Recruiting new members?

[SIMON CRAGG]

At our Committee meeting the other night, the subject of club numbers arose.

 

To a certain extent (and despite our best efforts), our club numbers are dwindling away year on year.

 

We get the odd new member, but next year we think we are going to lose another two people at least.

 

Time for action!

 

So, this is my plan:

 

Firstly, get our name "out there"....but how?

 

Before the winter weather is on us in a big way, erect our club Gazebo, fill it full of our hanger queens / club banner / bunting / flagpoles / Laptop flight sim / generator etc.

 

Take a load of promotional photos and get some flyers designed.

 

Write a carefully thought out article on the club, offering free trial lessons on our two club trainers. Offer a static display at Fetes, flower shows, Dog shows, cat shows.....in fact any local shows.

 

Send article to our two local papers, and hope that it gets picked up by a larger regional paper which is sometimes the case.

 

So far so good.

 

My question is, when to try and get the above published?.

 

Generally these local events seem to get the ball rolling in January at various AGM's etc.

 

To early, and it loses impact.

 

To late.......is to late!.

 

Anybody tried this or similar to recruit new members?

[PDB]

3 hours ago, SIMON CRAGG said:

 

 

Firstly, get our name "out there"....but how?

 

Social Media and depends on which demographic you're targeting.
 

For example the most popular social media platform for those in their 50's is Facebook and it's how I found the clubs I am a member of. 

 

For those in their 20's Instagram.

Edited September 27 by PDB

[SIMON CRAGG]

Thanks for that, its something I have subsequently thought about.

 

I'll add Facebook to a potential source of new members.

 

Hopefully Andy Symonds from the BMFA will see this, but does anybody know if the BMFA can / will / have a promotional package that they would provide?

 

Yes, I know I can contact direct etc!!! Just want to know from the "coal face".

 

I'm thinking BMFA booklets / hand outs / flyers / flag etc?

 

We are having a sub committee meeting this weekend, so I want to crack on with it.

[Engine Doctor]

We usually have a turnover around 10% but over the last few years we have seen our mebership fall from 120 to around 90 ish.  A few always drift away when things get tight but generally come back as funds ease. Of course in an ageing club some just " go flying forever". We have tried local admags like " The Net" , not very effective but now they are full of gender societies and woe is me gatherings so our clubs dont get a look in. We also tried local village websites and news letters again not very effective but do get an odd enquiry. Our FB page has attracted a few members. Remeber to make your FB page visible to everyone and dont put any sensetive details on it. We have managed to recruit 7 new members this year mainly by FB and word of mouth. Some of these new recruits have come from other clubs due to that clubs less than welcoming attitude and cliques within . Cliques kill clubs , allow them to form at your peril.

Nearly every new member ive spoken to said they visited other clubs before coming to our club and were either ignored or treated like an alien? 

All members are ambassadors for our hobby and a friendly welcome to prospective member is the key.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Over the years our clubs done all the things you've mentioned Simon. The most productive by far has been a Facebook group, and every village/town has a local FB group you can promote yourself on.

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

2 hours ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said:

Over the years our clubs done all the things you've mentioned Simon. The most productive by far has been a Facebook group, and every village/town has a local FB group you can promote yourself on.

Facebook definitely works well, I would recommend a Facebook page as the outward looking platform rather than a group though, gives you more control of content. Constantly changing content is the key though, a Facebook page with say 1 post a month will be ignored by the algorithms. However if you can manage say 3 posts a week, which could include sharing some of the posts we make on the BMFA Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BMFAOfficial and get your club members to share the post on their feeds you will start to get traction.

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

A couple of links to be going on with  https://clubpr.bmfa.uk/

 

and club flyers/posters at https://clubpr.bmfa.uk/flyers

 

We are revamping the trial flight program and will be sending an email to all clubs about it in the next day or so too.

