More Thoughts on Retention

Some thoughts on member retention:  Most clubs have (or should have) a process to determine why members fail to renew, but does yours have a process to evaluate why people remain members? Do you do a survey of your members every year to evaluate how your club is doing in the member’s eyes? To evaluate projects? To suggest new projects? Clubs are only as strong as their members. To keep your club strong you need to understand why it is strong, and if it’s not a strong as you’d like do you know why it’s not?

Members remain Altrusans because Altrusa fills a need (often many needs) in the member’s mind and heart.  Some of these reasons are a sense of belonging to something worthwhile, having a feeling of accomplishment and having other women to relate to and rely on…a sisterhood. Building that feeling of sisterhood can strengthen your club. And while doing service together certainly can accomplish that to a certain extent, having a chance to know your members as friends can add a different dimension to the relationships among members.

So how do you encourage that feeling of sisterhood? How about having activities that you do together just because you like each other and want to be together? How about arranging a quarterly lunch (or dinner) that is available to whoever is available to come.? How about a book club? How about a shopping trip? Or visiting a museum or concert together? Or whatever else you and your Altrusa sisters like to do! Maybe even look at forming a “committee” just to plan those fun things for your club to do, which gives you a chance to get to know your Altrusa sisters as people, without the pressure of having to perform some service. This is a wonderful accomplishment in itself.

I look forward to sharing ideas with you about what your club does or could do to build another dimension of your Altrusa bond. Contact me at bobbiklein@gmail.com.

Altrusa Hugs,

Bobbi Klein
Membership Development Committee Co-Chair (Retention)