Want to retain your Toastmaster club members year-to-year? Want to have a positive effect on your club members?
Then try these 5 R’s of member retention in your club. Not only will you retain and recruit more members, but your club will run better and members will have more fun. In addition, your club members will reap long-term benefits in terms of club retention, communication, and leadership success.
1. Responsibility. If you give your club members responsibility they feel more connected and because they have a responsibility or role they show up for meetings and projects. It’s also a great way to develop future leaders. Even new members can have small responsibilities like helping to set up the meeting room or greeting members and guests as they arrive. Simply put, a responsibility gives your members a reason to show up and participate. Make every member part of your team.
2. Romp. In other words, create planned social activities. A supportive, close-knit environment goes a long way toward promoting habitual attendance. A fun way to facilitate bonds between club members is to organize social outings outside of club meetings. Planning activities designed for members to get to know one another can go a long way toward member retention. Some clubs have “Post-Toasties” where they meet for dinner after their meeting. Others ride together to events such as Toastmaster workshops. Still, other clubs get together over coffee or have birthday celebrations as well as other special events.
3. Rewards. There are many ways to “high five” your club members. I like a thank you or a Starbucks gift card. But the key is to recognize your club members with something meaningful to the individual. The rewards can include things like items from the Toastmaster online store, candy, books, t-shirts, movie tickets, restaurant coupons, tickets local attractions (you might be able to get these donated) to the simplest reward of all – a heartfelt thank you! The best policy when it comes to rewards? Reward the RESPONSIBLE and those who meet REQUIREMENTS. https://www.toastmasters.org/Shop
4. Role-Model. Make it Personal. Everyone could use a buddy – someone to watch out for them, someone to make sure they not missed – so why not assign them one? You can pair senior members with new members to do things like follow up when they don’t make meetings and to make sure they continue to participate in club activities. By creating these pairings you+++ also create a two-way responsibility. The new members also become responsible to the mentors who are taking the time to watch out for them. The senior member becomes someone who’s been there longer and can help when the newer member runs into challenges. This also gives members the opportunity to meet outside of the Toastmaster meeting with one-on-one time to ensure that member’s needs are being met. Toastmasters has a formal Mentoring program. Check it out: http://www.toastmasters.org/Resources/Mentoring
5. Relationships. Toastmasters is not a social organization, however, many members end up joining and staying for the social interaction. If a member has friends in the organization, or people they like hanging out with, that are also members, they will stay. As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to build relationships within your organization so your members like hanging out with each other. By building relationships you’ll soon find that not only are your members remaining loyal, but they are going to bring friends. Building strong and lasting relationships also helps perpetuate the organization. The last thing you want is for your club to die – for you to be that last group because you didn’t build lasting relationships.
It’s easy to put both a formal and informal emphasis on retention using these 5 Rs. You’ll see individual and collective benefits in both the short and long term.
PS: Did you know that members who attended an annual conference, are more likely to renew? In fact, the more conferences attended, the higher the renewal rate.