Theme 3 - Teams

How can we keep the membership fresh?

Ensuring that the group recruits a range of new members to replace individuals who leave is an important ongoing activity to prevent an ageing and dwindling membership. There are three important aspects to maintaining a vibrant group:

Recruiting new members

Groups should always be on the look-out for extra members who will be able to take over from others as they retire from the group. An important consideration for the team once established is should it include youth and demonstrate cultural diversity. If you wish to increase your chances of attracting new members to an established group you can:

• Plan for changing membership
• Cultivate potential new members over a long period
• Ask all members of the group to recruit
• Provide opportunities for individuals to engage with the group without an initial major commitment, such as through fundraising drives
• Make new people welcome
• Engage people from different cultural backgrounds
• Engage younger community members

Self-Development for members

Keeping team members interested is very important. Activities that seemed very interesting and challenging at first may start to seem stale. Groups should consider how they can incorporate self-development into the process of being involved in the team. Successful strategies include:

• Mentoring – those with skills can actively assist those without to learn e.g budgeting.
• Setting aside meeting time to reflect on the skills that each member would like to acquire and how this could be achieved e.g five minutes devoted to practicing public speaking at each meeting.
• Planning a few yearly events and provide some resources towards supporting the development of the group, e.g requesting guest speakers, attending conferences, or buying reference books.
• Developing a culture of support and learning amongst the group and encourage members to try new things.

Recycling past members

Changing life circumstances will mean that some members who leave your group due to factors such as illness, family circumstances, extra job responsibilities, and young children, may actually happily return to the group in the future if asked. Important steps in recycling members are:

• Don’t make people feel guilty for leaving the group
• Allowing people to take ‘holidays’ from group activities
• Conducting exit interviews so you know why people leave
• Keeping in touch with ex-members, and keep them informed about group activities
• Asking them about rejoining if their life circumstances seem to change

This Center for Rural Studies site has a recycling plan for volunteers.