Making club meetings fun and productive takes a little creativity and a willingness to think outside the box. Whether you are hosting a meeting for the Rotary, Kiwanis, Ladies Auxiliary, or other club, member retention is everything if you want to get things accomplished and inspire the group to bring in more members.
In order to keep them coming to these meetings, the following tips will go a long way in getting your members excited at the next gathering.
Make Club Meetings Fun
If it isn’t fun, then why would anyone really want to get motivated to show up in the first place, let alone try to get more members to join? Making things fun for members means making things unpredictable. Rearrange the seats so members don’t feel like robots each meeting, bring in different treats to eat each time, have some music playing in the background. Put a little effort into making the meeting space a inviting and fun, and members will feel energized each time they meet.
Take the Club Meeting Outside
One of the advantages of living in the Clermont FL region is that the weather is beautiful most of the year. If you know the day of the meeting calls for cooler than normal temps with no rain, have the tables and chairs moved outside, or better yet, bring blankets to the hall and let club members go outside and enjoy the fresh air picnic style. Bring a portable barbecue and roast some weenies and marshmallows during the break.
A New Perspective
If your club meetings are getting stale because the same speakers take charge each week, get a new perspective from the peanut gallery. Ask members to come up and give their perspective about how the last meeting was handled, how a fund-raiser was put together, or for ideas about new directions with the group. Letting others speak without fear of ridicule can really give the whole group a jolt of new energy.
Club Meeting Speakers
Want to get your members to be more productive? Bring in a motivational speaker to the next gathering. Some speakers are not only full of energy, they can bring new life to the meeting by getting everyone involved. These speakers perform role-playing with members to take fun pokes at each other while breaking down walls and barriers that have been keeping things unproductive for months.
Bring-a-Friend Meeting
Plan a bring-a-friend meeting packed with raffles, games, food, and prizes. Get these new attendees excited about coming to a meeting and seeing all the wonderful things the club does for the community. It only takes one new member that has creative ideas that can inspire the entire group to reach new goals this year. Give these new guests some fun responsibilities that first meeting, everyone loves to feel needed and useful.
Club Member Birthdays
Chances are pretty good that when the next meeting arrives, one member will be having a birthday close to that date. Start a new fun tradition of celebrating birthdays at every meeting. Bring in the cake, sing happy birthday as a group, and even play some pin the tail on the donkey or other game from your youth. Remembering a person’s birthday is a great way to make them feel special while bringing some fun to the meetings. Pizza, smoothies, and silly hats, mixes it up so members don’t know what to expect at the next meeting.
Award Presentations
Show the members of your group that you care by having special awards presented each meeting. Don’t wait until the end of the year and have one award ceremony, inspire your members by handing out little tokens of appreciation along the way. It takes a minute to print out a certificate on a home printer, but the impact at the meeting will inspire others and give those getting recognition reason to want to set and achieve bigger goals.
Club Thank-You Notes
Everyone loves getting something in the mail, here is a chance to really get members excited and productive at the same time. If a member has done something extraordinary for the group, mail them a thank-you. Ask local businesses if they would consider providing the club with discount cards or certificates. Include the promo or discount in with the thank-you card. These can also be handed out during weekly award ceremonies so the entire group can show their appreciation.
Member of the Month
Although every member of your group is important, by choosing one member and elevating them to “member of the month”, you build anticipation and give members another reason to strive for big things. Once a month, honor the member who has done something extraordinary for the group with an award, gift, and group thank-you. All members are unique and special, so make them feel that way.
Shake Up the Group
The club provides invaluable services to the local community, and while many of these projects are on the smaller size, try making one project so large that it inspires everyone. Set a monster goal so big that it will take a village to accomplish it. Knowing in advance the goal is monstrous will get members juiced to look for creative ways outside-the-box to try and get closer to the goal. Let members come up with fundraising events to try to help close the gap and possibly reach this adventurous goal.
Making a Difference
It is one thing to participate in group events that benefit the community and get thanks from the members when a job is well done, it is another to see how those efforts actually impact people’s lives. Perhaps the group recently donated their time and money to add beautiful landscaping to a local nursing home. Instead of getting thanks from the administration of the nursing faculty, bring in some of the residents who actually enjoy the changes to their facility and let them talk to the group.
Hearing from an elderly woman at that nursing home who now has reason to walk outside each day and smell the flowers that the group planted can really inspire a group to want to do even more.
These tips are designed to be fun but productive at the same time. Club meetings do not have to be stale and boring anymore, switch things up each time so members have no idea what to expect this month.
This has really helped me as a club president