Membership Growth Blog

So I tried to put my principles into practice this week by hosing a Toastmasters demonstration meeting. I lined up a great speaker, got a Toastmaster, and even got the best room in our building to do the demo in. I had even had over 15 people tell me that they were going to attend and they were going to bring friends.

I had 6 people come. Only 6 people! You need at least twenty paying members to charter a Toastmasters club and I only had 6. What did I do wrong?

I posted flyers in approved places, I sent out e-mails, and I posted an ad in the company newsletter. Why out of 2200 people in our office did only 6 people show up?
Face Time.

The reason that more people did not come is that they are bombarded everyday with people asking them to spend time on an activity. E-mails, signs, and postings on internet sites do not work. The only way to truly attract more members is to get out there, get some face time, and show your potential members why it is important to join an organization.

Next time, food, fun, and an even better speaker.

Better luck next time,
Chris

In the past three months, I have given three talks on building membership in organizations. After each of these talks, people have come up to me and asked about where they could find more information on building vibrant membership orientated organizations. I had to look at each one of these people and say, “I don’t know. My talk was put together from my own experiences, observations, and collection of disparaging resources.”

I felt bad that I was unable to point them to one resource that gave tips, tutorials, and articles on how to build a killer membership base. After today, I won’t have to feel bad.

This blog is about one thing, building a diverse membership for your group, church, non-profit, or network marketing business. It is based on one guiding principle, that your membership is diverse, busy, and hard to reach so you need to try a lot of different tactics until something works.

I hope that this blog will provide you the inspiration and tactics you need to build your membership.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I sincerely hope that you are able to find the resources that will help you grow your membership.

Best Wishes,
Chris