RECRUITING MEMBERS
At the end of my first article on ‘Running a Club as a Business’ I asked what the colour of a polar bear’s skin was.
It may surprise some of you to learn that it’s black, it’s the skin and not the fur we’re talking about. The fur is actually translucent, although it appears as white, to let all the light through, but the skin is black to absorb all of that light to warm up the bear’s blood.
The point of asking the question is to demonstrate that not everything is as it may seem on the surface.
Take the fishing club. The members on the committee may be mostly from the match angling side of the sport and even at AGM’s the only others to attend are again, match fishermen. Stands to reason then that most of the club’s activities and venues are selected and managed for the benefit of matchmen. The same could be said if the carping fraternity started to take over the committee, match fishing may get played down and stocking lakes with silver fish becomes a thing of the past.
However, I will bet you £10 to my reputation that in the majority of clubs, if you lined up all of the matchmen and all of the carpers and shot them (only joking), you would only lose about 15% of the total membership. Yet, of the ordinary pleasure angling members, the remaining 85%, you could probably lose up to 40% every year through neglect, what we will call ‘membership turnover’.
This illustrates the point that the majority of members in an average club are neither matchmen or carpers, they’re just regular, everyday, pleasure anglers. At the meetings, both committee and general meetings, their views are probably never expressed simply because they don’t attend and that may, again, be your fault for not making meetings interesting enough for them. So the first question is: do you really value them and want to keep them in your club? The second question being: how then do you find out what they actually want?
Renewal Letters
Almost every club these days should be sending out renewal letters to their members. Most club secretaries (could be the membership secretary or even the treasurer) should have a computer and it’s dead easy to construct a letter in a mail merge so that the recipient believes it’s been written to him personally. So the first point is to keep a record of the name and address of every member, but do be careful not to contravene the Data Protection Act by adding further information. You might get around this by asking the members if they mind you storing their information, but you can always register to safeguard yourself.
TIP: Buy a rubber self-inking stamp (about £ 12) with your club name and your address on it and stamp the top left corner of each envelope. Any members that have moved, you will get the envelope back from the Royal Mail and you can update your lists by deleting them as necessary.
When you do write to them, don’t just write to last year’s members. Go back three years or even four and write to other one-time members who didn’t rejoin if you have their details. It’s what the Americans refer to as ‘going the extra mile’ and comes from the (yes, another) saying “Go the extra mile. It’s never crowded.” from Executive Speedwriter Newsletter.
Consider this, you may be writing an extra 200 – 300 letters at a cost of say £100 including stamps, paper and envelopes, but if just 10% rejoin your club once more that could net you a further £1500 at £50 per member. And that’s not just this year, but if you are determined to keep them most could be members for the next 10 or 20 years. So always write to as many members and ex-members as you have names and addresses for.
Your membership lists are valuable information that will help you win the war.
War? Yes, if you think about it you are at war, but consider this; what was the best weapon that the coalition had when fighting against Saddam’s forces in the first Gulf War and, more recently, in the invasion of Iraq? It wasn’t cruise missiles, it wasn’t Apache helicopters, it wasn’t superior tanks, it wasn’t stealth fighters or bombers evn.
It was INFORMATION! We had it and Saddam didn’t and because of that there was no way that he could possibly win any conflict. So keep all the information you can on your previous and present members – it’s your best weapon.
The Questionnaire
In a future article I’ll give you some pointers as to how to write your letters, but for now, whilst you’re writing to every member (past and present) why not ask them what they want? Not only do those members who would probably join anyway appreciate your asking them for their opinions, but you can also ask those that lapsed why they did so. Added together this amounts to a hell of a lot of respect you are paying them and that alone will persuade some to rejoin. The questionnaire should appear either on the same page as the renewal slip or overleaf (with OBVIOUS POINTERS to turn the page over).
TIP: Offer a prize for the first completed questionnaire drawn from a box on July 1st. This can be a refund of this year’s membership fee or a prize reel or landing net.
What sort of questions should you ask? You need some that will help you to establish who fishes your waters and how many times they visit. Do they like match fishing, carp angling or catching tench, bream, or barbel? Do they enjoy fishing rivers or stillwaters, canals or ponds? You can also ask what would encourage them to attend more meetings and make some suggestions as to what you could provide, eg: speakers, special suppers, tackle auctions.
