Club Membership Drive “Best Practices”
Rev 3 - Dec 3, 2015
Note that this is a work in progress that will keep evolving with time. Also, club contacts are provided at the end of this document in case you have any specific questions for a club.
First, a few success stories:
· Fernie (pop. 4,800) has increased their membership by 300% over the past 4 years, from 145 to 573 members!
· Kimberley (pop. 7,600), with only 369 members 6 years ago, is now one of the biggest clubs in BC, averaging 1,000 members the past 3 years!
· Kaslo (pop. 1,000), a brand new club only 4 years ago, has already grown to over 100 members!
· Revelstoke (pop. 7,100) has almost doubled their members in the past 5 years, from 356 to 658!
· Of Black Jack’s 710 members, just over 80% live in Rossland (pop. 3,500), equating to 1 in 6 citizens!
So, this is what’s possible. Let’s create some more success stories in the next couple of years!
It appears that membership drive “Best Practices” so far include:
· Providing online signup via Zone4
o Every club that responded so far is doing this, and typically by September (or Oct 1 at the latest), coinciding with the start of their membership drive.
· Providing an Early-Bird membership rate
o This provides incentive/excitement/urgency for people to get off the fence and commit early, instead of waiting to see “whether it’ll be worth it this year”. It also protects the club from a late snow year. (See graph near the end of this document.)
o Most clubs charge an additional $20-$25 after the Early-Bird deadline has passed (for adult memberships). Anything less may not provide enough incentive to commit early.
· Using a variety of tools to promote the membership drive
o Facebook, local newspapers, fall ski swaps, and local ski shops are common, in addition to club emails and club website.
o My own experience is that well-publicized Early-Bird draw prizes (donated by club supporters such as alpine resorts, ski shops, cat-skiing operations, etc) work wonders, especially if spread out over the course of the membership drive. (See graph near the end of this document.)
Additionally:
· Most clubs have a manned kiosk (paid or volunteer) that sells day passes and season passes.
· Day pass costs range substantially, from $5 to $25.
· Many clubs offer discounted day passes in the form of a multiple-day “Punch Pass” or equivalent.
o Visitors are getting better “value” than a regular day pass, but are also investing significantly more. (They’re also making a commitment to skiing more often, thereby increasing the chances that they’ll ultimately become season-pass members.)
o My own experience is that punch passes are a great way to increase club revenue. But for punch passes to actually sell, they must offer an attractive discount over the day pass rate.
o My opinion: An attractive punch pass price allows a club to raise its day pass price closer to “market” value (which tourists usually don’t blink at), while still providing a cheaper alternative for locals/visitors that commit to skiing multiple times.
More below…
Notes for above table:
· * The "1 in __ citizens is a member" metric above is extremely "grey" for comparison purposes, and can depend heavily on demographics, town/city population, regional population, distance to trails, Nordic culture, etc. The purpose here is not bragging rights, but for allowing clubs to see what may be possible compared to clubs in similar situations. (Note that the calculation assumes 75% of membership is from the "host" location. Feel free to correct me with actual data.)
· Membership cost at Sea to Sky and Strathcona includes a Nordic season pass at Callaghan ($315/$365 early/reg) and Mt. Washington ($289/$419 early/reg), respectively. Similarly, the $25 day pass cost is what is charged by Callaghan and Mt. Washington.
·
Feel free to contact me with any corrections for the above table.
Notes for above table:
1. Black Jack's donated Early-Bird draw prizes have included downhill ski day/season passes, cat skiing, sport store gift certificates, ski lessons, fitness gym multi-day passes, local chocolate etc. Prizes are drawn every few weeks, starting in mid Oct.
2. Kimberley does not offer an Early-Bird price, but does have staggered Early-Bird draw prizes before Oct 31 (day passes for ski hill, membership for Kimberley Nordic, golf passes).
3. Williams Lake does not offer an Early-Bird price, but they had an open house last year in mid-Nov and the first 25 memberships sold got a day pass to the local downhill ski hill.
4. Canada Day booth, Rec-Connect through village office, video, school newsletter
5. Feel free to contact me with any corrections for the above table.
What else does your club do for its fall membership drive that is thought to be effective?Caledonia / Offer it with program registration so members can do both in one transaction.
We are also going to offer the price of day pass to a membership if a person purchases a day pass and wants to become a member. We are also offering free day passes to participants in the Mudd, Sweat and Tears event from June. They will receive a day pass if they bring in their finisher's medal. This too could be used towards a membership. Looking forward to a new season and hopefully lots of new members!
Kimberley / Holding our AGM mid Oct. raised attendance four times and most who came, bought memberships. This year we will do early bird draws then.
Morice Mountain / Discounted season passes for new members.
Nickel Plate / We go to local races (other sports) where people will be more likely to try cross country skiing.
Snow Valley / Work Parties
Sovereign Lake / Tie to our local Ski Swap. Recruitment through the School system for S'Cool Ski . Tie to our fall work parties. Off site collaboration with SilverStar at Malls and other communities through a wireless membership system (wireless terminal and a tablet for Z4 registration)
Strathcona / Ski swap / AGM held beginning of Nov
Whiskey Jack / Not enough.
Williams Lake / The open house that we hold is a time for people to come and talk to us, get information (like maps) if they are new and find out about any changes to our equipment, etc. We hold it in a public place like the library on a Sunday late morning and usually supply coffee and goodies. At the open house they can sign up for jackrabbits and buy memberships. Since we have a great deal whereby we give away a downhill ski ticket to the first 25 memberships sold it usually draws people in. It is also a social time when skiiers can get together and mingle and chat to us about their ideas for changes they'd like to see.
Are there any other ideas your club is considering to increase membership?
Caledonia / Earlybird prizes, earlier start date for purchase
Fernie / During the ski season we have a few 'trail ambassadors' on skis to meet and greet any visitor on our trails
Kimberley / Looking into debit/credit payment options at kiosk
Larch Hills / We would like to try using Early Bird draws to increase membership.
Nickel Plate / We are going to target the local swim clubs and put an ad in the community events booklet
Snow Valley / Improve trail grooming, new equipment
Sovereign Lake / Core focus for this coming season is to build program participation. Thus increase parental participation as well. We are offering a new Masters Program, collaborating with BC Masters that is available to ALL regional Masters Skiers. $50 registration to our program gets a monthly Masters specific newsletter, video and informative ideas regarding training plans, social events at Sovereign and ways to get more involved with our club. pilot Project still in the works.
Strathcona / Long range concept of linking membership with Mt. Washington season pass program, but this is still conceptual and has not yet been formally initiated
Whiskey Jack / We had never considered an early bird price, but it is a good idea.
Williams Lake / Increasing marketing through radio and newspaper. Increasing Facebook presence, which was not really great last year. Looking into a toned down form of Ski S'Kool program.
Below is an example of how the membership drive is affected by incentives/deadlines, in this case staggered early-bird draw prizes and the early-bird pass deadline. As seen, the vast majority of the membership has been secured before the season even starts.
Black Jack / Andrea McKay /
Caledonia / Cara Moore /
Cariboo / Brian Black /
Fernie / Matthieu Corriveau /
Kimberley / Derm Kennedy /
Larch Hills / Duncan Moore /
Morice Mtn / Greg Yeomans /
Nickel Plate / Geoff Waterman /
Omineca / Agathe Bernard /
Overlander / Alan Vyse /
Sea to Sky / Clayton Whitman /
Snow Valley / Dan McElheron /
Sovereign Lake / Troy Hudson /
Strathcona / Len Apedaile /
Telemark / Bob Rogers /
Williams Lake / Kirsty Gartshore /