Last year I (VP Membership/Secretary) asked a few members of other clubs what they did to get their membership renewals. We had been going through a few years of losing our members and wanted to stem the exodus and turn our membership numbers to a positive number.

As a Board we decided to improve our attitude and outlook. We are working on improving our image, we want to have a professional image that appeals to our long time members, professional women AND the soccer mom. We “attacked” several areas that we determined to be our weaknesses. We updated our web site, Facebook page and all printed material including business cards, roster, brochures, letterhead, membership packets. We’ve used more material from NFRW and love the new branding, “There’s a place for you at our table.”

In one area we have been fortunate. There aren’t many places where we can meet and have a nice lunch. We had been at the same location for a few years and for the last couple of years the lunch has been less appealing. Our location kept changing caterers. Fortunately, a new Marriott was built and they welcomed our club. We initiated our first meeting by having a Membership Meeting. (More about that later.)

Last fall I announced in January we would have a drawing for a free membership. Everyone who had paid their dues before the January Lunch was eligible. While this didn’t get as many paid memberships as I hoped, I believe that the numbers will increase as we continue to have the drawing in future years.

We always have renewal forms in our newsletters and I keep after the members who are at the meeting to make sure they pay their dues. I’ve even set up a table with membership information which the members have to pass before they can enter the meeting room. It also helps that the ladies who are in charge of reservations let me know who has made lunch reservations so I can cross check for any one who hasn’t paid yet.

This year in February I sent letters/bills again telling the members the benefits of membership and why we need them and they us. That increased the renewal rate. Finally, members of the Board each took a few of the remaining names and reminded them their dues were past due (nicely of course). AND/or to find out why they weren’t rejoining -- because we wanted to improve. And left them with the message that if they ever needed anything or if there was anyway we could be of service to be sure to call us.

I think we have about 10 members that did not rejoin yet. But, we’re not giving up on them.

We tried to have a Membership Tea and Fashion Show. It either was too big a project, or our membership did not want to do one more thing, or it was a bad choice of date. I could not generate enough interest to make it worthwhile.

So, we had a Membership function at our luncheon. We used the inaugural meeting at our new location and encouraged the membership to invite guests to our meeting.

We had a great speaker who discussed his project of sending packages to the troops and his work in the middle east. Because it was a special event I told the attendees I had planned to decorate with flowers and balloons to make it a real party atmosphere. But, I hoped they wouldn’t mind that I purchased sunflower seeds and balloons to send to the troops. (Our speaker Si was thrilled with the balloons because the troops love water balloon fights.) Since we had a nice lunch I didn’t have to have special food to serve them so I hoped they wouldn’t mind that I bought jerky and hard candies for the troops. Everyone enjoyed my agenda.

If a member brings a guest and they join I give the member three opportunity drawings. New members receive a packet of information about our club including a letter of welcome from our President, our roster, the NFRW brochure, information about club badges and other pertinent information about membership.

This year I am thrilled that we completely filled in my graph for membership.

I’ve continued to give out Miss Ellie awards (a bag of peanut M&Ms) to those members who last month went above and beyond the call of duty. Last year I gave the First Annual award to one of our club’s unsung heroes (one requirement was that she hadn’t been recognized before). Several people congratulated her and agreed with my choice of hero. I don’t think we do enough to acknowledge all of the hard work our membership does to make a club/organization function on all six cyclindars!

We still need to update our club brochure. We need to encourage the membership to not be “clicky” and to mingle. I would like it if our Board members would split up and sit at different tables. I’m sure there are other things we can do to improve, but we are working as a team to take those steps to become a club more viable to the community and to the Republican Woman.

Mary Lea Harris

Atascadero 2nd Vice President, Membership Atascadero Republican Women Federated…President Susan Needleman-Brown.

If you would like to be “Spotlighted” in the Friday Capitol Update. Email or phone me 707-255-2815