[Simon Burch 1]

My club's main flying site is a large open public space.  This is a mixed blessing; however, from a recruitment point of view, it's great.  Our flying activity and events almost always attracts the attention of passers-by, and a steady trickle of new recruits and returners has seen our membership rise from around 60 pre-covid to 100 now and rising.

 

However, we're the exception. Nowadays, model flying takes place at remote sites which are well out of the public eye.  It's become a low-profile, almost invisible, hobby.  The bans on model flying in so many parks and open spaces certainly don't help.  For example, our local Council's rules state:

 

'It is currently not possible to fly model aircraft or drones (both with and without camera for filming purposes) within the City Council’s public open spaces, including parks and nature reserves'.

 

This means that I can't fly a chuck glider with my grandchildren in a local park.  Older kids (and adults!) can't mess around with gliders and rubber-powered models in the way that I used to in the 70s.  I'm sure this isn't the Council's intention, and I'm hopeful that the rules may be changed to permit un-powered sub-250g (or maybe sub-120g if that's more palatable) models to be flown in our parks.  Maybe this is something that clubs, or even the BMFA, could promote with local authorities.

 

I think that the sight of a model aeroplane in flight, even a small one, is one of our best recruiting tools.   The question is - how do we make that happen?
 

[Robert Cracknell]

Couple of points....

 

Don't forget the local libraries. Many have notice boards for local clubs and associations. 

Also cast your net wide. The club I used to belong to had 2 members who had a 60 mile round trip but it didn't bother them because they liked the club atmosphere and the site.

[Jake Bullit]

We do similar archery related things to attract new archers to our club. 

Local Facebook community groups yield the best results.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

1 hour ago, Andy Symons - BMFA said:

Facebook definitely works well, I would recommend a Facebook page as the outward looking platform rather than a group though, gives you more control of content. Constantly changing content is the key though, a Facebook page with say 1 post a month will be ignored by the algorithms. However if you can manage say 3 posts a week, which could include sharing some of the posts we make on the BMFA Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BMFAOfficial and get your club members to share the post on their feeds you will start to get traction.

 

Yep, try to make it look busy or you're giving a poor look of yourselves, also as Andy says, post links to hobbies related stuff from elsewhere. Good tool for keeping your own membership informed of events elsewhere, BMFA stuff and regulations.

[Keith Berriman]

My local well known model shop has a notice board advertising various clubs in a large are around the area 

[Keith Berriman]

Whoops  I appreciate not a lot of model shops around now 

[SIMON CRAGG]

Thanks chaps.

Had a long chat with Linda? at the BMFA who was very helpful and gave me a few more ideas.

My first priority is to get the full 100% backing of the rest of the Committee. This will have to be a shared project, I am not doing it on my own.

If we are to encourage others into the hobby, we must be prepared to make some sacrifices.

We used to have about five models shops locally who would point newbies in our direction.

Now.......no shops = no newbies.

My second priority is to get some decent images of our proposed static display , as a picture speaks a thousand words etc.

Third priority is to join more local facebook groups.

Exciting times!

[Robin Colbourne]

I recently emailed the editor of our local free newspaper asking if they would like an article and sent a few sample photos.  The editor was very interested and put me in contact with the sports correspondent.  The net result being that I submitted a 300 word article about our recent bungee and electric glider competition, together with some action shots of members giving the bungee gliders 'a good heave ho'.  The article finished with info on the other types of models that we fly and the training arrangements that the club offers.
From looking at other sport & hobby articles, it is pretty normal to finish with the club or Membership Secretary's email address.
The paper is published four times a year with the next one in October, so I'll report back here on what, if any, interest the article generates.
I would strongly advise contacting the editor first before writing an article, as you can then gauge what style of article would get the best reception.

[MattyB]

13 hours ago, SIMON CRAGG said:

At our Committee meeting the other night, the subject of club numbers arose.

 

To a certain extent (and despite our best efforts), our club numbers are dwindling away year on year.

 

We get the odd new member, but next year we think we are going to lose another two people at least.

 

Time for action!

 

So, this is my plan:

 

Firstly, get our name "out there"....but how?

