Membership Development

This article is from Signpost, Winter 2012

Recruiting and retaining members is crucial for the long term success of any organisation. Unfortunately, due to other priorities, we have seen a falling off in new members joining since 2009, however there a signs that the trend may be reversed this year.

To ensure we build on the first buds of growth I plan to lead a concerted membership drive in 2013.

As part of this initiative we have identified a number of possible activities many of which have proven very successful in the past and one or two others which we are hopeful will produce good results:

• Representation at Agricultural and Country Shows/Fetes/Galas etc. with our display stand and enthusiastic volunteers to talk to and sign up new members. Twenty  Shows have been identified as possibilities for 2013 and we now need to prune this list to a manageable size based on cost, geographical priorities, dates,  potential (will there be many walkers at the show?) etc.
• Presentations to interested groups have been a success  and we shall be doing more of these focussing on groups from whom we might expect to recruit members and perhaps inspectors.
• Membership leaflets to be placed in venues walkers frequent eg Pubs, cafes, libraries, Countryside information centres etc.

All of the above activities have proven to be a good source of new members in the past and will be energetically implemented in 2013 providing we can gather together sufficient volunteers to help.

The following idea of  “NEW MEMBERSHIP VOLUNTEERS” is new in that I don't think it has been tried in this format before. I believe that we have a membership recruitment resource that could produce a substantial increase in member numbers. This resource is our existing membership base. The idea is that any members who are happy to register with us as New Membership Volunteers would receive a small supply of membership application leaflets. They would then take a few leaflets with them when they are out walking, and if an opportunity arose to talk to other walkers, show them a leaflet, ask them if know of us. Have a chat about PNFS, the good we do, our signposts and bridges etc. and if they show interest , leave a leaflet with them.

No pressure, no sales talk, just a chat about PNFS and the good that we do.

When leaflets run out, let us know and we will send some more.

If you would like to register as a New Membership Volunteer, please contact us.

This is an opportunity for existing members to make a great contribution to PNFS. If just 10% - 15% of members volunteered I feel certain we would obtain some excellent results.

Retaining existing members is an equally, if not more important part of Membership Development and we are anxious to examine how we can keep members on board. Direct Debit really helps in this area, I would encourage everyone to read the benefits overleaf and consider signing up to Direct Debit

Finally, we would  very much welcome any further ideas members might have as to how we can improve our membership development activities in the future.

All ideas will be gratefully received and given full consideration

John Broadbent, Vice Chairman