Staff: President | AVP | MVP | CMVP | IVP | EVP | Extensions | Secretary | Treasurer | Parli | COB | Exec Dir | PA

Membership Vice President

Lisa Hahn

Plan of Action MNJOTS CIP | Fall State CIP | Winter State CIP Membership Tools Chapter Growth Plan Individual Recruiter Form Trimester Membership Promotionals

This appointed position is the administrator of membership and the state's Growth Plan, which is a schedule of planned membership growth for chapters, districts and the state. It details membership activity for the year to plan for membership growth.

I am so excited to be joining the State Staff this year as we get “Back to the Basics” in membership. I have been a member for over 20 years and have been very comfortable at the local and district level. Time to spread my wings and see what wonderful accomplishments we can make happen together this year. I know with all of your help, my little Train will get us back on track with growth in our chapters and state. I look forward to our year together as we “Imagine and Make it Happen” with our State President Nicky leading us as a team. Know how I truly appreciate each and every one of you. I look forward to making ”this world a better place because we lived and served within it”.

Your chapter dues billing for second trimester was mailed as soon as they are received. Any questions on the dues billing can be directed to mvp@mnwt.org or csc@mnwt.org.

HAPPY THIRD TRIMESTER

Wanted to remind everyone about our last Membership Monday coming up on April 29th! They are the 5th Monday of the month where a special effort on membership is encouraged with incentives. Please call me between 6pm–10pm (320-293-2186) and your chapter name will go in a drawing for one of two $5.00 State Store Gift Certificates. I would also love to hear what your chapter did to celebrate Membership Monday, so be sure to let me know!

Cash Rebates for second trimester
$10 = 75% Retention and show growth
$40 = 90% retention and chapter growth +5 or more

Third Trimester Challenge

All chapters signing 4 new members or more will have their names put in a drawing which will take place at Closeout on April 30th. If your chapter name is drawn, you will receive special seating at the Annual Convention luncheon and your chapter President will be our “Miss Membership” for the day. The chapter name will be announced at the Business meeting and the chapter President will be called up to receive her crown and sash. How exciting. I would love to see your chapter name called. So start planning now on how you are going to sign those members.

THIRD TRIMESTER SUCCESS

100 POINTS for completing an Extension
50 POINTS for 100% retention and 5 new members
50 POINTS for having 3 or more members complete the Outstanding Achievement in Programming
(verified by IVP and/or EVP) – must send copies of certifications to one of the VP’s
OR
50 POINTS for submitting a nomination for the Community Connection Award
Total of 100 points maximum for Success

Web Site Updates

Keep checking the mnwt.org web site and my Membership Vice Presidents Web Page for membership information updated monthly. I will also be updating the membership information whenever I receive new ideas from you, the membership. Please feel free to send me your ideas to share with other chapters. I would love to post your pictures of M-events, new members you are signing and/or your district events.

Almost Growth for Second Trimester

Promotions for Third Trimester Membership Mondays are the 5th Monday of the month where a special effort on membership is encouraged with incentives. Please call me (320-293-2186) and your chapter name will go in a drawing for one of two $5.00 State Store Gift Certificates. This is our final Membership Monday. Wouldn’t it be great if every chapter called me? I can’t wait! April 29th Cash Rebates This is money for your chapter for meeting specific membership goals. Funding is provided by the MNWT Foundation. For 3rd Trimester: $10 = 75% retention and show growth $40 = 90% retention and growth of 5+ Back to the Basics with the A-B-Cs Each trimester your chapter will have the opportunity to win two gifts/baskets and join President Nicky and I for a fun event. Here’s all you need to do: Hold two m-events a trimester. Call me and let me know what you did and your chapter name goes in a drawing. Meet goal A and sign a member. Your chapter name goes in another drawing. Meet goals A and B and show growth for the trimester and your chapter will be invited to party with President Nicky and I. Plus each chapter attending the party will receive a gift to share with your members or to use as your chapter would like. Please remember to call, send me an e-mail, or better yet, invite me to your m-events. This is the only way I know you have met these goals. I would love to be able to invite all the chapters to the Party at Annual Convention.

A Prospective List: How do I get one and what do I with it?

Throughout your membership in Women of Today, you may have heard of a Prospective List. As the name implies, a Prospective List is a list of potential members for your chapter. How do you "get" a Prospective List? Well.the short answer is, you have to compile one.

