The following came across "Larry's List" a few weeks ago. While we've all seen various versions of this over the years, the message is a good one. It is infinitely easier to retain current members than to continually recruit new ones.
How do we keep members? Sometimes, you can't. But, sometimes it's as simple as acknowledging a new member, and making it a point to introduce yourself.
I'll be referring to this letter in my column in the April edition of the Ohio Section Journal.
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“I’m the Person”
I’m the person who was asked to join your organization. I’m the person who paid dues to join. I’m the person who came to your meetings and no one paid any attention to me. I tried several times to be friendly to some of the members, but they all had their own friends to talk to and to sit next to. I sat down alone several times, but no one paid any attention to me. I hoped very much that somebody would have asked me to take part in a fund raising project or something, but no one saw my efforts when I volunteered.
I missed a few meetings after joining, because I was sick and couldn’t be there. No one asked me at the next meeting where I had been. I guess it did not matter very much whether I was there or not. The next meeting I decided to stay home and watch TV. I attended the following meeting and no one asked me where I was when the last meeting was held.
You might say I’m OK, a good family person who holds a responsible job, loves the community and the country. You know who else I am? I’m the person who never came back.
It amuses me when I think back on how the heads of the organization were discussing why the organization was losing members. It amuses me now that you spent so much time looking for new members, when I was there all the time. All you had to do was make me feel needed, wanted and welcome.
Regretfully yours,
A Member You Lost
"Taken from a publication of the Ararat Shrine, Kansas City, Missouri. A
search of the internet has turned up nothing, so author is unknown.”
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By the Way, Larry's List is a e-mail list based out of the Kansas City area. Administered by Larry Staples, W0AIB, it boasts over 1600 subscribers.
While a lot of the content pertains to the Kansas City area, there's also a lot of good general interest postings.
You can read more about it at http://larryslist.info/.
73 DE John, KD8MQ
