Did you know that there is Region money available for membership recruitment? There is! If your club has less than 12 members, you just need to contact your district director and she will get with Trudy. Have a plan on how you want to spend the money to attract new members and they have the power to get you the money. If you have more than 12 members but see membership as an issue (which, honestly, is most clubs), put together a plan and the board will consider it at our next board meeting, which is in the end of April. If it’s a solid plan, it will probably be approved.

Your region is here to support you and help you grow. Let’s do this!

Lane Parks
Governor