• Potential members can come from many places: Expos, recommendations, drawings, phone calls, hits on face book, newspaper articles, etc. Basically potential members can be found anywhere. Putting all the names and contact information together in one spot is a good way to stay organized and know who to invite to events, projects, meetings and activities.
• Add to your Prospective List. A Prospective List is a always a work in progress that is updated and added to often. Anytime you hold an event, ask members for potential names or find interested potential members, names should go onto your list. Even if you do not have all of the contact information, put a name on the list. You can update information as you find out more about your potential members or take a name off of your list if you do not have additional information a few months down the road.
• A Prospective List can also include places where you can look for potential members, but do not necessarily have specific names. (For example: name of a day care, library program, mom's group, etc.)
• Periodically, you will want to review your list for incorrect information, potential members that have told you they are not interested, etc. Review your list as often as possible, but at least every few months. Bring the list to a board meeting and/or membership meeting to ask for updates on potential names.

What do I do with a Prospective List once I have one? Potential members can not become members of your chapter until they know about who you are and what you do. So, the first thing to do with your list, is to contact each prospective.

• Using a variety of ways to communicate is a good idea.
• Call them.
• Depending on where your potential name came from, you may need to mail a chapter brochure. (Chapter Brochure: Word | PDF)
• Email them reminders about events coming up.
• Mail an invitation to an M-event or social.
• Send them a copy of your chapter newsletter.
• A combination of contact should be made.
• Once you have made contact take notes. This is very often overlooked when it comes to managing a Prospective List.
• Remove anyone who asks you to remove their name from your list. You do not want to continue to call someone, who would prefer you did not. (You do not want them telling their friends about how the Women of Today would not quit bugging them.)
• Make notes about positive experiences: write down, what time of day you were able to contact your potential member, when is a good time to call, etc.
• Note interests of your potential member.
  • Do they love American Idol? (It may sound kind of funny, but it can give you a reference point when you talk in the future.)
  • Do they play on the local softball team? Pay attention and take notes.
  • Do they have a cause where they already volunteer?
    
  • Do they have kids? Are they married?
  • What are they looking for in a volunteer experience?
  • What are they hoping to get out of Women of Today?

Continue to contact potential members on your Prospective List until they join, tell you they are not interested or you have made contact with them and they continually do not come to events. (That last comment is kind of tough and is hard to judge when enough is enough. You may want to let that potential name go for a while and try them again in a few months.)

One last thing... Share the information on your list.

• Involve the chapter board, a membership committee or your chapter president.
• Have them assist you in reviewing your Prospective List.
• Ask them to assist you in coming up with new ideas for events or activities to help draw potential members from your Prospective List to your chapter.
• Others should be aware of your findings when talking with potential members.

Growth Plan

How many members would you like to end with on your chapter roster? A Growth Plan really helps your chapter to think ahead and make that plan. By using the number renewing, you will know how many new members are needed to recruit in order to end you Women of Today year where you want to be. A copy of the Growth Plan can be found using the link above. One last thing….plan for growth! Look at your May Base membership. Plan to reach that point again if you are not there already or challenge your chapter to surpass that mark.

Membership: Planning a Successful Campaign

1. Make a Plan: A good plan will help you to think about your membership needs and begin the process of formulating ideas for success. Ask yourself some questions:
   • How many events will we need to hold?
     
   • How many members do we need to sign?
     
   • How many members do we want to have in our chapter?
     
   • What does our overall renewal plan look like?

You might fill out a Growth Plan. A Chapter Growth Plan will help you by looking at the number of members due each trimester, the number of members that are expected to renew and the number of new members needed to recruit in order to maintain a healthy chapter base.

Look at your chapter calendar and plan a membership event at least once per trimester. An M- event may piggyback with another activity or project. Remember an M-event should be one where potential members are invited by mailed invitations and personal phone calls. Ask these questions:

• Can a social event (holiday party or mini-golf social) be used as an M-event?
  
• Which months during the year can we commit to holding an M-event?
  
• Can we use Founder’s Day or Women of Today Week activities?
  
• Can we use a community service project to invite potential members to help? (Tying fleece blankets, decorating
• bags for Relay for Life, collecting food for a neighborhood food shelf, etc.)
  

2. Educate your chapter about the plan: Making the plan is only the first step. Now your job is to get other members of your chapter thinking about the plan and more importantly how they can help. The president, the membership vice president, and/or chapter board will want to approve the plan to ensure it is realistic and fits well with other activities on the chapter calendar. Once approval has been given, educate your chapter on the membership plan.
• place a copy of in the chapter plan of action
  
• add tentative dates to your chapter calendar
  
• put a copy in the newsletter and/or on your chapter website
  
• email a copy to members of the chapter.
  
  
3. Ask members to help with the process

Getting chapter members involved in the process is the best way to be successful and reach your membership goals. It is much more difficult working on membership alone. Ask members to:

• Chair an M-Event
  
• Gather prospective names
  
• Help with theme ideas
  
• Organize games
  
• Help with food
  
• Call for a location
  
  
4. Create a prospective list

How do you create a prospective list? There are many creative ways out there to come up with names for your prospective list.

