The Care and Feeding of a Local Chapter

Editor: A discussion on one of the online hearing loss lists focused on the issue of how to attract and retain members of local chapters. Sharon Campbell chimed in with the following wonderful contribution. Sharon is the Past President of the Montgomery County (PA) Chapter of SHHH and a current member of the South Eastern Colorado Chapter of HLAA.

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From my experience, having people come and go is normal for any organization as they get out of it what they need. If you are lucky, they will feel obligated to actually give back for a little while before moving on to whatever the next challenge and joy of their life is. Having a grand project is fine, and I like the ideas of branding and nationwide focus--maybe a "Loop America?" However, what gets me and most people I know to stay with an organization is not the far-away National/International organization, the by-laws or grand projects on a grand scale. It is my relationships with the people in the group, purely and simply.

I had a lot of experience in Toastmasters International with their Club Management Plan, which proved to have long-lasting and very positive effects. It looks at leadership development and activities, making meetings interesting, personal growth of individual members and leadership and member recruitment and retention. Colorado Masons have a similar program; so do Kiwanis, Rotary and most other service and fraternal organizations. I am developing a similar plan for HLAA, and need some help with some of the details.

Membership starts with the chapter having people assigned to introduce themselves to strangers and sit beside them and explain things. You need to assign mentors and someone to give them a call a few days after the meeting and keep the connection going. Have a packet of information on the chapter, the National organization, and local projects. Toss in a back issue of Hearing Loss and some articles on hearing loss. Put it in a folder with a chapter label on it and a business card for officers or new member liason contact information.

Maybe have a lending library with some magazines and books (but don't lend to people who haven't come to meetings pretty regularly for about a year, or who plan to move...)

Give new members a chance to do something for the chapter. If they have a talent and want to do something, let them! So you never had a chapter photographer before? Or flower arranger? Free up a few bucks in the budget and let them know they are valued. Raffle off the flower arrangements once a month for a fundraiser and sell prints of photos from fun events. Keep your mouth shut if you don't think it will work, or it has been tried before, or you have some such negative idea. They just might pull it off if you don't interfere. Give them something small, like refreshments at first, or to serve on a committee. As time goes by, give them more responsibilities and bring them along as leaders. If they actually volunteer to run for an office, and you just KNOW they'll not be able to handle it, keep your mouth shut! They might surprise you, and if they don't, be their mentor, sounding board (NOT bored!) and very polite, sweet nag. Help them pull it off and think they did it all by themselves. If they are getting results even though their style isn't like yours, keep your mouth shut and praise them for the results. That is all that counts. Eventually you'll end up with some new chapter presidents and projects. Give past presidents a role in the larger organization and projects (state or regional) and keep them growing as leaders and people. I've seen more organizations killed by the "old guard" who wants things done the way they did it and drives away newcomers who do things differently than any other one cause. I've been driven out of a few myself, in fact. Their loss!

You also need to provide opportunities for personal growth. Have members give a book report, or share an article they read on hearing loss at a meeting. Provide a report on a conference they went to. Write an article for the newsletter--or start a newsletter if you don't have one yet. They can give a presentation, too, if they are up for it. Or help organize a Walk4 Hearing or conference. Make sure there is some actual responsibility involved. Keep providing opportunities for growth and they will keep growing. Of course, they may grow right out of HLAA eventually, and that is fine. You've done your job.

Besides personal growth, you need chapter development as well. This means having members feel like they are actually accomplishing something, making a difference in the community. Pick a project and figure out how to do it. Give each member a small piece of the job. Work on getting local churches looped, then the larger community. Get the local paper to do an article on hearing loss. Work with your local library system to get some hearing loss books with more recent copyrights than 1956 and subscribe to Hearing Loss. Find a need in your community and have the chapter address it. Then move along to a more challenging project next time around. Keep the chapter members feeling like they are making a difference in their community and world.

The Chapter Incentive Plan I'm working on gives points to chapters for each of these activities, weighted according to how important they are for continued chapter and member growth. Retaining members gives more points than getting new ones. Complete turnover in officers gives more points than retaining old officers. Community projects get more points than chapter projects. But, I need some help on some of the details and would like some of you to volunteer to look over the draft I have and give me your ideas. Maybe we could schedule an Instant Message session later on.

I have the Plan weighed so that any chapter that meets 10 times a year with an average of 5 members qualifies for the minimum level of recognition, and it is easy to go up a level. I learned in Toastmasters that people will do an absurd amount of work for a satin ribbon and so as to not let down their fellow members. If you are interested in helping out, please e-mail me and we'll work on getting it finalized, or at least to a point to start piloting it and getting National to adopt it. This is a long-term project. Eventually I'll need chapters to pilot it, and I'd like chapters from all parts of the country to see how it works in both sparsely populated and densely populated areas.