communication department

In recent posts to the STC presidents’ mailing list, chapter leaders shared details about successful community membership drives. (See "Use Mailing Lists to Connect with Other Community Leaders" in this issue for details on how to subscribe to the list if you are a chapter president and not already a mailing-list member.) Below are several ideas that you might consider using for your own chapter’s membership drive.

From John Hedtke, Mid-Valley Chapter STC:

In 1987, Hedtke was the hospitality officer for the Puget Sound chapter. “We were having a lot of people showing up at meetings and trying us out, but there wasn’t the retention we were hoping for. I instigated a ‘hospitality deputy’ program—complete with little paper deputy marshal badges and everything. Whenever people were checking into the meeting, I’d have the gatekeepers ask them if they’d been to meetings before. If they hadn’t been to more than two or three, members or not, they’d get a blue star stuck on their name badge. At the start of each meeting, I’d snag three of the senior members in the chapter who were there and pin the deputy badges on them. I charged them with finding the people with blue stars on their badges and making a point of chatting them up, finding out what they were interested in, and introducing them to at least three other people at the meeting. Then, during the announcements at the start of the meeting, I’d enjoin everyone else to find people with blue stars and introduce themselves. This got the people who were brand new to know as many as half a dozen people by the end of their first meeting, and they were strongly inclined to come back again and meet more people. Most importantly, they didn’t feel all alone.

“I don’t have numbers at this point, but I do recall that this was a smashing success for encouraging people to try us out and then join up.

“I also encourage folks to take a look at ‘Ways To Add Value and Make Money.' It’s not entirely on point for specific membership drives, but the ideas are related to having your chapter provide increased value to your members, which you can use as a selling point to nonmembers.”

From JoAnna Springsteen, New York Metro Chapter STC:

“A couple years back, the board for the Central Iowa chapter (my previous chapter) did a presentation on what STC could do for you. We did everything from the run-down of what you get with your membership, where your money goes, to what you can personally do to get more out of your membership. While we didn’t get a ton of new members from it, we got one frequent attendee who finally joined (after years of being a nonmember) and spurred more members to volunteer. I’m sure I still have the information somewhere if anyone wants to use it, but it will need to be updated.

“A ways back I also started working on a mailer that, ideally, would have been pretty impressive. We never got around to doing it, but I still have the drafts I created. It was to target HR people at companies where there are a lot of writers. The idea was that we’d send them this packet and stuff it full of learning opportunities, membership information, etc., and promote STC big-time as a professional development must-have for any tech writer, Web designer, etc. This kind of thing would take a sizable amount of cash to accomplish, but I think it could give a chapter a substantial ROI, and establish a strong foothold with those in charge of learning opportunities at a corporate level.”

From Jenna Moore, Carolina Chapter STC:

“Every year our chapter has a picnic for the membership drive. We provide the food, and everyone is welcome. We have door prizes donated by some local companies (published books that usually run $40-plus, logo apparel, and such).

“This year we campaigned with more local companies and got two conference memberships added to the pot. That means two folks can attend one of our local conferences for free. That’s a great value! Then we also put up a one-year free membership in STC. We allowed anybody who won the STC membership to either use it for him or herself or give it to someone else. This is because some folks get their dues paid for, and others pay out of pocket.

“Along with the food, this is a pricey way to do things, but it really brought in the numbers. We saw a major increase in the nonmembers attending the membership drive. This gave our veteran members a great opportunity to really talk it up with the new potential members, and we’ve already gained new members from this initiative. We will know next year how successful it truly was. We have all the names of the attendees and are following up with them, too.

“So if you’re wondering what to do with the extra money coming into your chapter from the new dues structure, here’s one idea.”