IDEAS TO BREATH NEW LIFE INTO YOUR SAR CHAPTER
Is your SAR Chapter struggling? Don’t feel discouraged. Many SAR Chapters, especially smaller Chapters, do struggle with meeting attendance, finding new members, finding members willing to take leadership roles, etc. Here are a few ideas that might help breath new life into your Chapter:
Adjust Meeting Days/Times or Meet Less Often if Necessary
§ Make sure your meeting day and time fits with a majority of your Chapter member’s schedules
§ If attendance is a constant problem, consider meeting every other month, or quarterly
§ Keep meetings fun – good speakers are most important – but also consider meeting at a Compatriot’s home, or a BBQ in a local park, an outing to a ballgame, a movie night, bowling or golf, or a visit to a museum. Make sure to invite and encourage spouses and family members to join you
§ Consider a joint meeting with your local DAR Chapter
Create a Color Guard
The Color Guard is the face of the SAR and our best free advertising. If your Chapter does not have a Color Guard, consider creating one. All it takes is three members. If you don’t have three members to form your own Color Guard, join another Chapter’s Color Guard (and make sure to post photos of the color guard activities on your own Chapter’s Facebook page to generate interest among your members. (see next section)
Use Social Media – Starting with Facebook
Facebook is the most powerful social media tool on the internet. As of September 2017, 1.37 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users. And 66% of all males in the U.S. are on Facebook. If your Chapter does not have a Facebook page, here is how to get started with your own Chapter Page:
- Go to facebook.com/pages/create
- Click to choose “Company, Organizations or Institutions” as the Page category
- Select “Nonprofit Organizations” from the dropdown menu and fill out the required information
- Click Get Started and follow the on-screen instructions from there
Here are some keys to successfully using Facebook at the Chapter level:
§ Encourage every Chapter member to join Facebook
§ Post often – Chapter news, historical facts and quizzes, interesting articles, etc. Check(s) other Chapter and State Facebook pages for ideas or items you can repost
§ Post photos and short videos – visual posts are more likely to engage users that plain text
§ Like the Facebook pages of the NSSAR, CASSAR, other Chapters, DAR Chapters, etc.
§ Ask every Chapter member and their spouse to invite his/her Facebook “friends” to “like” your Chapter’s page and, most important, to “share” your posts
§ Consider “boosting” some of your posts. This is an easy way to “advertise” your Chapter to Facebook users. You can target by geography, gender, age etc. as well as interests. For instance, you might want to reach out only to males, over age 30, who have an interest in American History Facebook allows you to do exactly that. You can advertise this way for as little as $5 or $10
If you are having trouble creating a Chapter Newsletter, Facebook can even serve as a temporary replacement – a place to post photos, meeting announcements, etc. Just make sure all of your members know that Facebook will be the primary means of communication.
After your Facebook page is up and running, consider expanding your Chapter’s social media presence through Twitter, Instagram (owned by Facebook) YouTube (owned by Google), etc.
Don’t try to do Everything
Don’t wear out your members with too many projects. If your chapter is small, choose one or two SAR programs to concentrate on. Maybe just one of our eleven different Youth Programs, the SAR Flag Certificate program and/or Wreaths Across America (which is also a fundraising opportunity).
Recognize your Members
Make an effort to recognize chapter members for doing something that benefits the SAR. People like to be recognized for what they've done. Certificates of appreciation, medals, etc. can be drivers - especially if not expected by the recipient; then publicizing recipients on your Facebook page, in local papers or in your Chapter newsletter can also help.
Outreach to the DAR
New members are hard to come by, but SAR Chapters often overlook the obvious – the husbands of DAR members. There are over five times as many DAR members nationally as there are SAR members (approx. 185K to 35K) and the DAR in California has 135 local chapters so there is bound to be one or more in your Chapter’s area.
Reach out to the DAR Regents in your area to see if they are open to promoting SAR membership to their spouses. Offering your color guard for their events is a good way to get your foot into the DAR door!
DG/12-17