WHAT YOU DO NOT ASK is stupid, biased questions like “Do you think the committee is doing a good job?”
Believe it, I have seen it. If you want a slap-on-the-back, BAFTA, MBE, or a Knighthood go and do something else because anglers, generally, don’t get these no matter how well they do – ask Bob Nudd (well, he’s since acquired an MBE – good luck to him)! Being a good club organiser is a thankless task, but by asking such leading questions you’ll only get agreement from friends of the committee and you won’t gain any new information.
If, as a result of your efforts, your club’s membership keeps rising or you keep gaining affordable waters whilst you always show a profit, that should answer your question – you are doing a reasonably good job. If on the other hand your membership is falling, you are losing good waters because you can no longer afford them and the accounts always show a loss – then you are NOT doing a good job and it’s time to change your attitudes.
When setting out the questionnaire, always make sure that the questions are easy to answer, usually by filling in or checking boxes, and the meaning is unambiguous. So, it’s best to give it to a couple of friends or workmates (not necessarily anglers) and ask them what they think your questions mean (and don’t prompt them either). If they tell you what it was you were asking, then you have it about right, but if they come back with something confusing then rephrase the question. Is that clear?
Another saying to help establish this point – “I know you believe you understand what you think it was that I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” (Anon) Always make your questions clear and unambiguous!
When asking about your waters, always ask:
How many times last season did you fish THE BIG RIVER?
How many times last season did you fish THE LITTLE POND?
and do this for each of your venues.
You can ask: What types of new waters should the club be looking for?
Also ask: Which water do you believe was the worst last year?
The reason being is that you want to find out what they believe gave the worst value for their money, but you might have to swallow a bitter pill if they all name the one water that is your favourite. Tough, but you have to put personal preferences to one side. You don’t need to ask which they felt was the most popular or best value water, that will become self-evident when you analyse the number of visits per venue in the previous questions.
Another question for them could be: Would they like to see the close season abolished on rivers? -and- Or would they like to see the close season fully restored on ALL waters? Controversial it may be, but it will put you in the right direction as regards club policy and you may find out that hardly any members support the close season as it presently exists.
Conversely, you might find out that, as Mark Wintle suggested in his article, ‘Modern Angling Clubs – Success or Failure’, your members want to see the close season fully restored on stillwaters and canals as well. There’s nothing you can do about their response except close your own waters if that is what they want, but you can always put their views to the Environment Agency on their behalf.
Listen To Members On The Bank
Another way to find out what your members want is a little imprecise, perhaps, but no less important. It’s to get your backside out onto the banks and talk to your members, more importantly – LISTEN to them. Another saying (I do hope these sayings are having an impact on you) “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” – Peter F. Drucker. By this you have to be aware that people don’t always like to speak their minds and so you may have to coax the information out of them and learn to read signals, emotions, and body language. Don’t assume anything and don’t forget that many anglers will simply not bother renewing their membership rather than confront the committee with a complaint, and that is not what you want.
Remember that everyone, you, the committee, and every member, is a salesman for the club. If they are all happy that the club is catering for their needs as best it can and appears to be progressing then you have a lot of salesmen out there recruiting further members. If, however, they are unhappy or rebellious, then the downward spiral will be evident and it will be a struggle to change it.
The Tackle Shops
Before leaving the subject of recruitment I just want to touch on local tackle shops. These people are at the front line for encouraging new anglers to join your club as well as providing information on where his customers are fishing and what they expect. If the tackle dealer is kept fully informed and has brochures to hand out on the venues you offer, even having the ability to sell temporary tickets for you, then he is your shop window and you must look after him.
Even if you pay him a commission on the tickets that he sells, don’t forget the time he has to spend with your potential club members, it is still worth it and anything up to 10% of the annual fee should be considered reasonable. Don’t take the attitude that anglers are good for his business and that he should sell your tickets as a favour to himself, because he can probably still make his money with or without your club. Keep him well on your side, it’s a good investment!
NEXT: Analysing The Questionnaire Results and Costing Your Fisheries
