Club & Society Development

Many Club and Societies go dormant every year; the information provided below will prevent your Club and Society from being one.

The most important thing when developing your group is remembering why you exist, take a look back at your aims and objectives you laid out in the beginning of the year and identify the areas you think you need to improve. Once you have identified why is your Club/Society exists you can get started on getting people to engage in it.

There are many reasons why people don’t engage and these reasons are laid out below along with how you can tackle them. If you are finding it hard to get people engaged in your Club/Society it's more than likely the problem is listed below.

Reasons why people don’t engage	How to tackle it
Perception Everyone already knows each other Some members not being able to spend as much money as others Members come across as experts Not drinking alcohol	Look to run beginner/Welcome sessions for new members Vary your socials to keep everyone interested Look at low-cost socials and activities to accommodate everyone
Lack of Organisation Members are given short notice about activities Members not sure what plans are Lack of communication with new members after sign up Students don’t know you exist (Lack of presence at freshers fayre etc.	Plan ahead and have a termly plan Identify good communication methods that work for your Club/Society Organise weekly activities and let members know a week in advance Run introductory sessions or social at the start of each term Make sure the SU are promoting you Club/Society properly Make sure you book a stall at fresher’s fayre and make it stand out.
Current members to Cliquey Current members don’t make the effort to welcome new members (remember you were all new once) Only advertising activities to a certain number of people Hold events but don’t give enough detail about them	Make sure all current members make the effort to welcome new members Make sure all new members know what the club is about and what type of activities you run. Fresher Buddy Scheme – Partner new members with current members
Limited Opportunities Not running enough activities Running events that aren’t relevant to what the Club/Society is about.	Your Club/Society should be running weekly activities; they don’t all have to be big events, just a get together for a couple of hours a week will help keep members engaged. Make sure you are following your constitutions.
Ineffective communication with members Failure to reply to emails or queries Website/Contacts information and content is out of date Email Spam Relying solely on Facebook	Make sure you answer all emails and queries. If you can’t make sure someone does on your behalf Make sure the information on the SU Website is up to date Emails concerning Social/Activities should be sent out a week in advance e.g if the activities are scheduled for a Wednesday to make sure people are informed on Thursday before. Create a group mailing list Don’t rely on one form of communication – Use emails, Facebook, texts, phone calls, posters etc, some members may miss an email but see the message on Facebook and vice versa, try to cover all bases. Face to Face communication is the most effective way to engage with members, so make sure important information is also passed on at training or get-togethers.

Three Steps to more active members

Step One – How to attract more students

Know what you're offering new members – What do they get out of joining your Club/Society
Find a unique selling point – What do you offer that others don’t
Make accessing information easy
Balance the asks and the gives – Make sure they get out as much as they put in
Know what your competition is

Step two – Keep them coming back

Make your Club/Society welcoming to new and current members
Create a community/Family feel within your Club/Society
Identify peoples individual talents and use them
Give members of your Club/Society ownership
Make sure you share previous achievements with new members so they get a better idea of what you do. It’s also important you promote your achievements throughout the year as well
Don’t be stubborn with your methods, be open to change and listen to people’s opinions

Step three – Effective Communication

Create and promote club/society Facebook Groups
Publicise events
Share contact numbers
Plan in advance
Ask people to sign up for events and activities in advance
Use Instagram and Snapchat as an easy way of keeping people in the loop

Opportunities

Club & Society Development

Three Steps to more active members

Step One – How to attract more students

Step two – Keep them coming back

Step three – Effective Communication

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