 

Before the winter weather is on us in a big way, erect our club Gazebo, fill it full of our hanger queens / club banner / bunting / flagpoles / Laptop flight sim / generator etc.

 

Take a load of promotional photos and get some flyers designed.

 

Write a carefully thought out article on the club, offering free trial lessons on our two club trainers. Offer a static display at Fetes, flower shows, Dog shows, cat shows.....in fact any local shows.

 

Send article to our two local papers, and hope that it gets picked up by a larger regional paper which is sometimes the case.

 

So far so good.

 

My question is, when to try and get the above published?.

 

Generally these local events seem to get the ball rolling in January at various AGM's etc.

 

To early, and it loses impact.

 

To late.......is to late!.

 

Anybody tried this or similar to recruit new members?

I wouldn’t rely on yyour local free newspaper generating much interest, as t hey are a lot less ubiquitous these days in terms of where they are delivered, and I personally haven’t picked one up to read the content inside once in the last 5 years because the quality of articles is generally so low. As a result I would expect social media to be way more impactful and effective for this IMO. 

Edited September 27 by MattyB

[SIMON CRAGG]

7 minutes ago, Robin Colbourne said:

I recently emailed the editor of our local free newspaper asking if they would like an article and sent a few sample photos.  The editor was very interested and put me in contact with the sports correspondent.  The net result being that I submitted a 300 word article about our recent bungee and electric glider competition, together with some action shots of members giving the bungee gliders 'a good heave ho'.  The article finished with info on the other types of models that we fly and the training arrangements that the club offers.
From looking at other sport & hobby articles, it is pretty normal to finish with the club or Membership Secretary's email address.
The paper is published four times a year with the next one in October, so I'll report back here on what, if any, interest the article generates.
I would strongly advise contacting the editor first before writing an article, as you can then gauge what style of article would get the best reception.

Robin, I was going to do just that, a good idea.

 

Could you send me a copy of your article please?

 

If any other members of this forum have had something published, could you also send me you articles?

 

I would be very interested to see how you have approached the subject!.

[Robin Colbourne]

13 minutes ago, SIMON CRAGG said:

Robin, I was going to do just that, a good idea.

 

Could you send me a copy of your article please?

 

If any other members of this forum have had something published, could you also send me you articles?

 

I would be very interested to see how you have approached the subject!.

|
Hi Simon, I've sent you a message.

[kc]

Interesting chat about getting new members  .......but nobody even mentioned which town or area they are in!    

[Robin Colbourne]

28 minutes ago, MattyB said:

I wouldn’t rely on yyour local free newspaper generating much interest, as t hey are a lot less ubiquitous these days in terms of where they are delivered, and I personally haven’t picked one up to read the content inside once in the last 5 years because the quality of articles is generally so low. As a result I would expect social media to be way more impactful and effective for this IMO. 

MattyB,  what you write is certainly true in some areas, however our local free paper has a lot of reader initiated content, and I often hear neighbours commenting on articles in it.   It is also worth bearing in mind that many of the people who join model clubs are in the older generations, so have more time to give the paper a quick thumb through before tossing it in the bin.  Its not going to cost anything except time to write an article and send it in with some photos, so why not?

With regard to social media, it is worth considering having two Facebook accounts.  A public one for pictures and articles for external viewing; the other for banter and photos for within the club.  It doesn't give a good impression if all the public sees is an endless array of crash photos and meaningless chatter. 

[Cuban8]

My all means make efforts to publicise your club and try to boost membership - but don't expect large numbers to come beating a path to your door just because of a bit of advertising or spending a lot of time and effort on it. We're operating in a very different world now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try our best to show how great our hobby is, but keep expectations realistic. Trad hobby clubs and other local societies of many types are not having a great time either. My wife's local geology club probably has no more than six or seven years in it because of its ageing membership. In the local leisure centre where they meet, there is also a plastic modellers group using another room - I often wander in for a chat with them and It's clear that their meetings have become way smaller in the last few years.