• Ask your members for potential names
  
• Create a list from an Expo or chapter project where you have gathered names
  
• Use daycares, early childhood programs, schools and churches
  
• Ask other chapters at district meetings or at convention how they gather names
  
  
5. Participate in PR

At this point you may be thinking, “Of course, why wouldn’t I?” But, PR is a little different than publicity. PR is what you, as a chapter, do to make people in your community aware of who you are and what you do. Every time you work on a community service project, give a donation, have a meeting, participate in a social event, etc., are times when you should be utilizing PR.

PR is giving the community a glimpse of the Women of Today through print, on the radio, cable stations, flyers, sandwich boards, etc. PR is what you do so that potential members have already heard the name Women of Today. They will not know everything about the Women of Today, but they will know enough to know you care about your community and that you do good things in your community.

6. Prepare the Membership Event

Once an event is on your plan, you will need to:

• choose a date, location and theme.
  
• Give yourself 4-6 weeks planning time (you will need time to notify your members of the event, enlist some help, invite prospective members, select a location, etc.)
  
  
• Decide Everyone’s Role

Everyone can and should be involved in your membership event. There is a place for everyone. Whether a member’s role is M-Event chair, designated food prep or coming to the M-Event, everyone does have a place.

The more informed your members are about the event, the more involved and invited they will feel. Give everyone a job. Maybe several different members can bring a door prize or a game. Maybe they can bring food or a friend. The more people involved in the process, the more excitement builds and the more your members will want to bring others to share in the fun.

A good planning activity to do at a chapter meeting is to plan the M-Event right at the meeting. Give members the theme of the upcoming M-Event, divide members into four groups and take 5 minutes for each group to plan a part of the M-Event. (You can choose your own categories, but some ideas might be: food, entertainment, invitations, and decorations) When you are done planning in small groups, come together again and ask each group to be in charge of the ideas they created.

8. Publicize
   • Send invitations
     
   • Place an ad in the newspaper
     
   • Distribute flyers
     
   • Ask schools and businesses to place on message boards and in break rooms
     
   • Contact cable and radio
     
     
9. Be prepared and hold the Event

When the day of your event finally arrives, as the chair of this event, or as MVP or President, ask yourself, “Is everything ready?” You may want to check with committee members a few days before the event to make sure all the plans are still in place.

• Do you have new member information forms?
  
• Have you or someone else called the prospective members?

The other part of being prepared is thinking about what you will say about Women of Today and why your guests should become members of your chapter. You do not want to overwhelm guests with too much information, but you do want to say something that will get them to ask more questions and consider membership. You might ask:

• What sort of activities do you like to do?
  
• What most interests you about Women of Today?

You should also be prepared to answer questions. What is your answer to:

• What is Women of Today?
  
• Why are you a member of Women of Today?
  
• Why should I join Women of Today?
  
• What is the benefit of being a member of the Women of Today?

Spending a little time preparing a short answer to some potential questions will help you know what to say at a membership night or at a chapter project or even on the street. Consider taking a few minutes at a chapter meeting to prepare your members by having them write down a few sentences about a favorite project or what keeps them renewing their membership in Women of Today.

10. Ask Guests to Join

As president, MVP or M-event chair, it is your duty to make sure your guests and potential members are asked to join your chapter. You may not be the one designated to ask, but ensure someone does the asking.

Think about the message that could be portrayed to a prospective member if no one asks them to join. Will they think:

• They don’t want me?
  
• I’m not Women of Today material?
  
• I never wanted to be a member anyway?
  
• What’s wrong with me?

On the other hand if you do ask a guest to join they could say, “Yes”. The least favorable response you can get is, “No, I’m not interested.” Asking a member to join your chapter will send a message to the potential member that they are welcome and you want them to be a part of your chapter.

11. Begin the Retention Process

As that guest becomes a member, your retention process has begun.

• Thank your guest for coming to your M-event.
  
• Thank them for joining.
  
• Invite them to the upcoming meeting, activities and projects.
  
• Give them a copy of the latest newsletter and a link to the MNWT website www.mnwt.org
  
• Introduce them to other members.
  
• Sit by them and help them through the first meeting.
  
• Offer to orientate the member about Women of Today

12. Review and Revise the Plan

It is a good idea to reevaluate your membership plan. Midyear is a naturally good time to evaluate how you are doing and what changes could be made. Also should consider making changes to your plan whenever your chapter membership makeup changes suddenly.

• Less than 10 members
  
• Members under 40
  
• Renewals significantly below expected
  
• Projected new member adds below expected

If you have canceled an event, add another event to the calendar. If you reached or exceeded your new member, you may want to plan more social activities instead of a scheduled M-Event. Continue to invite prospective members. You never know, which member will bring a fabulous project idea or be a great MVP for you chapter in the future.