I have contacts in several other model clubs apart from the two that I belong to and the story is the same......they are just about maintaining numbers or seeing a small decline each year. A few clubs may buck that trend.

My main club has seen a steady drop from almost 150 members 25 years ago, to a low of 80 just before Covid - we're now back up to 86 because of a  few new (not beginners) members this year coming back to the hobby.

I'm hoping we'll maintain that number on into 2025, but chances are we'll lose a couple - either giving up through advancing age, loss of interest or very sadly, the final call.

On the brighter side, one of our new recruits this year was a youngster and has the honour of being our most junior member.......he's 36!

BMFA membership figures will make very interesting news this year.

Starting out in our hobby has never been easier - no building or practical skills needed with the advent of some really good ready to fly models. The reliability and plug and play of electric power together with reliable radio.

Unfortunately, if the interest isn't there in the first place, then I don't know what can be done.

 

 

Edited September 28 by Cuban8

[Diamond Geezer]

Where’s the club 

[Romeo Whisky]

We are a small club (about 30 members) in rural Scotland affiliated to both BMFA and SAA.  We've had about five new members in the past year, mostly in their early seventies and largely replacing members who have left or died.  Our club flying site is on a very narrow country road with passing places, but it is well used as a rat-run between two main roads and by cyclists, so that has been helpful as people often stop by to watch when we're flying.

 

As Club PRO I have tried numerous methods to promote the club.  Our website (dmfc.org.uk) has a monthly newsletter with lots of photos and I have managed to get a couple of articles in local newspapers each year, whenever we've had an event worth publicising, and mostly they have used my wording in which I always include an offer of a free trial flight, free dual-control tuition for new members and a reference to our website.  Realistically it has to be the website which actually moves folk from vague interest to starting the ball rolling.  I have found getting articles published to be quite easy if you think about it from the Newspaper's point of view.  They like human interest with lots of photographs of good quality.  They like the photos of people to be indentified.  And they need the article be "newsworthy" and not just a blatant attempt at free advertising -  (don't waste their time). Think carefully about wording and make it succinct with good grammar and spelling.  I recommend sending the article as a .pdf file with captioned photos, but always send the photos as separate attachments as well.  We did an exchange visit with a local Mens Shed last year. Half-a-dozen came along and all had a free trial flight or two, and all said how much they enjoyed it.  It was a good exercise for the Club, and drew a high level of engagement from our members, but it has not led to any new members.

 

I have found posters in supermarkets, libraries and community halls to be a waste of time.  We have an air museum locally and have had stands at their special days too.  These have generated lots of visits to our stand, and some lengthy chats but no new members.  Although engaging youngster with the hobby is desirable long-term, I think we must face the fact that our prime market is newly-retired men, and that is the demographic from where almost all our recent members have come.

 

Incidentally, we hardly ever get enquiries from people who've just bought a quad-drone they want to fly, and mostly they seem to just want a few quick pointers and don't join.  Sadly the majority of website enquiries on our website come from folk who want to donate or sell old models - theirs or those of deceased relatives.  Draw your own conclusions from that.

 

[Cuban8]

A very impressive website RW, clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into it. My only slight concern, and this is to be found on many public club websites, is not to go into too much detail about Insurance, rules, safety, paperwork, achievement schemes, CAA etc.

At first point of contact, which a club website may well be for a prospective new flyer, we don't want to put them off by too much focus on those points at this stage and having them click away to another hobby at the thought  of a load red tape and copious Health and Safety regs to steer through, which isn't the case at all.

I must read through my own club's website and check its tone is not too off putting in that respect.

Not saying ignore them entirely, but just keep the wording light and as non-intimidating as possible. Plenty of time to introduce the details on a visit and to explain how flying legally and safely is really no problem at all.

[PDB]

Another possible source of new members is your local branch if you have one of the U3A https://www.u3a.org.uk/

 

A shooting club I'm a member of engaged with them, offered days where their members could come along and try out the activity and it has been very successful.